I'm planning to flush my brake system tomorrow (2004 MC) and am looking for a writeup. I've flushed brakes before, I was just wondering if there was anything Mini specific I needed to know.

Also, which cylinder is the brake reservoir and which is the clutch resirvoir? In my Miata the clutch reservoir is much smaller (and easy to identify) but the two reservoirs in the Mini look about the same.

Last questions: how much fluid does it require to do a full flush? What size are the bleed screws on the calipers?

I've got a powerbleeder I was planning to use to speed things up. Anything I need to know before strapping it on?

 

power bleeder will work great.
10mm on the bleeder screws.
the reservoir is the same for both clutch and brakes, i would stay away from bleeding the clutch unless absolutely neccesary, is a pita.
it will take about 2 16oz bottles to get the full stystem clean.

thers nothin mini specific for the brakes, only the fact that the reservoir is the same for both. this is the only car i know that has that!!!

have fun.

 

Trivia alert - the '93-'97 Probe GT and MX-6 also had a common reservoir.

That was the first application that I ran into. Worked okay, until the cluth line started leaking a bit and sucked air into the system. Mushy brakes and fade at the next autocross.

Scott
90SM

 

Thanks for the replies. I've never heard of a shared reservoir before - that's kind of odd.

 

Here's a how to http://www.lonestarminiclub.com/foru...read.php?t=476

 

I second the last post on the Lone Star forum, that's a great DIY Keith!

 

VW vanagons shared the reservoir also.

 

no abs specific procedure?

 

The latest Bentley Manual mentions something about having a BMW diagnostic tool plugged into the OBD-II port and selecting the brake bleeding option before starting the process. Does anybody know what this is about? What are the implications of skipping this step?

 

I'm pretty sure what the "brake bleeding option" means is that they are able to tell the abs module (ASC, DSC) to open all it's ports and force the new fluid into the module. Normal bleeding will leave the old fluid in the module itself. I'm not sure how much this will affect performance. I had the dealer bleed my brakes and they came back feeling more mushy. I even had them bleed it again with the same results. There are a lot of MINI owners bleeding their own brakes without the diagnostic tool.