I was watching a youtube video regarding bleeding the brakes on a Prius after swapping out the brake accumulator. Its pretty apparent that you go through a lot of fluid very quickly. The guy in the video said he turns his brake fluid container upside down and sits it on top of the reservoir. I understand the idea to provide all 32 ozs of fluid as needed, but I can't understand how that doesn't make a huge mess. Am I missing something. Has anyone done this?
Yeah, I wouldn't trust that setup, especially considering how corrosive brake fluid is on painted surfaces. I use a pressurized bleeding kit that holds up to 4L of brake fluid. No refilling the brake fluid reservoir if you have enough fluid in there when you start. They have Toyota specific adapters for these systems. I highly recommend them over using a universal type fitting. KZINO 4L Manual Brake Fluid Bleeder Kit, One Person Brake Pressure Bleeder with Hand Pump for Most European Automotive Master Cylinder Bleeders, Brake Bleeder Vacuum Pump Kit https://a.co/d/gJkc9Ii SMOTIVEPRO 43mm Master Cylinder Bleeder Adapter Compatible with Toyota and Lexus https://a.co/d/4KXws9m SM-G781V ?
They make an adapter that can plug into your brake reservoir but then you've got to do something about your hood being in the way there's no way you're going to go through that much fluid that's a pure farce especially if you follow the steps logically clamp off everything anyway the way I do it I'm almost prefilling the block of aluminum the whole assembly as I'm tightening up the lines from bottom to top You can see the fluid come out and pushing air at the first fitting then you tighten it then you see the fluid come with starting out of the second one You see the air bubbles that all stops and it's just fluid You tighten it and so on You end up stopping with the very top fitting on the accumulator to the side and behind the plug. So then after you get all that situated and take your relays out you get ready to start bleeding the front right by pumping and all of that so someone sitting in the car preferably so by the time you do the right front and you go to walk over to the left you top up the reservoir but the cap on the brake fluid bottle and go do the left side front. Then put the relays back in and go do the back starting on the left realizing that an electric pump is going to come on now and try to pump everything out don't have your face in the way when you hear some air let it pump for just seconds and then close it back up and have your friend off the break and then back on do it again till you get a straight stream of fluid coming out that side then do the other Go back up and check the reservoir and you will see you've not used very much at all and just want to keep it on the full marker near that right now now that you've done that turn the car off. Turn it back on see if you have a bunch of lights go forward and backwards and use the brakes and see if your pedals near normal and what have you.
If you notice, the reservoir is not full, so the container is NOT full. If you PAY ATTENTION, you won't run out of fluid. And yet, will just poor out all over the place. Don't believe everything you see or read.
Appreciate the responses. The YouTube video was legit. A mechanic who has a video of the part replacement and one of the bleed and linear valve calibration. He said you go through most of a big bottle. He said he has done about 70 of these on different generation Priuses. He may have thrown an empty bottle up there for the video and that’s a good catch that the reservior has air. Lol Brake fluid is cheap so I don mind over bleeding to get it right. I don’t want to create a toxic mess in my garage either I like the idea of the tank but I don’t know if pressurizing it would have any drawbacks. Would be cool to get an initial bleed using that before I connect the battery cables and have the pump come to life.
Be smart, do it the way Toyota says. You not only risk your life, your passengers lives, but those you will crash into when the brakes fail..... You'll need 2 people to do the job, BOTH should be aware of the fluid level as you do the procedure..... It doesn't matter how many times you do something wrong, it doesn't make it right.
You are right. I should have clarified. I wasn’t planning to skip the bleed procedure but was wondering if I could start the procedure with a full system. I won’t attempt that. Spent enough money on parts to not cut corners or take risks. I also have to believe the car would throw all kinds of dash light unless it’s done correctly
I'm only saying some people need to have other people "think" they are special. So they will come up with all kinds of ideas to make people think they are special. Common sense would tell you that a full 32oz bottle of brake fliud in a full resevoir WILL overflow. There are special tanks that attach to the resevoir to hold fliud. Usually they are under pressure. You could rig something to attach that is sealed, then pour the fluid into it. It would likely be a little messy when you remove it. But you could suck out the unused fluid so there is less fluid spilt. And if you put rags around the resevoir the rags would soak up the fluid.
I will look into some alternatives. My buddy has a funnel that seals to the top of the radiator and allows you to burp out lines and has a perfect seal. was hoping I might stumble upon one of those for the brakes. I did notice the inside of the reservior appears to be threaded energy though the cover is a friction fit seal. Probably for a new Toyota tool
You don't need anything special. Just keep it close to the top. It's that simple. It will go down as your bleed each caliper, and do other steps. Check it during and after each step and you won't have a problem. Don't make anything harder than it is.
