I’m about to embark upon my first attempt at servicing my MX5. I think I’m OK with pretty much most of it (oil, filters, plugs) but the thing that’s more of an unknown to me is changing the brake fluid. So, a couple of questions …
What diameter of tubing should I get to go over the bleed nipples? I believe aquarium supply shops are a good place to go for this stuff - are they likely to be cheaper than Ebay?
Also, I’ve been looking at the one-man bleed kits that Halfords, Screwfix, etc. sell for a few quid - are they any good? Do they really help? Or am I better off just sticking with some plastic tubing and a glass jar, and the missus sitting in the car working the pedal?
[quote user=“Mazda-mender”][quote user=“Gareth”]
Or am I better off just sticking with some plastic tubing and a glass jar, and the missus sitting in the car working the pedal?
[/quote]
I would say so.
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I use a Halfords one man bleed kit. Its worked on all my cars and bikes, and I’ve changed the fluid loads of time. On the MX5 it even worked fine a bleeding the rear brakes with a hydraulic handbrake fitted. No tedious shouting “up” and “down” all the time, just slowly pump the pedal and keep an eye on the fluid in the resevoir. I used to have to change the rear brake calipers twice for every MOT, so this is a job I’ve done a lot.
I tend to stick the drain end of the kit in to an old plastic bottle.
It does the job. I’m not sure what more you could ask from it.
The clear plastic aquarium tube is not elastic enough, especially in this weather. The soft rubber stuff from auto shops is made for the job. I suspect other materials may melt with brake fluid .
The kit from Halfords sounds like a very tempting prospect. A question, though - aren’t you supposed to be able to watch the brake fluid bleeding out into the receptacle so that you can stop bleeding it when it runs clean and air-bubble-free? How areyou supposed to do that at the same time as sititng in the driving seat pressing the brake pedal?!
You have to check every few pedal strokes. TBH, you can do a better job with two people. Air is sometimes drawn in around the nipple threads on the pedal return stroke, but if you have someone screwing the nipple back down each time this can’t happen. If you do it on your own, make sure to only loosen the nipple very slightly for the final purge.
Pressure bleeding kits are great but the Gunsons one doesn’t fit the MX-5 master cylinder despite a large selection of adaptors.
