Hi,

Not sure why a garage would not do the job but I changed brake fluid by extracting the old brown fluid from the reservoir with a syringe.  I replaced it with Dot 4 brake fluid and repeated the process at a later date to remove more of the old fluid. This will not get all of the old fluid out but should leave you with a reasonably clear golden liquid. Just make sure you do not get any fluid on the bodywork.

Alan

Hello Dave,

This particular Scouser did that job a couple of weeks ago. If you can jack up the car enough to get under the rear axle, you can do it yourself for nothing.

Remove reservoir cap. Remove most of the old fluid using whatever means you have. I used a turkey baster.Put new brake fluid into reservoir, almost to the top. Go to each wheel in turn, and loosen bleed nipple until fluid starts to drip out.Gravity is most helpful here! You can put a piece of vinyl tubing over the nipple if you wish.Allow the fluid level in the reservoir to fall by half an inch or so.Close bleeder. Top up reservoir. Same procedure for next wheel. You don’t even have to take a wheel off- simply turn steering until you can reach bleed nipple.

Bleeding the rear calipers is more fiddly, but it can be done.  Allow more time for fluid to drain when you do the rears as there is more brake line length.  Doing a fluid change like this means you don’t need a helper, and you don’t need to ever touch the brake pedal-gravity does all the work.I would imagine that you could use the same routine on your clutch, but as I have an auto, I’m not qualified to be giving advice with that!

Dave the Limey.