First time here, advice on changing the brake fluid

[beezer]

First time on this forum. It is pretty cool that there are so many deicated subaru owners willing to share their knowledge of cars with everyone.
I am pretty inexperienced with working on cars. I have changed most of the fluids on the car except for the coolant and the brake fluid. I need a little advice on how to change the brake fluid. It won't happen for a couple of days, my 92 legacy L is in getting new belts and seals. Oh yeah does the power steering fluid need to be changed like everything else? If there is any good links you could send me to that would be great. Thanks, Beezer.

[tris91ricer]

The power steering fluid is also the ATF fluid, so it needs to be Dexron III, like it says on the cap. For some reason, the atf and ps fluids are the same, and share the lines.. you'll notice this if you trace the lines from the radiator (the ps cooling lines) down toward the tranny. Do you have any kind of manual? Haynes? Chilton? FSM? (i doubt you have the last one... few do)
welcome, by the way, we're glad you're a member. We have plenty of knowledge to share, and you'll be pleasantly surprised at how easy your car is to maintain, and work on, all by yourself!
Check Josh's website, as well as our main website:
www.surrealmirage.com/subaru
www.legacycentral.org (note the triple-w, not bbs)
the Library has a whole buncha stuff to read up on, including basic information on your boxer engine...
keep us posted on how things go!

[vrg3]

Welcome, Beezer!

Changing the brake fluid is basically the same process as bleeding the brakes, except you do it until all the old fluid is gone. If you do some searching on here you should be able to find a good description of the bleeding process. The job's a lot easier to do by yourself if you get a set of speed bleeders and/or a vacuum bleeder.

You can't really change all the power steering fluid yourself without some kind of machine built for the purpose, but you can use a turkey baster to remove most of the fluid from the reservoir and then fill it back up.

If you haven't spent, like, a full day searching through old posts on this board, you should start that way. You'll likely find that most stuff you think to ask has already been asked.

91legacy_sleeper - On your car there's a power steering cooler? And the ATF is shared between the transmission and the power steering system? That's weird... I thought the two systems were completely independent. My 5-speed doesn't have a power steering cooler.

[mikec]

I thought they were independant too, with the only thing they shared being the type of fluid they used.

I can't see a power steering system needing a cooler.

[BAC5.2]

The power steering and the transmission are independent. Manual cars have power steering too.

They both use ATF though, just like the clutch uses brake fluid. I wonder what using ATE Superblue or Motul RBF600 would be like for the clutch...

[vrg3]

It probably wouldn't make a big difference. I don't think clutch fluid gets very hot.

[BAC5.2]

But good fluid increases pedal feel in the brakes, even cold. I wonder what it would do for the clutch.

I'll have some left over, maybe I'll bleed the clutch system too and use ATE Superblue in there. That'd be pretty cool I rekon.

[beezer]

Thanks for the advice, I,m sure you will hear from me soon. Beezer