hi,
I found my break fluid reservoir was leaking. Anyways I fixed the leak but had to empty the container. Now my break lines have some off clear colored break fluid and the tank has blue valvoline dot3.


Is it ok to mix break fluids?
Should I bleed the whole system? If so does anyone have a link to a guide for bleed a 71 kombi?

Thanks – Carl

you can only mix dot for dot, ie dot 3 CANNOT be mixed with dot 4, brands can be mixed,ie castrol and bendix, but only if they are the same dot number!!

bleeding the brakes is easy, (brakes not breaks!) gravity is your friend!the slow way, the bleed nipple closest the res' take itr out and go for tea, when you come back all the fluid will be on the floor! now top it up with new stuff, soon the new stuff will start to leak on the floor, tighten the nipple, now go to the furthest nipple, and open it, soon you will see the fluid change color, old to new, when its new tighten nipple, do the same with the next furthest, then the next then the last one (the nearest to the res') just crack it open and see if any air come out, if no air bubbles, tighten and test the pedal. hard? you did well, soft theres air! you need to open the nipples and find that air!!

theres an easyier way to bleed brakes, you will need a fizzy drinks bottle, and about 2ft of rubber washer hose, make a hole in the bottle lid so the rubber hose is a tight fit, feed the hose so it touches the bottom of the bottle, now put some brake fluid in the bottle, about 2cm to cover the hose end.
crack the furthest nipple, then put the long end of the hose onto the nipple, the nipple needs to be opened about 1 turn, now pump the brake pedal 10-15times. tighten nipple, now check the res' and top it up, check the bottle and empty it(not all of it) repeat the above for all the brakes working from the furthest to the nearest, it should take about an hour to do it this way!,

An hour??????? You WA mob are s l o w 10 minutes max!! You're better off pressure bleeding as mentioned above to remove all the old fluid from the system. Might as well do it properly!!

strictly speaking DOT3 and DOT4 fluids should be mixable, but they shouldnt be mixed with the DOT5 silicon fluid.

From what we learnt at tradeschool many years ago, it is required by law that all brake fluids be compatible, due to brake failure being such a safety issue.

having said that though, it is only really necessary to bleed the lines from the reservoir to the master cylinder, but it is advisable and wont hurt at all to bleed the fluid through the entire braking system. If the fluid is over two years old, it should be replaced anyway.

Alot of the brake fluids on the market are actually vege oil. This way they dont react or cause the seals to leak. As for the colours dont be concerned as often this varies with batches.