Brake Fluid Change

[Bogdan]

The Costa Rica maintenance thread reminded me that I'm due for a brake fluid change. On my airhead and klr this was an easy 40 minute job - not so on a 2004 R1150R. It will soon be 2 years since it was last done. I watched as an independent wrench did it and decided I didn't want to do it myself. As with tire changing, I'm trying to forgo work that's a pain in the derriere. I've done enough in my time. If you do this job often enough you learn the little tricks that are required to do this painlessly; that would not be the case with me or so I thought. The guy that last did this may not want to do it again. Yes we have a dealer here but - more important than the cost - I don't trust this place. So....I'm thinking of tackling this joyful task myself after all. I suppose the Bemmer Boneyard would have the special tools. Any of you guys with servos and abs have experience changing fluid ? Any thoughts appreciated.

[Riverside]

I may as well plan on doing a fluid change myself at some time now that you mention it. I have a vaccum pump that I have used successfully on my various play vehicles over the years. Has anyone tried using a vaccum pump to pull the fluid through the system and replace the lost fluid in the resevoir as it drops down to the lower levels? It seems like if this is an option then it would be a less frustrating solution. I imagine I should change it more often here, being in the rainforest and all, with humidity quite high.

[towerworker]

I used instructions from this website and it worked very well. It's not as difficult as it looks. Just follow the instructions and take your time.

http://home.mindspring.com/~jabrooks/

There is a lot of great info here. Annual ABS service is a must to keep the system happy. A replacement pump is probably the value of a 2004 R. I made the brake fluid funnel described. Used a rubber stopper, drilled a hole thru and shoved the funnel into it. If you want a pic of it let me know and I'll dig it out. I ended up pulling my ABS system when it failed two years ago (probably because it was not serviced for 3 yrs when I was recovering from a paralyzing illness) [email protected]

Wayne

[Buckster]

Has anyone tried using a vaccum pump to pull the fluid through the system and replace the lost fluid in the resevoir as it drops down to the lower levels? .

I use a Mityvac that I got off Amazon years ago. It works very well!

[sykospain]

A few years ago I had a fascinating 3 hours of a Factory Assembly Tour in Berlin-Spandau. What a treat; but you need to book it a few months in advance if you plan a trip to the Fatherland. It's all very organised...especially for an individual, when you are jumped onto the end of a group - could be Chinese snoopers from Guangdog Province looking for tips at a tenth of the labour rate.

But what really intrigued me was the way the assembly guys pumped in the clutch and brake fluids backwards up to the handlebar reservoirs, i.e. not the usually opposite way round that us DIYers carry out this onerous but e s s e n t i a l job.

So ever since then, using a Speed-Bleeder nipple, I've done it by the Berlin-Spandau method. Much much easier.

[dandeldesierto]

There's some good input in the other posts; I just went through the process for the first time. I bought the funnel setup from Beemer Boneyard and got a friend who is a professional mechanic to help me, it's not that hard but with the funnel you really need three hands. The funnel setup could easily be fabricated, particularly if you could obtain one of the plugs out of a junked ABS module. That being said, my friend the mechanic was repeating "miteyvac, miteyvac..." under his breath while we coordinated on bleeding brake fluid. Also, I would have never gotten it done without the DVD sold by Beemer Boneyard, with the funnel you have to bleed from the brake cylinders to the ABS module, and from the ABS module to the calipers.
If I had known then what I know now, I would have eliminated the ABS and run new stainless lines and removed the ABS module.
I had a number of the R1100 bikes with the "ABS I" which was really great, but have never liked the R1150R's ABS II because of the sound mainly. Also, I can't turn off the ABS, which can be a problem (ABS I had a switch on "dash"), and the annoying whine of the ABS II whenever the brakes are engaged really bugs me (whizzy brakes, I call 'em). And, when the engine is not running, the whizzy brakes don't work worth a damn and can be dangerous if you're starting the bike on an incline.