youtube.com/smart_e_r/smart_fortwo_453_brake_fluid_flush_only_one_person_needed¶
4 excerpts.
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youtube.com/smart_e_r/smart_fortwo_453_brake_fluid_flush_only_one_person_needed · p. 1 · Applies to: 450, 451, 452, 453, 454, #1, ebike
[Music] I like I like I like I like I like the sound of funky music. I like the sound of fun music. I like the sound of fun music. [Music] Hello folks and welcome back to Smarty and today we're going to look at doing a brake fluid flush on a Smart 453. In this case it's a for two but same for four really. So you'll need uh DOT 4 uh brake fluid. I have a purchase of a non- returnturn valve and a suction pump. So, this is the brake fluid itself. Do 4. I used Amazon's garage by putting my regge to tell me what I needed. Did a little bit of research as well. But if you want to look at all the bits and pieces, just pause the video and zoom in. Uh, this is a liter. And that should be enough to do the whole job. Um, I like Bosch as a brand anyway. So, uh, I thought I would go with them. Uh, this is not an Austin Powers tool. This is, uh, a brake fluid extraction syringe. And it comes with two size fittings. And this is the one I'm going to use. Uh, pretty cool. Actually, wasn't expensive. I'll put links in the comment box and description box at the end of the video. Comes with a couple of replacement seals that you can see in the bottom of the tube. You've got an adapter there for the smaller size uh long hose and it has a very clever lock system. So, you literally just push it in and push the tube in, pull it out and it locks. Very simple. And if you want to get it out, you just pull back on the blue tab and then you can pull it out simply. So, again, push it in, give it a tug, and it's locked. This is the non- returnturn valve. Uh what does that mean? Well, effectively it means that when you break the bleed valve knuckle on the brakes and you put your foot on the pedal, the fluid will only go out. It won't go back in. And the idea is to not let any air back in the system because letting air into brake fluid is really bad. And as you'll see later on in the video, there was some air in the system, which is why I could feel it was pretty much not perform as I thought it would. So, as you can see, it comes with two hoses. This is the non-return valve itself. It has an arrow on it. The arrow is the flow that you expect the fluid to be pushed out. So, it has to go on in a specific way. Comes with a couple of clips as well. Um, and it literally goes like this. These are clips. just a bit tight. You might want to use a pair of pliers to compress them. One minute. Just have to go and get uh my little handy little uh pointy nose pliers. Brand new ones. I'm quite happy to use them. Uh I think this again was on Amazon. It was about six quid. Again, I'll put the link in. So, here the pointy nose. You just compress the clips, slide it over the hose. Um, the reason why I got this, you see a lot of people doing these um, brake fluid flushes. They do it with another person, which you can do and avoid paying for this, but I don't have that luxury at the moment. So, here we are. It literally just a push on sort of deal. It's a little bit tight because uh, it's brand new hose. Make sure you get it on as close as you possibly can. And then you offer up the clip, compress it so it gets bigger, slides over the knuckle, release it, and that's not going anywhere. So I did this one for the other side as well, but when I was doing the um the brake flush, um I thought I would use the clip on the other end of the hose uh to lock it to the actual blade blade nipple itself. on the bleed knuckle. Bleed knuckle. Blade. Bleed knuckle. Bleed nipple. So, here we go. Again, quite a tight fit. I did trim this cuz it wasn't cut very square. It was It was cut at a bit of an angle, but there you go. Ain't going anywhere. And remember that arrow when you're using it. So, like I said, really uh really happy to having this little tool in the kit. So, I've shown countless videos how to take the inspection cover off or the service cover off. So, just open that up. So, here's your breaker reservoir. This
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youtube.com/smart_e_r/smart_fortwo_453_brake_fluid_flush_only_one_person_needed · p. 2 · Applies to: 450, 451, 452, 453, 454, #1, ebike
is what we'll be using and going back and forth to quite a bit. And uh we'll have a look now and see how dirty is. But on the actual cap, it does tell you dot 4. So, I do have the correct fluid. Now, if you have a little look in the brake reservoir, we can actually see if you zoom in, there's actually bits of grit in there as well. And it's quite yellowy. It should be more or less clear, but it's quite yellowy. So, I thought before I start messing about and having to open a lot, I'll give it a bit of a clean just with some water. But make sure it's very clean so it doesn't crosscontaminate. So, what we're going to do is explain here. You need to do it from the farthest from the brake pedal. So, that's this corner because it's a British car. So, it's the back passenger corner first. Then is the back driver corner. Then you do the front passenger corner. That's the third one. And then the fourth one is the driver's side. So that's the sequence in which you bleed the brake nipples. So with our nice clean brake fluid reservoir and our extraction tool, we'll just reconnect it like so. Take the cap off. Couldn't have had my weix this morning. That's off. Move to one side. Caution. caution. Put a cover over any paintwork. Um, an old towel or something heavy because if this stuff drips on it, it will affect your paintwork. So, all you're doing then is just pulling the plunger up to suck out as much of the brake fluid as you can actually see. Now, some of the people they say take it all out. I'm not a fan of that. I leave just a little that I can see physically. So any dribbles, like I said, just be very careful you don't get it on your paintwork and avoid any rubber as well. So just repeat the process now until the uh the brake fluid of reservoir is almost empty. Um that's the method that I'm using. If you want to do it, that's entirely up to you. I'm just showing you how I do a brake fluid flush. And I think I did it about three times. That was it. That was done. So, one more time. And I know it's repetitive, but it just gives you an idea of how many times to do it. And if you can't remember again, very simple. And I discarded it uh safely in the garage in a container. So, with that done, I've got a madeup funnel. The other ones I had weren't uh very accommodating. It's thoroughly cleaned, so there's no crosscontamination with the uh the dotful Bosch brake fluid. Um, and before anyone says anything, there was no contamination of the seal that was broken because on the inside it has a polyine and foil. So, anything you break stays in place. Then carefully, again remembering this stuff isn't very kind to paint work and rubber gently, although it doesn't look like in the video, just top it up. Um, and you can take it way past the maximum filler level, maybe right up to the top if you're comfortable enough to do that because we will be expelling a lot of fluid. Remember, we'll probably go through about a whole liter of brake fluid. So, at the moment, it does look slightly yellow. Um, straight away though, it does look clearer. Not much. I won't show you how to jack a car up. If you want to know how to jack the smart car up, have a look at the other videos in the channel. Um, this this is my prep as well. Um, while we're talking about that, uh, if you do like the video, please give it a like. Um, consider subscribing. There are about 130 odd videos overall. I really appreciate it. So, here's the non- returnturn valve. Now, here this is the rear passenger brake bleed nipple or knuckle some people call it. Just use a flatb blade screwdriver to prize it off. Uh, I tried cracking it or turning it with I believe it was a 7 mil. Yeah, it's a 7 mil spanner, ring spanner, but I really had difficulty getting good purchase on it or a good grip on it. So top tip, use a um maybe an elongated
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youtube.com/smart_e_r/smart_fortwo_453_brake_fluid_flush_only_one_person_needed · p. 3 · Applies to: 450, 451, 452, 453, 454, #1, ebike
socket just to l just to break it just to loosen it a little and then you can uh take it all the rest of the way with the ring spanner. So once you have slightly broken the seal, pop on your non- returnturn valve. Remember you want the flow to go away from the hub. So the direction of the arrow is to go from left to right. So it's flowing out. So away from the actual hub. And then you just break it. And if you watch carefully, that's me just putting it in the pot underneath to collect it. If you watch carefully, you will see some start to come out. It's a bit of a faf as I said and there started to come out. But when I start to go back to the cabin and start pressing the brake pedal, you can see there's a little bit of air there already. And pressing it, I did about 15 times. So every time I pressed it 15 times, I would go back to the brake reservoir and make sure it's not empty. Must never let that run out. You must always keep it topped up. So here you are now. More depressions of the brake pedal. And look, there's the air that was in the system that was giving me poor um brake performance. It was giving me a spongy feel. Let's get that out of there. So 15 pumps for the pedal, pushing it through the non- returnturn valve. Now, I was really pleased when I saw that on the video because I knew I wasn't imagining it. Uh, that's the main aim of doing this video for today was to get better brake performance, less spongy. So, again, just make sure you keep going back and forth to the brake fluid reservoir. Never let it run out. Never let it run down so you can't see it. Always keep it topped up using your funnel, your filler. And then it's just a case of There's some more air coming out. Look. And then it's just a case of uh pumping it, checking it, pumping it, checking it. And then once you're confident that uh you've gotten all the air out or even uh you might be able to see a slight change or a change of color in the brake fluid. I won't bore you with this cuz it did take me about 20 minutes because I was being very cautious about how much I actually did uh did press and get get out of the actual um reservoir. But I think I topped the reservoir up three times just on the first wheel corner that I was working on. So that's in principle. So once you've done that, it's literally a case of um just tighten up the nut again. I think this is the video for it. That's me still pumping in. I'm seeing if there's a a change in the coloration. There's a slight change, a slight yellow change. It's it's hardly noticeable, but once you're satisfied and you're happy, like I said, I topped it up three times and I made sure there was no air in there. I was I was checking the video um every time I would return to the vehicle. Once there's no air in there and making sure that there's a you're happy with maybe a slight change in the coloration so that it's now got the the fresh fluid in, you literally just lock it off. So, lock the bleed nipple back up and then you can take off the non- returnturn valve hose. As you can see on there, I did use a clip as well. I instead of putting it on the actual return non- returnturn valve itself, I moved it onto the bleed nipple just to make sure if there's a lot of pressure didn't pop off. So again, constantly back and forth, back and forth. Check the the reservoir. Don't let it go too low. Um just keep topping it up. Remember, if you put too much in, you've still got that suction tool at the end of it. So I won't do the other side at the back. I'll just show you the front now. It's a lot better position. As you can see, there's the the bleed nipple or the bleed knuckle. A lot lot easier to get at. And this time it's not a seven. I believe it's a 9 mm.
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youtube.com/smart_e_r/smart_fortwo_453_brake_fluid_flush_only_one_person_needed · p. 4 · Applies to: 450, 451, 452, 453, 454, #1, ebike
So, it's actually a different size spanner you need. We have a look at it in a second. So, same thing again. Making sure the arrow is going away from the bleed knuckle. So, it's flowing that way. Here. Ah, here we go. So, pop on the hose and then the clip just so it doesn't pop off under pressure. And then it's simply the same principle. Same principle. You crack the nut, crack the bleed nipple. I think this is where I realize, hey, yep, it's not a 7 mil. What is that all about? Go away and get a 9 mil. And make sure you dispose of this wasted used brake fluid responsibly at your local recycling center. It is nasty stuff. Nasty stuff. Keep it out of reach of kids in case they can accidentally get it. Yep. 9 mil. So 7 mm for the back, 9 mm for the front on this 453. Little tip, sometimes if you have problems cracking it, it sounds counterintuitive, but try tightening it up and then slackening it off. So that sometimes break the rust seal. And that's it. That's the same thing. So, it's the same process. Pump the pedal. Keep an eye on the reservoir. Make sure it doesn't. And again, there's some more air coming out. So, whoever did this before really did a rubbish job. And it No, it wasn't me. This is the first time I've done it. So, the same principle. Pump it. Wait until the fluids change or there's no air bubbles coming out. Lock it back up nice and tight. Don't overtighten it because you'll need a new brake caliper altogether. Uh remove your brake fluid. Again, being careful about the excess where it flows to. Tighten it up again with a ring spanner. Ever so slightly nip it up. Don't forget to put the dust cap on. Well done, Gareth. Give a little clean because again, this stuff is nasty. It's not good for rubber. It's not good for plastic. Not really. And then what I do is I just pump the brakes to get a solid feel. And my god, the difference was insanely different. It was so much better. It was rock solid. Then it's just a case of checking the brake fluid reservoir is up to the maximum level or just below it. Pop the cap on. Here's just another angle of how much is in there. It's a lot cleaner as you can see. No dirt and grit in there now. Just a case of pop the cap on and cup of tea time. Thanks for watching and uh stay safe. [Music]