Just bought a somewhat neglected 2000 Ranger. The brake and ABS warning lights are on. The brake fluid is black. I'd like to do a complete cleanout of the brake system to get all the gunk out of it.

What I'd like to do:
- Remove all the fluid.
- Take apart the calipers, and clean them out.
- Take apart the wheel cylinders, and clean them out. Maybe hit them with my wheel cylinder hone.
- Take apart the master cylinder, and clean it out.
- Take apart the proportioning valve, and clean it out.
- Put in fresh fluid and bleed the system with my pressure bleeder.

I've done this before on other vehicles, but none with ABS. I use to have a minivan with ABS that required a special tool to bleed the ABS part of the system. If I do my cleanout procedure above, will I have any problems with the ABS system? I.e. air trapped in the system, etc. The small amount of dirty fluid trapped in there shouldn't be a problem.

 

This will be interesting when you get an answer, I'm in the same boat, but my fluid isn't black, it's just a bit dirty (sat for 8 years, so I'm sure there is some water in the system as well)

In the past I just used a vacuum bleeder to pull clean fluid through the system, starting with the caliper furthest away.
I simply kept topping up the reservoir until clean fluid emerged from all calipers, weather or not this can be done on an ABS system, I don't know ???

If I ever do a complete brake overhaul I would use silicon fluid.
I use that in my collector vehicles and even in my old B2200 in the clutch system and never had a problem with it.
The fluid in all those vehicles is still nice and clean.
Maybe it's something to do with the hygroscopic nature of the alcohol fluid that it seems to attract dirt.

I changed out the fluid in the clutch system on the B2200 with regular DOT 3 and with in less then a year, it was dirty _ blackish if you like _ and it's always done this, even with new components, with the silicon fluid it's very clean.

There are many arguments against silicon fluid, the most pertinent is that it doesn't swell the seals like the alcohol stuff does, and off course this will result in leaks _ I've never had a problem though after years of use.

 

OK. I wimped out on this project. While watching chrisfix's video on flushing the brake system, I noticed that his brake fluid didn't look all that bad, and my truck is only 3 yrs older than his was at the time of the flush. And my brakes felt fine. A flush is something like a one hr job compared to around 4 or more for disassembly and cleaning. Having drums on the back didn't help either, since the brake shoes have to come off to get the wheel cyl off. Next time I do a rear brake job, I'll take the wheel cyls off, and clean them out.

My hope was to be able to fix the brake and ABS warning lights, and if just doing a flush did that, I'd be happy. If not, I only wasted about an hour. I DID get the warning lights fixed, but it wasn't the flush that fixed them. You wanna know how? I filled the master cylinder. The PO had let it get almost empty. Now *I* sorta feel stupid for not checking it before driving it home. The PO is a co-worker of mine. I showed him a photo of the MC, and asked, "What's wrong with this picture?" He blamed his room mate who had been driving it recently.

Anyway, my pressure bleeder worked fine (after I replaced the dry rotted line), and the brakes bled just fine. Apparently, the MC didn't get low enough to let air into the system.