brakes

[wakeNbake]

I opened up the brake reservoir for the front and lost a screw wasn't too worried about it being sealed as I was planning on replacing brake fluid shortly anyway and was working on other stuff and not riding it. opened it up again today and there looks like there's just water sitting in the reservoir. As I remember the brake fluid being dark and low but now the fluid is clear and pretty full. Not sure how long it's been in there but it's been raining for the past couple weeks I thought I had the cover on it but there might have been one day I didn't put it back on right away. Sooo what would my best bet be should I just drain the reservoir and brake lines and then fill and bleed all the air out like normal? should the master cylinder and brake lines and calipers still be ok after that? Or should I drain them and then fill the system with alcohol to make sure there's no water and then drain again and then put in brake fluid? Thought behind alcohol being it would push out the water and then evaporate rather than retaining any water left behind though most rubbing alcohol is 30% water. Or am I completely off base here? I don't really think I can afford to replace everything right now unless of course I'll die and then obviously I can't afford to not

[Big Rich]

Don't mess around with brakes - do it the right way. Drain the current brake fluid / water mix, take apart the brake line at each end, clean everything with brake cleaner (skip the alcohol), reassemble and fill with brake fluid.

Water can do a couple things in the brake system. Obviously you'll lose braking performance, but the other is much worse: water can heat up and expand, locking your caliper (especially when riding).

[fetor56]

Anything other than brake fluid in the system is classified as a contaminant.I would fill the master cylinder at-least a few times and bleed the brakes dry....the final flush tightening the nipple.

[78530i]

Not only does water behave differently, it contaminates the fluid and makes it corrosive to all the rubber in the system.