jelly like brake fluid ??????

[jerryz]

after servicing the rear brake after the over heating problem  I decided to flush and replace the clutch and front brake fluid with fresh Motul 600 Dot 4 racing High temp fluid .as rear

the clutch was flushed and refilled and repressured OK but when i started to flush the front brake it refused to flush at the bottom and all the fluids started to become all sticky and jelly like ??  Its not flushing out at all . the old fluid was castrol racing Dot 4 and is 2 years old  the brake was working fine but the fluid had become discolored .......now i am not sure what to do .

The clutch and rear brake are fine .I have never seen anything like this in 35 years of working on brakes on bikes 

[ducpainter]

All the fluid was the same type?

[Slide Panda]

First time I flushed the rear brake on my 900 I got some jelly like goop out in the first couple draws on the mighty-vac.

Not exactly sure what it was about, or the exact history of that system before I acquired the bike, so probably not too helpful. But yeah, I've seen it.

[Cloner]

I know that several folks claim that mixing DOT 5 fluids with glycol fluids (DOT 3, 4, or 5.1) results in jelly, but that's an old wives' tales, as the two simply separate like oil and water.

I've done a little research and most folks who see this have either dirty or old brake fluid.  Just google "brake fluid jelly" and you'll get dozens of hits.  Most believe that the fluid has just absorbed too much water.  

I think you should be able to remove the jelly from the reservoir and continue with replacement...at least that's what I'd do.  If you want to be sure you're getting it all, you can dye the new fluid with a drop or two of food coloring (water based, so it bonds almost instantly with the fluid) and look for the color to come out the bleeder.  You could dye some crappy fluid (I have a HUGE bottle of Castrol LMA DOT4 on my shelf) to do this, then flush it again with "good" fluid to remove the color....that way you know you got the bulk of the old fluid out when the "good" fluid runs clear.  I generally use a Mity-Vac to bleed brakes and/or change fluid, but YMMV.

[jerryz]

All previous fluid was always DOT4  I never let DOT 5 near the bike , old fluid was 2 yeasr old the brakes work OK but I guess it is most likely water in the system ..I will flush it completely tommorow .

[Howie]

Keep flushing until nothing but clear fluid comes out.  Then flush some more.  Another flush after a few hundred miles wouldn't hurt.  Cloner is correct, a mix with silicone will not cause jelling, what people probably are seeing is water contaminated conventional brake fluid that fried in the silicone.

[jerryz]

OK all sorted .......completely flushed the front brakes 3 times with my BIG syringe sucking out the old fluid as I feed fresh in the top , the lever is now much firmer than before too which is good .
Just to sure i flushed the clutch and rear brake a second time same method , now all systems have fresh fluid throughout.

then went for a 60 mile test ride all is good also put fresh oil Motul15-50 synthetic and filter bike feels great
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MONSTERMAN