Time flies when you're having fun!

[Crand]

Wow. Take a look at that picture. Anybody else from the class of 2013 have that many miles on the clock? I'll tell you one thing, I've enjoyed every single one. No regrets at all.




The original plan was to purchase a 2008-2010 TrailBlazer LT as a daily driver since they could be had for a pretty good price. At the time I still had my previous ride, a 2000 Nissan Frontier with a 2.4l inline 4-cylinder and 308,000 miles. After the first day I drove the 1LE, I've never been behind the wheel of anything else and I just gave my truck to a friend a year later.

On a different subject, I've been trying to find information about what chemicals to use if one feels like dyeing their brake fluid. I read somebody suggest Methylene Blue and went to Wal-Mart to grab some but they only had Malachite Green. I also picked up some Rit purple textile dye. Here's a photo of the results:



Anybody else try this? I'm going to let these jars sit around for about a week to see if the dye separates from the brake fluid. I'll post an update with the results.

-Nate

[Olddudesrule]

Interesting idea. Wonder how the color will handle the heat, especially for those that track their cars? Can't imagine it will hold it's color for long.

[Balue]

Damn 100k! You sure are enjoying that thing! I am at 27.5k on the clock. Mine is slowly turning into a track only car. This year out goes the interior and in goes cage.

[CamaroDreams76]

Yeah wow. I thought my 1LE had a lot of miles (nearly 32k)

[ilir14]

Congrats that thing is build to drive

[gajagfan]

Getting some warranty done as we quickly approach the 36K point. Keep us posted. I know you have a LONG way to go!

[Killianzl1]

Why would you dye your brake fluid?

[BadFrog]

[cornerspeed92]

Originally Posted by Balue

Damn 100k! You sure are enjoying that thing! I am at 27.5k on the clock. Mine is slowly turning into a track only car. This year out goes the interior and in goes cage.

Hey Rob, im right at the same 27.5

[Wileycoyote]

Well in three more years we should see a picture of 200,000 miles with you doing 200 mph on a track of course.

[DBHWT]

After 100K has anything really gone bad, except for normal wear and tear ?

[Chris1SS1LE]

I am at 4100 after 19 months of ownership

[markgws6]

Nowhere even close. Have you made several trips across the country? :-)

[Crand]

Originally Posted by Killianzl1

Why would you dye your brake fluid?

After I ordered my Camaro I tried to kill the time by hanging around these forums and learning everything I could about the car before it arrived. At the time, everybody swore by ATE brake fluid and especially the race formulated blue variant. By the time the car arrived you couldn't find the stuff anywhere because of some long convoluted story about government garbage that causes people to vote for conservative "small government" candidates.

If you use a power bleeder and fill the reservoir with blue fluid you'll know exactly when you've completely flushed a line when amber turns to blue and vice versa next time you flush the system. Since this was such a cool idea I thought I'd try to replicate it myself.

Since I was here last I've gotten a hold of some Methylene Blue as was suggested by the Google and here's the result:



The jars on the left side are the original ones from earlier in this post, the one on the right is the one I've added (FAR too much) Methylene Blue to. I found it fascinating how the jar with the Malachite Green in it after about two days returned completely to its original hue as if nothing happened. The purple jar with the Rit textile dye is still the same but the dye is in liquid (and I'm assuming water-based) form and I'm trying to add as little product as possible to the fluid.

So far, the way to go is the Methylene Blue since so little of it is required to achieve a blue hue in the fluid. I poured a little on a cardboard box when I received it and it looks exactly like blue ink from one of them V-whatsits pens.

This weekend I'll tear some gear out of the attic and measure out some proper amounts so if anybody wants to replicate what I've done you'll know exactly how much to use. I'm still really curious if anybody else has heard of this being done because I refuse to believe I'm the only one who has given it a try.