Recommended Brake Fluid Maintenance?!

does this vehicle have ABS? has the brake fluid been changed before?

nate

It has ABS, and no not to my knowledge. I just bought the car...

It has ABS, and no not to my knowledge. I just bought the car...

I would bleed each brake cylinder / line / master cylinder, purge the system, and refill with a dot 3 fluid, if it needed it due to contamination.

mho v=83e

If you drain the fluid out of the abs, you will need a tech tool and a tech to put it back in.

News to me, why would anyone want to drain the brake fluid, and replace it? It seems to me like a

waste of time / effort / money, and not cost-effective to the owner. am I missing something?

mho v=83e

btw - has anyone ever had a caliper to freeze shut resulting in an engaged pad,

that caused excessive wear on the rotor / pad?

should the caliper "pushrod" be lubricated periodically?

mho v=83e

Brake fluid absorbs water and needs to be replaced every couple of years.

Yes. The piston can seize in its bore, the pads can seize on their bracket, and the slider pins can rust solid. These can cause a dragging brake.

Caliper "pushrod"? Wot?

it's recommended service on most German cars. Brake fluid is highly hygroscopic and eventually your brake components will rust from the inside out if this is not done periodically. Might only happen after 10 years or so, but it will happen.

nate

well it's your call what you want to do. I think GM's official position is that the benefits of flushing the brake fluid are offset by the risk of dragging gunk through the ABS control unit... if you do proceed with the flush might want to suck out what fluid you can from the MC reservoir and manually clean the inside of the reservoir before proceeding. DO NOT let the reservoir run dry or you will have more consequences than just having to start bleeding over again, you will need to get the car to someone with a scan tool to properly bleed the ABS control unit.

good luck

nate

I was bleeding the non-ABS brakes of my Ford -- carefully, I thought, refilling the reservoir every 15 pumps. But then in the middle of one stroke of the pedal, I hear a "bzzzz", and instantly I knew that I had let the master cylinder run dry, even though I had never heard that sound before in my life. How did I know? :( I first tried simply adding more fluid and pumping but got nowhere with that, so I disconnected the lines at the master cylinder and hooked up some old bleeder hoses, and for a long time it seemed that the thing simply wouldn't bleed out.

Why do car makers have different recommendations for this, even when they use the same DOT 3 glycol-based fluid (I realize that some cars use something else)? Ford not only doesn't mention a change interval but even said that their DOT 3 fluid was good for the life of the car. Is their fluid really different? It's dyed red, but a mechanic at the dealer said it was regular brake fluid, and I've been using Prestone DOT 3 since the car was two years old.

waste of time / effort / money, and not cost-effective to the owner. am I missing something?

Other posters have already addressed the problem with corrosivity of brake fluid which has aged and picked up water. And about every two years is a popularly accepted replacement schedule.

I have one auto with a Teves system, and on this one, if you don't maintain the brake fluid, you can get a big surprise...Rebuilt or new master cylinders will run well over $1000 to something under $3000 (I am told). Thank goodness, I havent had to replace one.

To bleed them, you remove as much brake fluid from the reservoir as you can, using a syringe or similar tool. Then you refill with fresh brake fluid and flush each brake line exhaustively, never letting the cylinder go empty.

There is a procedure for it, and it is relatively simple once you have done it.

Lots of people don't maintain their vehicles very well. They don't service their transmissions, they dont flush their brake fluid, they dont renew the coolant, and some wont even change the oil.

Those service steps, IMO, are important to maintaining a car, and are not a waste of money.

I believe that the reasoning behind a lot of the American car mfgrs. not recommending brake fluid change intervals stems from their feeling that the cars will likely be out of service before not changing the brake fluid causes any issues, while changing it presents a small but real risk of contaminating the ABS control unit, and they have decided that that risk outweighs the concerns of eventual corrosion. This is why I did emphasize the importance of cleanliness in my earlier post.

That said, if you are the type of driver that plans on keeping a car for several hundred thousand miles, you may want to ignore the factory recommendations and CAREFULLY change the brake fluid every couple years. I ASSume that since the OP was asking this question in the first place that he fell into this category.

nate

thanks for the comments on how "rust / etc. affects the braking mechanism.

and, how about to-day's " brakes' " exposure to the elements? Is it better or

worse from the standpoint of "recovery" from exposure?

mho v=83e

When an automobile has abs brakes, and a full brake job is undertaken, is the

abs portion of the brake system - serviced too?

My independent repair shop, a good one, has turned thumbs down on abs repairs.

mho v=83e

There isn't a lot TO a "full brake job." You change the pads, and you measure the discs and drums and turn them down or replace them as-needed. Maybe you flush the fluid as well if you're being very careful.

The "brake job" isn't a repair. It's preventative maintenance that you do so you won't _need_ repairs.

I can't blame them. The ABS systems are pretty creepy and the chances of getting sued about brake trouble with them (even if it's not your fault) are very high.

There isn't much to do with the ABS system unless it's broken.

--scott