Another good Reason to do it

[idenphones]

We are the second owners of our W22 and after coming home to Canada from our second trip to Florida in the past few months, I decided that it was time to change the brake fluid today.

We have 17,000 miles on Bubba as I call her and we have had no problems whatsover with the brakes, and I have had to really use them a few times for various reasons, but the chassis is a few years old now so what the heck.

Went to Walmart and bought 3 liters of DOT 3, jacked it up and put the jack stands under the front to start, opened up the bleeders and got a ton, if there is such a thing, of air followed by what looked like dirty vegetable oil.

The dirty fluid I was expecting but not the air!

Both front calipers had lots of air confirmed by the DW's comments on how much harder it was to push the petal down once the air was gone.

Both of the rears had some but really nothing compared to the fronts.

When everything was finished I started the engine and the brake petal is noticeably firmer.

As for the dirty brake fluid...............you should see what came out of the Corvette brakes for comparison! Dirty yes but NOTHING compared to the Vette.

So in summary, change the brake fluid to get rid of the crud and water?

YES!

And, Potentially get rid of the air in the system ?

YES!

For Twenty bucks and a little elbow grease, I think it was well worth it.

BTW. The wife and I have been changing brake fluid in our cars and trucks for years and I don't recall ever having an brake problems besides the normal lining changes etc.

["007"]

When I changed mine never noticed air, dirty fluid yes, but didn't have someone pumping brake was just using gravity for draining.
Will have to try brake pumper next time.

[speed racer]

I started this practice many years ago before they had disc brakes because moisture in the brake fluid would cause the wheel cylinder to rust. Even though this was common practice on many europein cars I had trouble covencing my customers of this.

[DriVer]

Take a look ...... "What 7 Year Old Brake Fluid Looks Like"

Changing brake fluid periodically is very important and I recommend at the maximum, a 2 year fluid replacement interval.

If you look at the larger picture, when stopping a 16 to 26 thousand pound vehicle, brake fluid performing at its peak efficiency is important.

[idenphones]

DriVer!

Tisk, Tisk,!

Seven Years? For shame!

[idenphones]

DriVer,

I tried to edit my last post to say that I read further back that someone had already commented on the 7 year issue but I caught the forum at Scheduled Maintenance Time.

Sorry about that!

[DriVer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by idenphones Seven Years? For shame!

That's right! My bad! I do have an extenuating circumstance. I had all my brake components replaced 2 years ago and at that time the calipers were only bled and I was sent back out on the road.

SINCE then, my service center is now committed to flushing ALL Workhorse hydraulic brake systems that come in for any type of brake problem. So what we see are 2 things, the owner (ME) not considering to flush my brake fluid more frequently and an established dealer that had not been flushing the systems as a standard feature of the brake service.

One would ask why? Probably for the same reasons that other dealers were telling owners they were crazy that requested that their fluid be flushed. It just wasn't a common practice that most establishments had signed off on.

Had I not replaced my fluid up until that time for 5 years, that would still be a lot late but knowledge earned is knowledge gained and today, I'm a BIG time flusher!

[idenphones]

Big time flusher?

I'm not going to touch that one!

["007"]

My bad I haven't thought to much of changing brake fluid, 6 years, on either my Fords or Workhorse coach's never had a problem with brakes in either.
After reading everyones problems and DriVer hammering away about changing fluid I said must be time to add to scheduled maintenance.

[DriVer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by idenphones I'm not going to touch that one!

We aim to be humorous however we don't expect to quit our day job!

[lvanduyn]

I also just changed the fluid in my W20. I installed a set of speed bleeders
(Speed Bleeder Bleeding Brakes Bleeding Motorcycle Brakes Automotive Bleeder Screw Brake Bleeder) and they make the job simple for one person
to do. The most difficult part of the job is standing there while sucking the old fluid out of the master cylinder.l
It is surprising how fast the fluid goes "bad". I had a half bottle, tightly capped, on the shelf for a few years and when I went to use it, it had turned that lovely brown color.

[BEBOP]

Driver Mike convinced me to change my brake fluid so I took it to the shop and told them to do it. they had to flush it twice as it was so dirty. Now I can't see the level in the master cylinder so hope it is full up
Bebop

[DriVer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BEBOP Driver Mike convinced me to change my brake fluid so I took it to the shop and told them to do it. they had to flush it twice as it was so dirty. Now I can't see the level in the master cylinder so hope it is full up

Bebop, √

[idenphones]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BEBOP Driver Mike convinced me to change my brake fluid so I took it to the shop and told them to do it. they had to flush it twice as it was so dirty. Now I can't see the level in the master cylinder so hope it is full up Bebop

Funny you should say that. A neighbor was over today asking me what I was doing the other day.

He looked under the hood and said that it looked like I forgot to refill the master cylinder!

Just in case, I double checked