Brake fluid maintanece

socsmm6 · Jan 26, 2018

The Toyota dealership keeps telling my wife she needs to have her brake fluid changed in her highlander as preventive maintanece. Wtf? I have never heard of that.
Sounds like dealer bs.

BUG-E J · Jan 26, 2018

Brake fluid is hygroscopic (sp) and obsorbs moisture over time. If you keep it changed you are much less likely to have a failure due to contamination. But you can go to a junkyard and a 40 year old truck will still have brakes. I dont do it to my own stuff but i have done a **** load of brake flushes and we never saw bad master cylinders or leaking wheel cylinders at honda.

RustyC · Jan 26, 2018

Thank you Mr. Dealer but I will defer that fluid change till the time when I need to replace a caliper.

tonybolton · Jan 26, 2018

Re: Brake fluid maintanece

I remember when the dealers always tried to get you to replace your shock absorbers every 40 or 50,000 miles..... I was like yeah right there's cars with 200,000 miles on those things.

ForMud · Jan 26, 2018

BUG-E J said:
Brake fluid is hygroscopic (sp) and obsorbs moisture over time. If you keep it changed you are much less likely to have a failure due to contamination.

That's the reason they got away from using metal cans and went to plastic, it would absorb moisture and cause rust in the can.

TBItoy · Jan 26, 2018

socsmm6 said:
The Toyota dealership keeps telling my wife she needs to have her brake fluid changed in her highlander as preventive maintanece. Wtf? I have never heard of that.
Sounds like dealer bs.

how much is it going to cost?

I think newer Toyota are pretty stupid about brake repair, like it has to be hooked to a diagnostic computer to pulse the ABS system to bleed the brakes or something.

I'd change my brake fluid every 10 years/150k miles or so.

jeeptj99 · Jan 26, 2018

RustyC said:
Thank you Mr. Dealer but I will defer that fluid change till the time when I need to replace a caliper.

Normally I have a caliper seize up or something and end up pouring fluid all over everything. We are on the same maintains program it sounds like.

nvrenuf · Jan 26, 2018

The Toyota dealership I worked at (parts) also recommended it at the bigger mileage intervals. I never saw a customer request it, never saw a failure related to not doing it and while I gave out lots of bottles of fluid I never saw anyone actually flushing systems :

. In fact, we seldom ever had brake failures that weren't related to neglect.

socsmm6 · Jan 26, 2018

TBItoy said:
how much is it going to cost?

I think newer Toyota are pretty stupid about brake repair, like it has to be hooked to a diagnostic computer to pulse the ABS system to bleed the brakes or something.

I'd change my brake fluid every 10 years/150k miles or so.

The suv has around 45,000 miles on it. Toyota said it was around 380.00 bucks. :****:

BUG-E J · Jan 26, 2018

ForMud said:
That's the reason they got away from using metal cans and went to plastic, it would absorb moisture and cause rust in the can.

Yeah supposedly allegedly it causes the metal inside the systems to rust and pit from the inside cutting lip seals and also lowering the boiling point of the fluid. We recommended it with every brake job. All your doing is bleeding the brakes till you get clear fluid. Used a vacum bleeder. Ours was only around 140 bucks. I wouldnt do it but if you have a brake failure warranty may not cover it. Price an abs module i fogure its about 2k

TBItoy · Jan 26, 2018

socsmm6 said:
The suv has around 45,000 miles on it. Toyota said it was around 380.00 bucks. :****:

I'd probably wait a minute on in then :wtflol:

When I have done any significant brake work, I've always pushed the fluid out ill it looked new. If I wasn't replacing the master and the fluid looks scuzzy and dark brown, I'll pull it out with a big syringe and wipe out the scum from the reservoir.

Juan_Hong_Loe · Jan 27, 2018

I flushed my system on my 2004 Dodge Ram 2500 and I could tell a difference afterwards. I also think the fluid breaks down with the heat they see in the caliper. I'd recommend it just from my personal experience for what it's worth...

kkoepper · Jan 27, 2018

I had brake failure in a 36' diesel pusher motorhome in the mountains of Utah while flat towing a car from CA to IN. The fluid was old and had absorbed enough water that the brakes boiled the fluid after a long stint of downhill. I had a supplemental brake system on the towed car, thank God, because that's the only brakes I had. Serious pucker. I will never neglect brake fluid again. Having said that, I don't think you would have to worry about your Toyota if you're not using the brakes heavily in mountains or doing something else that will overheat them. I've always heard that brake fluid should be changed every 2 years due to it's hygroscopic nature.

onepieceatatime · Jan 27, 2018

Re: Re: Brake fluid maintanece

kkoepper said:
I had brake failure in a 36' diesel pusher motorhome in the mountains of Utah while flat towing a car from CA to IN. The fluid was old and had absorbed enough water that the brakes boiled the fluid after a long stint of downhill. I had a supplemental brake system on the towed car, thank God, because that's the only brakes I had. Serious pucker. I will never neglect brake fluid again. Having said that, I don't think you would have to worry about your Toyota if you're not using the brakes heavily in mountains or doing something else that will overheat them. I've always heard that brake fluid should be changed every 2 years due to it's hygroscopic nature.

I feel like any vehicle that big should have air brakes instead of hydraulics. I'm a huge air brake fan and actually think they need to start putting them on these new one ton trucks that can tow a damn house.

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