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Maintenance & Repair Stop here! Let's talk about brakes
1867 messages, Last post on Nov 26, 2009 at 6:20 PM
You are in the Maintenance & Repair Forum. Your Host is mr_shiftright
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I have a 1996 Olds 88 with 41K. It has ABS brakes. I took it in for an oil change at Firestone and they told me it needs a brake fluid flush. Is there some way to tell if this is true or an excuse to charge an unnecessary service? Will visually inspecting the brake fluid color tell me if it needs to be flushed? How about those brake fluid dip strips?
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Replying to: lhy (Aug 05, 2009 5:27 am) |
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Replying to: lhy (Aug 05, 2009 5:27 am) Is there some way to tell if this is true or an excuse to charge an unnecessary service? If the fluid has never been changed, as was previously stated, it is probably true. Will visually inspecting the brake fluid color tell me if it needs to be flushed? Yes, if the brake fluid is discolored or dark, it probably needs flushed. How about those brake fluid dip strips? Yes, those do work and do give a pretty good indication of the condition of the brake fluid. But here is a good article concerning brake fluid that may help you to understand. Brake Fluid Flushing-What's Stopping You?
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Replying to: 0patience (Aug 13, 2009 7:25 pm) |
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Replying to: jipster (Aug 14, 2009 6:00 pm) |
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Replying to: jipster (Aug 14, 2009 6:00 pm) Perhaps the manufacturers who do not recommend fluid-replacment are trying to drum up buisness... they surely know the brake-system will corrode from the inside out. If you have hydrolic clutch... dont forget to replace that fluid too.
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Replying to: bpeebles (Aug 14, 2009 7:27 pm) Assuming this is truly necessary, I would suspect it is more a matter of wanting to have the car appear to be nearly maintenance free. Strangest to me is, as I mentioned, to have the same owners manual specify that it should be changed in if the car is in Mexico, but not if it is in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, etc. I've never seen an owners manual that specifies changing power steering fluid either, but doing that every once in a while is apparently not a bad idea either. Our newer cars do not specify changing transmission fluid either. One specifies no change to coolant and the other has 10 years/120k mi for the first change. I plan to change brake fluid every 3 years, even if not specified and even though one car says 2 years. We are in a cold dry climate for at least 1/2 the year, so I figure if VW thinks 2 years is adequate for places like FL, then we should be okay with at least 3 years. I'm planing to do this even though 12 years with no change (other than whatever got changed in normal brake jobs) did not seem to cause any significant problems with our 1997 vehicle. I did have to replace one ABS sensor, but the cost of that was probaly less than changing fluid regularly would have been. I did recently have the brake fluid changed on that old vehicle, anyway.
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Replying to: jeffyscott (Aug 15, 2009 4:19 am) Don't confuse not having problems with the system working properly. Preventive maintenance is just that. Preventing problems from happening. |
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I have been working in industry for many years... my Dad was an industrial engineer (trained in how to optomize machines) There have always been 2 schools of thought. 1) Fix it when it breaks. 2) Preventive Maintenance (PM) to keep it from breaking in the 1st place. In reality, if you were to look at a graph of the cost of each of these approaches, there is a mddle-ground where the cost crosses over on the graph. It is this crossover-point where you get the most service-life for the least cost. Obviously this is theoritical and there are many other variables which the graph does not take into account. (Like how long before you will be getting rid of the machine.) I have seen both approaches applied to automobiles, some people do NOTHING to PM their car and often get stranded out on the road with all kinds of problems. Other people spend more than they need to keep their car PMd... they very rarely have problems but end up having less money. Each person needs to understand their situation and apply what best suits their needs. |
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Replying to: kirstie_h (Nov 06, 2001 3:24 pm) What could it be? Water? Air? The brake light goes on when going thru pedals. I thought that it was a wire shorting out after nothing happened as long as it was dry and the brakes were fine. Was this a warning? Its a Mercedes truck body, disc brakes all around. Write me at jeanofarc  yahoo.com if you've got an answer, thanks. I'll check back here too. 
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