Brake fluid changed today - I say it's worth it

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Nemesis

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Good day everyone. Wishing you and your families are safe, healthy and blessed.

My car required an oil change and brake flush for my recent service. Car is a 2018 Touring, has 44,000 miles. Brake fluid flush cost $169.00. Color of brake fluid before service was a very light yellowish color - didn't appear dirty but it was never changed. Now the color is basically clear. The benefit i immediately noticed was brake travel is much shorter and the car stops quicker. Would never have noticed as my brakes were awesome. Not sure if the cost i paid was expensive for this service but I will gladly pay it again the next 44,000 miles. Just sharing.
 
Unless you had issues before, replacing fluid is not going to make you stop quicker... you are likely experiencing the highly subjective butt-o-meter
 
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I agree with JFon that changing the brake fluid wouldn't change the braking behavior. If you did indeed feel a difference it may have been due to air in the lines which could be corrected by bleeding them.
 
The only plausible way to explain your experience would be if the brakes were never properly bled at the factory, and there was air somewhere in the system. When they replaced the fluid and flushed the system, then they properly bled all of the air out. Discoloration / degradation of the fluid cannot explain the change in braking performance that you describe.
 
For longevity purposes brake fluid exchanges are recommended every two years. You won’t notice any performance increase under normal street driving conditions. Audi/BMW (and many others) specify 2year intervals to prevent long term corrosion issues.

The immediate improvement you noticed was likely due to air in the system that was corrected as a result of the fluid change. On a track day on a performance car it is possible to artificially create this condition.

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Just for clarity, my brakes are performing better than they were. I am not imaging how my car drives from having service done. I am very use to the car after 44,000+ miles and several long journeys from Boston to Atlanta. It very well can be there was air in the braking system and now the brakes are performing as they should from the factory but never had an issue with them before in any stopping distance. Thanks for your comments.
 
My 3 year old Clarity recently had its annual service. The dealer quoted me $189 for a brake flush. That price sounded kind of high to me, and my car has less than 15k miles, so I held off on that service. I want to get another quote on the flush, but I think I'll wait until Spring, when I should be past the Covid vaccinations, and with warmer weather, I could stay outside during the service, without requiring transport back home and to the dealer for pickup.
 
Gotta love the stealership... At those prices I will be spending $15 on brake fluid and bleeding them myself or going to an independent mechanic if I'm too busy/lazy.
 
ICanBreakIt said:
Gotta love the stealership... At those prices I will be spending $15 on brake fluid and bleeding them myself or going to an independent mechanic if I'm too busy/lazy.
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I asked my independent mechanic about this. He laughed and said changing the brake fluid was unnecessary. I have owned a lot of cars during the last 50 years. I have NEVER changed brake fluid in any of them!
 
Groves Cooke said:
I have owned a lot of cars during the last 50 years. I have NEVER changed brake fluid in any of them!
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If you owned one car for 50 years that would be a useful statement. If you owned a lot of cars for 3-5 years each, over a 50 year period, it may have been unnecessary to replace the brake fluid in any of them.

A number of folks blow off scheduled maintenance without negative consequences. That doesn’t make it the correct decision.
 
I have never intentionally replaced brake fluid either (and I keep cars for a long time, until they 'die'). But, somewhere along the way, I usually find that I have to replace a caliper, wheel cylinder or similar. This entails opening the system, bleeding, etc. At that time, I will usually flush enough fluid through the system to effectively replace it during this operation.

Several key points I would make however:
  1. I do this work myself so it is a 'small' expense when it occurs.
  2. You could argue that not replacing the fluid on schedule is what led to the component failure in the first place.
  3. Typically, brake component failures (which could be due to bad brake fluid) are not too complicated or expensive (if you do the work yourself), BUT...
  4. With this vehicle, the components (particularly the master cylinder / ABS) are likely to be MUCH more expensive than older conventional vehicles because of the low production quantity and increased complexity to incorporate regeneration, etc.
Thus, I am tempted to do the brake flush on the Clarity because of the greater risk of a much more expensive component failing over time (and given the fact that I do tend to keep vehicles for a very long time).
 
I'll probably also ignore the brake fluid replacement, at least for a while. I too have never just changed brake fluid on a vehicle just to do that. I have a 2002 Tahoe that might have had the brake fluid changed once in it's lifetime. Brake fluid in that vehicle has stayed pretty clear. Again not recommending others should do as I do...
 
MrFixit said:
I have never intentionally replaced brake fluid either (and I keep cars for a long time, until they 'die'). But, somewhere along the way, I usually find that I have to replace a caliper, wheel cylinder or similar. This entails opening the system, bleeding, etc. At that time, I will usually flush enough fluid through the system to effectively replace it during this operation.

Several key points I would make however:
  1. I do this work myself so it is a 'small' expense when it occurs.
  2. You could argue that not replacing the fluid on schedule is what led to the component failure in the first place.
  3. Typically, brake component failures (which could be due to bad brake fluid) are not too complicated or expensive (if you do the work yourself), BUT...
  4. With this vehicle, the components (particularly the master cylinder / ABS) are likely to be MUCH more expensive than older conventional vehicles because of the low production quantity and increased complexity to incorporate regeneration, etc.
Thus, I am tempted to do the brake flush on the Clarity because of the greater risk of a much more expensive component failing over time (and given the fact that I do tend to keep vehicles for a very long time).
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Driving habits come into play here. If you have aggressive driving habits(all Californians) then definitely moniter the condition of your brake fluid. The way i drive it's highly unlikely i will ever replace brake pads or fluid in 15 years of driving since the regenerative braking uses the transmission to slow the car. Its like changing the air filter at stealership recommendation when you are running 50 plus percent on electric. These cars are engineered differently so do your due diligence to understand.
 
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