Maintenance minder question (brake fluid)

Gruber

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Brake fluid may come hot and when it coming cold you may (?) get some humidity.
Same with engine oil

Our last cars in the family with 12 to 15 years old and more than 120,000 miles on each. I never change brake fluid and never have issue with brake systems.
They where not Honda. Is 10 gen Civics are more "fragile " ? I don't think so.

I did not say don't change your brake oil, follow what you think is the better for you.
I don't use MM. I don't need it.
I do about the same thing, a periodic flush of the brake system is not a thing with my cars.

Yes, both glycols and glycol ethers in DOT brake fluids (except 5) are hygroscopic, but the brake system is supposed to be tight, most of the time under pressure, and not easily letting water in. Unless it is handled often. If there are leaks, the fluid will be disappearing. Then the the owner might want to top off often, and let humid air in when opening the lid. Then when opened/closed often, the lid might become leaky.

If there are no leaks, the fluid may not need topping off for years. The pressure in the brake system may be in excess of 1000 psi (70 bar) when hard braking, but the pressure difference driving water absorption from the atmosphere is a very tiny fraction of that. If the system is not being opened often, there is no way a brake system would be absorbing significant water but not leaking the fluid.

There is always an issue of engineering errors, such as wrong materials. For example, some polymers absorb water faster than expected.

So in my 2009 CR-V I never did any servicing of the brakes at 120 kmiles. Factory fluid, factory pads, factory rotors. If I noticed the fluid missing, I would have serviced the brakes earlier. Now it might be the time as the pads are ending their life.

I don't recommend or encourage anyone to do the same - it's your car, your safety, your money and your peace of mind. I'm just writing this to put things in perspective. Obviously, car manufacturers and dealers have no remorse when recommending frequent service of systems that affect safety. No one will blame them. I've seen somewhere on the internet that 88% of car owners neglect brake service according to AAA.
 
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I thought that I might add to this.

I have NEVER done a brake fluid change or flush on any vehicle I have ever owned. My Civic is my first brand new car, purchased with 3 miles on the odometer. In the interest of keeping my car like new, I want to do all the maintenance to keep it operating smoothly. Well i did mine myself, after watching the ChrisFix video and after seeing how easy it was I have now done other cars in the family fleet.

Well I can say that doing the fluid change on a car with 80,000 miles on it that is 5 years old, made a HUGE difference in the feel of the pedal. My daughters Cruze's brakes changed so much that when she got back into the car to drive she complained that the brakes were too touchy. It tightened up the pedal and put it back to feeling like new, no new brake hardware just fluid. This alone reassures me that this is definitely a maintenance item that is HIGHLY overlooked.
 

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Brake fluid may come hot and when it coming cold you may (?) get some humidity.
Same with engine oil

Our last cars in the family with 12 to 15 years old and more than 120,000 miles on each. I never change brake fluid and never have issue with brake systems.
They where not Honda. Is 10 gen Civics are more "fragile " ? I don't think so.

I did not say don't change your brake oil, follow what you think is the better for you.
I don't use MM. I don't need it.
Some engines will operate to 120k with changing the oil 3 times. Doesn't mean you discovered a secret of not maintaining per the manufacturer and surely doesnt mean anyone should try to encourage others to do the same...

Not trying to single anyone out as you did say you weren't trying to convince anybody to do it or not.

If leasing don't sweat it. If owning and keeping I'd suggest at least every 50k
 
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racer

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Apparently brake fluid threads are the new oil change threads! :)
 


Gruber

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Some engines will operate to 120k with changing the oil 3 times. Doesn't mean you discovered a secret of not maintaining per the manufacturer and surely doesnt mean anyone should try to encourage others to do the same...

Not trying to single anyone out as you did say you weren't trying to convince anybody to do it or not.

If leasing don't sweat it. If owning and keeping I'd suggest at least every 50k

There is no comparison with the engine oil. If the brake system is not leaking, the small amounts of water that may get in there over the years won't do any damage. The water will decrease the boiling temperature of the liquid. So those who like to use brakes a lot, (not me) should flush the fluid at least when replacing the pads (which they will need often anyway).
 

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After a bit of looking around the forums, I decided to go ahead and change the brake fluid in my civic. It had just hit two years of age and from what I read online you should think about doing a flush every two to three years since that is how long brake fluid is guaranteed to be rated to their DOT specificity. The job was quite easy and fun, and it was my first time actually taking off the wheel on any car. Wheels are heavy! I can't wait to do more DIY things on my car.
 

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Sorry to bump an older thread (better than reposting a new thread on the same topic though eh?) but my '17 recently threw A7 at 13.5k miles and only 3.5k on the current oil. I was contemplating ignoring the light and just resetting the MM but I've got some time on my hands over the holiday so...

Bought Castrol DOT 4 fluid off Amazon for $3.65/12oz. Can't think of any reason to pay more since I'm not racing or what have you. What struck me was that the original fluid was turning dark already and that there was contamination in the master; some sort of greenish globs of foreign material. I sucked the fluid out of the master but struggled to remove all the greenish globs. I wonder if it's some sort of assembly lube from when the system was first put together? Anyway, I sucked all the fluid I could from the master and then used a mityvac to pull fluid through the system from each caliper. What a sucky job. The fluid didn't flow for crap and my hand hatted me after a while with all the pumping. I know the system isn't perfectly flushed but the fluid is quite a bit clearer than before. Anyway, I'm glad I did the job. I've restored a number of older motorcycles with corroded pistons and contaminated brake lines and while changing the fluid every few years is likely a bit excessive, it won't hurt and will certainly help in the long run.
 

Dario1101

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Sorry to bump an older thread (better than reposting a new thread on the same topic though eh?) but my '17 recently threw A7 at 13.5k miles and only 3.5k on the current oil. I was contemplating ignoring the light and just resetting the MM but I've got some time on my hands over the holiday so...

Bought Castrol DOT 4 fluid off Amazon for $3.65/12oz. Can't think of any reason to pay more since I'm not racing or what have you. What struck me was that the original fluid was turning dark already and that there was contamination in the master; some sort of greenish globs of foreign material. I sucked the fluid out of the master but struggled to remove all the greenish globs. I wonder if it's some sort of assembly lube from when the system was first put together? Anyway, I sucked all the fluid I could from the master and then used a mityvac to pull fluid through the system from each caliper. What a sucky job. The fluid didn't flow for crap and my hand hatted me after a while with all the pumping. I know the system isn't perfectly flushed but the fluid is quite a bit clearer than before. Anyway, I'm glad I did the job. I've restored a number of older motorcycles with corroded pistons and contaminated brake lines and while changing the fluid every few years is likely a bit excessive, it won't hurt and will certainly help in the long run.
Are we allowed to use DOT 4 brake fluid when our system is rated for DOT 3?

Also, that does not sound normal. I would have definitely taken pictures and went to a dealership to tell them about the issue because it sounds like a factory problem?
 

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Apparently, when the MM figures the next oil change would happen not long before 36 months passed since car manufactured or the code was reset, it will set code 7.
So I now see code 7 set at less than 12 kmiles....and just over 25 months of driving...
I'm going to reset it now and check again when it pops up the next time...
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