Brake Fluid Service - Dealer vs. Opinion - What Would You Do

[moonlanderadventures]

TLDR - Dealer told me I didn't need to do a brake flush that was 4 years old, but I told them to do it anyways for peace of mind


My 2021 Ford F-150 has the original brake fluid since I purchased the truck in July 2021 so it is 3 years and 9 months old (minimum). The vehicle has low mileage because I work remotely full time from home and do not drive the truck often, except for maintaining health of engine.

Scheduled my truck in today to do a brake flush and inspection (last one for more peace of mind). I am new/learning about vehicle maintenance and I read the most important reason why you need to change your brake fluid isn't so much the mileage, but rather time, as moisture can get in and reduce your braking efficiency or worse, corrode your brake lines. I understand also that brake fluid itself has anti-rust/corrosion agents in it. I bought one of those brake fluid testers and I was reading 3%, which sounds exactly about right, although I read up the proper way is to tell if the brake fluid is "truly" bad is by performing a proper boiling test to be certain.

Service dealer told me because I have low mileage I likely didn't need to do the brake flush and he only recommended I do it when the brakes felt spongy (i.e. don't waste your time unless the brakes are acting bad). My concern is more so around safety and corrosion if it sat TOO long. Money is not a problem at all for me (for peace of mind). I am proceeding with the brake fluid change. Part of me thinks they don't want to bleed the brakes because it takes a while to do Understand from my vantage point, within the next year or so I am going to be living full time out of my Moonlander and traveling, so this truck is my everything.

Someone with knowledge teach me what the best route is. As I'm learning, I am trying to figure out which services are cash grabs and which ones are not.

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[v8440]

I think you made a good decision to have it done anyway. It is indeed not just mileage related, but time as well.

 

[JohnTrigger]

Your ‘21 owners manual is different than mine, as yours doesn’t specify a 3 year brake fluid change. Seems as though they started recommending that in ‘22. From my 2024 owner‘s manual:
https://www.fordservicecontent.com/...A&div=f&vFilteringEnabled=False&buildtype=web


Yours takes the same DOT 4 LV Fluid, so if it is what they now recommend I would say yours is the same:
https://www.fordservicecontent.com/...a&div=f&vFilteringEnabled=False&buildtype=web

I’d say this: As a reference, the owners manual says you can wait until 150K miles to change your transmission fluid, but you better do your brake fluid every 3 years, so I’d get it done at the 3 year point.

 

[Gros Ventre]

As one mentioned... Time is your enemy. Brake fluid has a strong affinity for water/moisture. The issue with that is if you do heavy braking the fluid in the calipers can boil a water content creating steam, a gas, which will reduce the braking ability. Also at the three year point start paying attention to rubber items (eg brake lines among others). Frankly the rubber life should be well above three years, but the pressures on heavy braking can be really high as opposed to other rubber hoses throughout your truck.

 

[Porpoise Hork]

I have my brakes flushed every 3 years as well. Never had an issue doing that.

 

[xxlt250rxx]

In 2007 I bought a new F150. In 2010 the dealer started hounding me about changing the brake fluid stating the same stuff you guys are saying about moisture. 15 years later and still has the factory fluid in it. Never any problems other than needing new rotors and pads. We bought a new Expedition in 2000. Put over 300,000 miles on it. Same story. Never any problems with the brakes except rotors and pads. I am 65 and have had many vehicles in my life and have never changed the fluid in any of them. A few of the really old vehicles I had when I was young that had brake shoes had to be topped off when the wheel cylinders started leaking. I did buy some of the test strips and checked the 2007 F150 recently. It checked good. I bought a new 2024 a few months ago. Going on past experience I do not plan to change the brake fluid in it either. I think it is a rip-off.

 

[SALEEN961]

As an automotive technician, I flush the brake fluid in my own vehicles every 2-3 years.

 

[tbinmd]

brake fluid absorbs moisture over time. Live in a humid area and you will have to do it more often. I tend to do mine around 3 years. You can feel the pedal starting to go soft and the fluid will start to turn darker.

 

[tidefan1967]

If you have low mileage test it with some of those test strips and if it tests good then I wouldn’t worry about it. My 22 only has 9600 miles on it and the fluid still looks new. If it test good no reason to change it.

 

[Gros Ventre]

In 2007 I bought a new F150. In 2010 the dealer started hounding me about changing the brake fluid stating the same stuff you guys are saying about moisture. 15 years later and still has the factory fluid in it. Never any problems other than needing new rotors and pads. We bought a new Expedition in 2000. Put over 300,000 miles on it. Same story. Never any problems with the brakes except rotors and pads. I am 65 and have had many vehicles in my life and have never changed the fluid in any of them. A few of the really old vehicles I had when I was young that had brake shoes had to be topped off when the wheel cylinders started leaking. I did buy some of the test strips and checked the 2007 F150 recently. It checked good. I bought a new 2024 a few months ago. Going on past experience I do not plan to change the brake fluid in it either. I think it is a rip-off.

You're lucky or you have little reason to do hard braking.

 

[FaaWrenchBndr]

I’ve always understood that the brake fluid manufacturers themselves suggest a three year fluid replacement.

Maybe that’s just marketing, maybe it’s a money grab, I really don’t know. But I was always taught to do a complete flush every three years too purges the system of moisture and contaminants.

 

[Old Hat]

I go for happy medium with brake flush on my vehicles. 5-6 years instead of 2 (Mercedes recommendation!) 3, or never. But we only drive about 6,000 miles per year, braking use and loads are extremly light, and the vehicles sit in the dry / warm garage.

 

[Larrymoe]

In 2007 I bought a new F150. In 2010 the dealer started hounding me about changing the brake fluid stating the same stuff you guys are saying about moisture. 15 years later and still has the factory fluid in it. Never any problems other than needing new rotors and pads. We bought a new Expedition in 2000. Put over 300,000 miles on it. Same story. Never any problems with the brakes except rotors and pads. I am 65 and have had many vehicles in my life and have never changed the fluid in any of them. A few of the really old vehicles I had when I was young that had brake shoes had to be topped off when the wheel cylinders started leaking. I did buy some of the test strips and checked the 2007 F150 recently. It checked good. I bought a new 2024 a few months ago. Going on past experience I do not plan to change the brake fluid in it either. I think it is a rip-off.

I had never changed the brake fluid in any vehicle I had ever owned either until recently.

I changed out the fluid on my son's Tacoma just this past Sunday. It has 146k on it. The fluid was pretty brown. It was only $15 for me to do it ($12 for the fluid, $3 for the tubing). Took about an hour and a half, but a lot of that was fighting the wind blowing my stuff around. We had about 45mph winds Sunday. Also changed out the power steering fluid while we were doing the brakes. That was about a $8 job. The weekend before that I flushed the coolant out of both of their vehicles.

Planning on doing my wife's 110k mile 4Runner Saturday.

 

[zx6roclet]

My 04 I never flushed the brakes and sold it running like a top with 230k on he clock and it stopped on a dime.

 

[TarnishedCopper]

TLDR - Dealer told me I didn't need to do a brake flush that was 4 years old, but I told them to do it anyways for peace of mind


My 2021 Ford F-150 has the original brake fluid since I purchased the truck in July 2021 so it is 3 years and 9 months old (minimum). The vehicle has low mileage because I work remotely full time from home and do not drive the truck often, except for maintaining health of engine.

Scheduled my truck in today to do a brake flush and inspection (last one for more peace of mind). I am new/learning about vehicle maintenance and I read the most important reason why you need to change your brake fluid isn't so much the mileage, but rather time, as moisture can get in and reduce your braking efficiency or worse, corrode your brake lines. I understand also that brake fluid itself has anti-rust/corrosion agents in it. I bought one of those brake fluid testers and I was reading 3%, which sounds exactly about right, although I read up the proper way is to tell if the brake fluid is "truly" bad is by performing a proper boiling test to be certain.

Service dealer told me because I have low mileage I likely didn't need to do the brake flush and he only recommended I do it when the brakes felt spongy (i.e. don't waste your time unless the brakes are acting bad). My concern is more so around safety and corrosion if it sat TOO long. Money is not a problem at all for me (for peace of mind). I am proceeding with the brake fluid change. Part of me thinks they don't want to bleed the brakes because it takes a while to do Understand from my vantage point, within the next year or so I am going to be living full time out of my Moonlander and traveling, so this truck is my everything.

Someone with knowledge teach me what the best route is. As I'm learning, I am trying to figure out which services are cash grabs and which ones are not.

I have never "flushed " the brake fluid on anything I have ever owned. In my opinion, it is a sealed system. My Dad was a mechanic all his life and also never did it as well. Sounds like a "built-in" moneymaker for the dealership, like changing cabin air filters, rotating tires, wipers and air filters which are all things the average owner can do themselves with parts that are 1/2 the price of Ford's.

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