In this video I discuss what I found when testing a brand new bottle of brake fluid. is changing your brake fluid when it reaches 3% moisture content a waste of time and money?
Lol thanks for sharing. But when in 100 years have we had to look for brake moisture? You only look for debri from the lines or ect in the reservoir. Normally pretty noticable. Thats only time to flush unless. You change lines n fittings. You are right
That's all I ever did my whole life. If it is dirty then change it. I have only heard about moisture in brake fluid in the last year so I had to see what it was about.
In my opinion: Break fluid typically is designed to have a wet boiling point along with a dry one. Highly unlikely to have "totally dry fluid" because all containers develop condensation from temperature differences in & outside the can/bottle. Also the master cylinder vents so moisture will always like to hang out at the port. Break fluid absorbs moisture to maintain the optimal boiling point for normal conditions. When you break, latent heat enters the fluid & can boil it into a gas vapor making your pedal spongy causing break fade. This probably is why the fluid should be changed in addition to the colloidal copper ions building up from the electrolysis of having bronze or copper banjo crush washers on the hoses. Ideally honest organizations like Firestone would say it's the additive pack failure that causes break fluid to go bad - not the mythical moisture hysteria. So copper test strips test the copper content to make change determinations - not moisture readings. Have to understand the master cylinder reservoir will usually have the highest moisture read being the reservoir has an atmosphere of air that is vented to the outside engine bay. Moisture is relevant during start ups. Basically, if your pedal feels squishy, you should bleed out the old fluid because it probably contains fluid vapor form latent heat break down. Or if you fail on a copper test strip. I trust Firestone more than any SAE certified educated idiot passing off as an auto technician simply because you won't find an ISO moisture recommendation for replacement on any break fluid. ISO is what you should base determinations on. For example: The oily layered glaze (washable) air filters that largely reduce static manifold pressure in order to get higher fuel economy, even though they fail all ISO tests, they can be extremely dangerous for lane changes when static manifold pressure helps prevent stalling** caused by the sudden opening of the throttle blade. Another critical problem is they do not filter silica* that contaminates oil & wet sands piston rings & valve guides. It also shortens the life of all engine oil regardless of being synthetic or not much earlier than running a basic pleated fiber paper air filter. I wouldn't listen to mythical educated idiots if I were you. Lots of unicorns in all trades who rely on post hoc fallacy for their logical realism.
In my opinion: You may want to sell off that Dodge van. Looks like a 3.6L Pinstar Italian collaboration engine. Their oil filter housing loves to crack being plastic & the rocker needle bearing go bad around 78K miles or so making their iconic "Pinstar tick" noise. The Italian investors pulled out of the US market because of all the problems that followed all their Dodge, Chrysler & Mopar engines. Pretty hard to tell Charger & Challenger fans their hemispherical engines are crap no matter how many times their oil filter housing splits open. Typically you have to replace rockers & cams on Pinstar engines & shouldn't ever follow the manufacturer's 5W-20 (Ford engineered oil) engine oil specification. Go with 10W-30. 5W-20 isn't used world wide mind you for obvious reasons. It runs off parts down in the pan & evaporates quicker than 10W-30 or 10W-40.
Thanks but I like my Pentastar. I replaced the rockers myself with Melling units around 140K. My oil filter housing never split because I never tightened it down like a Neanderthal. The heat finally warped it around 180K and I replaced it with an all aluminum unit. It transfers heat better than the plastic unit. She runs great with 207K on the clock and running great. I use the 5W-20 regular non synthetic and replace it every 5K.
