Three Reasons You Should Periodically Change Your Brake Fluid
Monday, March 19th, 2012
Did you know the brake fluid that goes inside your car should be replaced from time to time. If you didn’t, don’t feel bad. There are people who have been driving for decades and have owned several motor vehicles and still don’t know this. Worse still, there are many people who believe that brake fluid should not be changed. They will defend their belief, without knowing how much damage such an attitude can cause to one’s car.
In order to try and change this misconception, we sat down for a talk with several car servicing experts, who provided us with simple, common-sense arguments for which brake fluid must be changed after no more than three years of use. Many drivers will use their car for as much as 10,000 to 15,000 miles per year, and will use their brakes an average of 75,000 times during the course of that year, yet they will never so much as consider the issue of their braking fluid. The problem is that intensive use causes the braking fluid boiling point to drop below acceptable levels. Here are several reasons for which you should not allow this to happen to your car.
Ask the Experts
Many European countries enforce periodic brake fluid checks as part of regular car inspections. If you discuss the matter with your regular car service technician, they will explain that after intensive use, this fluid will slowly become contaminated, and will no longer hold the same chemical properties, which allow it to be efficiently use in braking in the first place. This contamination happens because of the naturally occurring moisture in the air. Because of the moisture, the fluid’s boiling point changes. This contamination level can go as high as three per cent over the course of no more than a year and a half, or eighteen months.
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