Brake Fluid seems dark in a short time

[capttris]

I have 66,000 miles on my 2013 and plan to own this car for a very long time. I have had every fluid changed, expect for the power steering and coolant. Yes, I have even changed the CVT once at 50K miles and all diff's have been done twice!

ALL work as been done by dealer, except for engine oil changes that I do myself.

I had my brake fluid flushed last summer by the Mavis near me, as I figured this was a very easy job and no risk of any real issues. I did this as a preventative only. I had no issues.

 

I have noticed that my brake fluid appears dark. I compared it to a co-worker who just got a brand new Imprezza, and mine is much darker after less than a year old and maybe 15,000 miles.

 

My miles are all 99% highway for work, and I actually pride myself on barely touching the brakes. (to save the brakes and keep the wheels clean).

My wheels have normal amounts of brake dust, and I have felt each rotor after a long 100+ mile highway drive and they are all cool and appear normal, so I don't think my calipers are dragging.

 

So why would the brake fluid be so dark in such a short amount of time?

My only thought is that Mavis used some cheap fluid that broke down fast. But I find that hard to believe.

 

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to give a good background on this to answer any questions that I may be able to answer here.

 

thoughts?

Would a brake fluid oil analysis tell me anything?

 

thanks in advance

 

Tristan

[Imprzme]

Analysis I don't think will tell you anything.

 

Did Mavis actually do a flush or just a bleed? I'm guessing just a bleed and the dark fluid you're seeing is the leftover from the bleed.

[FLlegacy]

I would guess they just did a quick bleed as mentioned above. You should use the better part of a full quart of fluid to do a full replacement.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

[capttris]

Thanks guys. I am really pissed because I told the service manager several times, very clearly, I want a FULL FLUSH on the brake fluid.

 

My concern is if they used crappy brake fluid and/or the wrong type.

Hopefully I just need another flush, done properly this time.

thanks

[DrD123]

Would a brake fluid oil analysis tell me anything?

Well, you can do all the analysis you need just looking at it - if it's really dark, the color change is due to water uptake - the water does two things - first, it drops the boiling point of the fluid (not really a big deal for most passenger cars - you aren't heating the fluid enough to boil it) - the second thing is the corrosivity of the fluid increases dramatically with water uptake, leading to attack/damage in the caliper which can eventually result in a loss of sealing ability, and a fluid leak.

 

Since a large container of decent brake fluid is around $10 or less, if you are worried, change it out.

 

How quickly the fluid goes bad is really a function of how humid it is where you are, and how often you drive in the rain. (as an example, here brake fluid hardly changes in color after even 3 or 4 years, but we only get around 8" of rain a year, and it's generally very dry here - however, when I was in Virginia, it would darken within a year.)

[capttris]

DrD123,

Thank you, this is valuable info and good common sense stuff that I was overlooking I suppose. I live on Long Island and do a lot of long distance driving for work, including in the rain/sleet/snow, etc.

I'm thinking that when I paid for a complete brake system FLUSH, that they probably only "BLED" the lines and just topped off, so it probably looked clean initially.

 

I don't have anyone to help me so I will have to find another shop and explain to them again that I want it FLUSHED. And I guess I will have to watch them this time and make sure.

thanks