Good idea to flush your brake fluid....

[edman1000]

I'm working on my write for my swap and I thought I'd share this so it's not lost in the big thread....

Here's an FYI for ya. Apparently brake fluid turns to mud after 27 years (it might be a good idea to flush and refill on your older rides):



Found this in the old MC last week when doing my swap, thought I'd share. Good idea I planned on doing a complete flush and refill anyway eh? this crap was like mud in there. Could not have been helping out my braking performance any eh? (sorry for speaking Canadian)

[MAD MIKE]

Yeop.

Brake fluid is hygroscopic, that means it absorbs moisture, after about two years the fluid should be changed as it has absorbed moisture. Most brake fluids have a tinge of yellow, but Motul or Ford fluids have red, blue or green hues.
If your fluid is brownish or black, its definitely time to change.


http://www.aa1car.com/library/bfluid.htm

You don't leave the same fluids in your engine, why would you with a mission critical part as your brakes.

If you have mud in the MC, it would probably be best to remove the MC take it apart and thoroughly clean/rebuild it.

[edman1000]

I should've clarified, that's in the "old" master cyclinder. I swapped out to the '93 cobra MC.

[PonyboysV6]

That's NASTY!

[richstang]

Holy Crap!!!!

Is that "mud" really brake fluid"? Didn't you ever bleed the brakes at some point and top off the fluid? sort of a semiflush

Honestly, I'm well overdue to change the fluid. I never knew it should be done every 2 years. I'm going to check out my MC tonight after seeing that mess!

[kbrandt]

It's impressive just how well brake fluid will hold up to neglect. When you think about it, the majority of cars probably find their way to the junkyard with the same brake fluid they had no the showroom floor.

[craigerSS]

Thats one of the first things I did when I got my foureye

[mongos82ttop]

Edman1000, while you are working on the brake system, you might want to take the proportioning valve off, take it apart, clean it, and reinstall.

I've had a few of the valves apart while doing brake system maintenance and found that the valves were just about stopped up with all sorts of trash and dirt. I've often wondered after seeing it, if the prop. valves were even working at all.

[Kevins89notch5.0]

I just yanked all my brake parts off and I know I never once touched the brake fluid since I bought the car in August 2000. It was dark, but no sludge.

[ddawson]

I've never under way all the domestic cars/trucks I own never have brake fluid as a maintenance item, yet my Volvo and Mini Cooper say ever two years to flush the system.

[edman1000]

I just yanked all my brake parts off and I know I never once touched the brake fluid since I bought the car in August 2000. It was dark, but no sludge.

Mine was dark too, didn't see any sludge until I sucked it out of the MC with a squeeze bottle. As soon as it got down, I started to se the sludge.

[RichV]

I'll never forget when I did a full flush on my 86 Saleen before I open tracked it. The fluid out of the calipers looked like Guiness beer.

[SRM351]

Edman1000, while you are working on the brake system, you might want to take the proportioning valve off, take it apart, clean it, and reinstall.

I've had a few of the valves apart while doing brake system maintenance and found that the valves were just about stopped up with all sorts of trash and dirt. I've often wondered after seeing it, if the prop. valves were even working at all.

+1!
Even after flushing my system several times I still found all kinds of crap and corrosion in the prop valve during the tear-down to refurbish the system. Was also pretty amazed the thing still worked at all!

[Domino]

My prop valve was full of black sludge. I had to pretty much scrub it with an old toothbrush.

[Alawicious]

Wow

Thats some grundgy stuff