10,000 down Many More to go!

After getting schooled yesterday by my post on on “90K Major Service” I thought it would be a good idea to go see my trusted mechanic at his new shop. I told him the next maintenance item that I had would be the brake line flush in January (24 month service). I was a lil confused by his response so I just wanted to get some additional advice. How important is it to replace the DOT 3 fluid at 24 months? I’ll probably have about 14K miles on the truck at that time.

His biggest concern was to ensure I rotate the KO2s on schedule. He walked around my vehicle and explained what my wear would start to look like if I didn’t.

I told him I was doing oil every 6 months w/ Mobile1 and genuine Toyota filters. We discussed AT, Fr and rear diff as well as transfer case which I explained I had already purchased RedLine and put in storage in my garage. He said when doing the AT fluid he uses the scan tool for temp rather than Infra Red thermometer. He is a good ole country boy and I’m sure now that it’s been many years since he was at Lexus/ Toyota he probably doesn’t do things 100% by the book but it left me a little puzzled that he was dismissive of doing the brake fluid on schedule. (I didn’t explain to him that I had purchased the platinum warranty- my concern is that I don’t want to give Toyota an excuse not to cover the master cylinder, etc… in the event of a future issue and wanted to adhere to the maintenance schedule.)

In summary, How important is it that I adhere to the 24 month maintenance schedule for brake fluid replacement? I’m here in Oklahoma with lot’s of humidity and had planned on sticking w/ DOT 3. Additionally, I guess I will be rotating my tires where as before I was just gonna leave them alone now that they finally got them balanced perfectly.

 

Well, I've never replaced brake fluid in all my (48?) years of driving. 1.5 million miles of that has been Toyotas. Haven't experienced problems related to that. My 2019 has 130k miles over 6 years so far. I'm not saying it shouldn't ever be done, but it's not a critical item at 14k miles. Maybe that's why he's a bit dismissive.

 

That’s probably true. My previous cars were German sports cars that I guess it was more critical to change out the brake fluid. There are a couple other folks on here that always have sage advice. I’m waiting to hear what they have to say, especially since I’m not wanting to give Toyota any reason to not honor the 10 year/ 100K warranty that I purchased.

 

The way brake fluid fails is by absorbing moisture and this results in two effects - your brake fluid boiling point is lowered and you start developing internal brake line and caliper rust. Depending on the humidity of where you live and intensity of your braking what is considered acceptable can vary. There are brake fluid testers that can tell you how much moisture was absorbed.

In general, unless you live in ultra-humid area and regularly have to tow down the mountain passes, 2 years change interval is too frequent. This is change interval that I follow for my track cars. YMMV.

 

I’m not even sure where I got it in my head that brake fluid needed to be changed every 2 years. I just went and looked at the guide I thought I had gotten that info from and it recommends every 25K which does sound more reasonable.

 

Just a heads up, I went to replace my engine air filter with the one I had gotten at the Dealership Parts Dept last Sept and I wasn’t too impressed with the new one. The factory installed

$29 17801-38051 Genuine Toyota - FJ CRUISER AIR FILTER NEW - 17801-38051

17801-38051 was about 3/4” thicker and included the white scotch brite looking pre-filter which the new one 17801-YZZ13 didn’t come with. I verified that the -YZZ13 was the correct replacement filter. Then I asked if he could still order the - -38051 and he said I could. He told me they were $5 more ($47 +$5) He then told me he had to order 10 at a time and he asked how long I planned on keeping my 4-Runner. Long story short, he sold me all 10 for $200

 

For me brake fluid is one of those things I would replace based on time vs mileage driven. As soon as the brake fluid container is opened it begins to absorb moisture. You could drive 2000 miles a year and the vehicle could sit most of the year but that whole time the brake fluid can be absorbing moisture from the air.

I think my last brake fluid flush was just over $100. Pretty cheap if you factor it into the lifetime ownership costs of the vehicle.

 

I think it really depends on where you live. I'm in AZ, and it's dry AF. I don't think changing brake fluid every 24 mos. is necessary. If I lived in FL or another humid state, I would probably follow the recommendation. It's funny that this thread came up today. I'm getting ready to do front rotors and pads on my 2011. I'm flushing and replacing the brake fluid as well. I figure with any major brake service it's warranted. It's cheap and not very hard to do.

 

Yep.