Brake System Flushes

[tskeeter]

Hey Rick, I see in another post that you recommend flushing the brake system at 50K miles. Would you talk a little about why?

I've been driving and maintaining cars under the shade tree for nearly 40 years and have never flushed a brake system, even though several of the cars were driven to more than 100K miles (some of them, decades ago). I do understand that brake fluid absorbs moisture out of the air. But I've never had a problem, even though I've lived in snowy Minnesota, even more snowy Buffalo, NY, humid Atlanta, sloppy Chicago, close enough to the beach in LA to be affected by the marine layer (morning fog and haze off the ocean), and the snowy high Sierras.

[tskeeter]

Rick, how often have you seen corrosion in brake systems or experienced brake fade? I do agree those things can happen. But since flushing brakes is a relatively recent practice, I'm wondering if brake fluid flushes became a recommendation in response to a law suit, or the potential for a law suit, rather than in response to actual experience.

I've only seen corrosion in a brake system once. On a car that had been sitting for several years. A piston was sticking in a caliper. Turned out that the chrome plating on the piston had been damaged and there was a spot of rust on the side of the piston.