Brake Fluid Change
- Brake fluid absorbs water from the atmosphere and should be replaced every two years, regardless of mileage, as it affects brake efficiency.
- Most manufacturers recommend that you change your brake fluid every 24 months or 24,000 miles, whichever is sooner.
- If your brakes get hot they can heat up the brake fluid and in extreme cases, can cause any water in the fluid to boil and vaporise.
- Though you can’t compress a liquid, you can compress a vapour and if this occurs, the brake feel will become ‘spongy’ and full braking performance will be lost.
How Much Does A Brake Fluid Change Cost?
Usually, a change of brake fluid costs from £39.99 to £55.99 HEMAN TO CONFIRM. Our technicians will refill your brake fluid level to the correct specifications. Our brake fluid change also includes a free brake inspection to ensure the health of your vehicles braking system.
Wear, corrosion, distortion and other common causes of failure
When you hit the brakes, the load is transferred to the front wheels and the front brakes do most of the work to stop the vehicle. Therefore, it’s normal to have to replace front brake discs and pads during your cars life because of wear – but rear pads and discs are more likely to fail because of corrosion.
Discs or drums?
Braking creates a lot of heat which has to be dispelled fast. The more open design of disc brakes makes them much less susceptible to overheating.
It’s normal to see discs at the front – providing most of the braking effort – and cheaper drum brakes on the rear to provide the parking brake function. Larger or more powerful cars tend to have disc brakes on all four corners.
Parking brake
Some cars with ‘discs all-round’ will have been fitted with a small drum brake in the centre of the rear hubs for the parking brake, though most now work by applying pads directly to the main discs.
Electrically operated parking brakes may take a while to get used to. The handbook will show a special release procedure to use if the car battery is flat.
Corrosion
- Cast iron is an ideal material for brake components, but it rusts easily.
- On the front, surface rust is quickly cleaned off by the action of the pads on the discs, but this may not be the case on the rear, especially on a small, light vehicle or one used infrequently and for local trips.
- Corrosion isn’t normally a problem with rear drum brakes.
- Initial, light corrosion can be cleaned off under reasonably heavy braking, but if left, this light corrosion gets worse and can lead to surface pitting.
- Pitting used to be a reason for MOT test failure, but now discs should only fail the test if they’ve become ‘seriously weakened’.
- Surface corrosion or pitting of discs isn’t a ‘fitness for purpose’ or warranty repair issue, as it mainly depends on how the vehicle is used and stored.