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When my spring broke I called a someone local (maybe via Yelp), he came out within 30 minutes, replaced it in 20 and charged me $75. This was only a couple of y

When my spring broke I called a someone local (maybe via Yelp), he came out within 30 minutes, replaced it in 20 and charged me $75. This was only a couple of years ago. Likewise with brake fluid changes. I can do it, but the risk/hassle just ain't worth it for the cost of a pro.

pard68 3y ago
What are the risks of changing brakes? Never thought of that as a particularly risky endeavor before.
- JoeMattiello 3y ago
  The most common risk is not properly protecting against contamination of the reservoir or not bleeding the system and having air or water in the line. Air will compress and you could have brake failure. Also water, less common but happens, as the brakes heat up, can boil into gas and then also again you have loss of pressure and brake failure. This is why I comment technique for race cars, which always have the risk of possibly boiling their brake fluid, will give a slight pump to the brake before coming up to a corner to pressurize the master cylinder and make sure that it does have a little bit of pressure pushback While you still have a little bit of space to react and ditch if something goes wrong
- bisby 3y ago
  I would assume "if you don't put them back together right, you can't stop, and cars are deadly enough with functioning brakes"
- bagels 3y ago
  In addition to the other answers, brake fluid is toxic and removes paint.
  - porkbeer 3y ago
    Only the old dot3 does that.
shiroiushi 3y ago
After seeing the quality of work of "pros" with simple oil changes, I wouldn't trust one of them to properly change and bleed brake fluid, unless I was very familiar with their work.
j-a-a-p 3y ago
I never replace the brake fluid. I do flush each caliper when changing summer and winter tyres. This means a selected offspring presses the brake twice for every tyre and the caliper has fresh fluid in it. The fluid only degrades in the caliper, no need to replace it entirely, and no need for a computer when you do it like I described it.
- mnw21cam 3y ago
  It depends. Brake fluid absorbs moisture, which lowers its boiling point. You don't want it boiling from brake heat when you're really trying to stop. If you live somewhere humid then the whole reservoir can slowly absorb too much moisture and make the fluid unsafe.
  - bradfa 3y ago
    Correct. Brake fluid absorbs moisture but the key is that DOT 3, 4, and 5.1 fluid then spreads that moisture evenly throughout itself, so that you never have a pool of water in your brakes but instead a dispersed low percentage of moisture in the fluid. So even if water only enters the system at the caliper or reservoir, that moisture still spreads through all the fluid in the entire car. That's why you flush it all out when changing brake fluid.
  - j-a-a-p 3y ago
    No need to panic. An entire generation never refreshed this fluid and vapour lock was still a rare incident. Replacing 20% of this fluid every year is more than enough.
- rightbyte 3y ago
  You are replacing the brake fluid though. Probably more ofent then almost every car owner.

pard68 3y ago

What are the risks of changing brakes? Never thought of that as a particularly risky endeavor before.

JoeMattiello 3y ago
The most common risk is not properly protecting against contamination of the reservoir or not bleeding the system and having air or water in the line. Air will compress and you could have brake failure. Also water, less common but happens, as the brakes heat up, can boil into gas and then also again you have loss of pressure and brake failure. This is why I comment technique for race cars, which always have the risk of possibly boiling their brake fluid, will give a slight pump to the brake before coming up to a corner to pressurize the master cylinder and make sure that it does have a little bit of pressure pushback While you still have a little bit of space to react and ditch if something goes wrong
bisby 3y ago
I would assume "if you don't put them back together right, you can't stop, and cars are deadly enough with functioning brakes"
bagels 3y ago
In addition to the other answers, brake fluid is toxic and removes paint.
- porkbeer 3y ago
  Only the old dot3 does that.

shiroiushi 3y ago

After seeing the quality of work of "pros" with simple oil changes, I wouldn't trust one of them to properly change and bleed brake fluid, unless I was very familiar with their work.

j-a-a-p 3y ago

I never replace the brake fluid. I do flush each caliper when changing summer and winter tyres. This means a selected offspring presses the brake twice for every tyre and the caliper has fresh fluid in it. The fluid only degrades in the caliper, no need to replace it entirely, and no need for a computer when you do it like I described it.

mnw21cam 3y ago
It depends. Brake fluid absorbs moisture, which lowers its boiling point. You don't want it boiling from brake heat when you're really trying to stop. If you live somewhere humid then the whole reservoir can slowly absorb too much moisture and make the fluid unsafe.
- bradfa 3y ago
  Correct. Brake fluid absorbs moisture but the key is that DOT 3, 4, and 5.1 fluid then spreads that moisture evenly throughout itself, so that you never have a pool of water in your brakes but instead a dispersed low percentage of moisture in the fluid. So even if water only enters the system at the caliper or reservoir, that moisture still spreads through all the fluid in the entire car. That's why you flush it all out when changing brake fluid.
- j-a-a-p 3y ago
  No need to panic. An entire generation never refreshed this fluid and vapour lock was still a rare incident. Replacing 20% of this fluid every year is more than enough.
rightbyte 3y ago
You are replacing the brake fluid though. Probably more ofent then almost every car owner.