Looking After Your Motor – Brake Fluid:

A while ago, last year in fact I had volunteered my services to one of our members, Adrian, to replace the rear wheel brake cylinders on his Polo engines Trabant so the Club could have the vehicle on the display at the Town & Country Festival, it is VW powered after all. Working on the Trabant was a first for me, you don’t see that many in the backwoods of Derbyshire, so I was a bit wary, if I snapped a seized bolt I couldn't rush down to the local Halfords for a new part, they don't stock many Trabant parts you know! Once the tool box was out and I got stuck in my fears disappeared, the first brake drum came off with ease using a method I had picked up when I was an apprentice, and the brakes were removed without any problem, nice simple brakes and adjustment mechanism. The brake cylinder came off without effort but the usual trickle of brake fluid didn't appear which caused concern. As the Trabi had only done 3000 miles in its nine-year life, we decided to flush out the brake system to ensure that the brakes would perform.

Standard brake fluid is very hydroscopic, in other words the fluid absorbs moisture, and if the fluid is old it can contain so much water that it boils when the brakes get hot, boiling water turns to steam and this causes the brakes to fail, the water also causes severe corrosion, which is dangerous and extremely expensive to put right.

The best way to prevent this problem is to flush and replace the brake fluid at least every two years.

Getting back to the story, we decided to flush the brake pipes out before fitting the new cylinder, to prevent contaminating it. With Adrian in the drivers seat ready to pump the pedal, an empty plastic beer glass was used to catch the brake fluid, it came out a rather rusty-looking dirty brown colour.

We flushed enough through to guarantee that all the pipe work contained fresh fluid. Once this was complete, the new cylinder was fitted and bled; the opposite side was then attacked with the same procedure. Once we were happy with the back, we flushed and bled the front brakes. Mission accomplished.

I had a similar problem with an Escort, not everyone is privileged to drive a VW, I bled the brakes and the old fluid was black, it should have been a golden brown colour. More contaminated brake fluid. I think this could be a problem that is often overlooked in the basic servicing of vehicles; the Escort had always been serviced at a main dealer and had only covered 32,000 miles.

The point of my story is to highlight one of the many 'little' things that are often overlooked or forgotten that could cause expensive and dangerous problems if not found early enough, so ask yourself "is your pride and joy getting the care and attention it deserves?"

"When was your brake fluid last changed?"

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