What is involved in changing the brake fluid as listed in the maintenance schedule? Is the fluid bled out of the wheel cylinders/calipers or is there another way? The schedule says to change it every 2 years.
There’s different methods for different vehicles. What do you have?
Apparently it’s a Nissan Versa
There’s a very good chance the shop will use a diaphragm-type brake bleeder, with an adapter for your brake fluid reservoir
Yup
I did an abs bleed on a Ford a couple weeks ago with a scanner. Doing it per instructions replaced the fluid at the same time.
ABS bleed with the scanner means different things on different vehicles
On many vehicles, doing an abs bleed with the scanner doesn’t actually replace the brake fluid
Yeah, I wasn’t expecting to crack a line. The last time I did a bleed all I had to do is activate the function on the scanner. It did it’s own thing and worked great. I don’t know why it worked because I never understood how the air left without opening the system, but it worked so I didn’t much care. On the Ford I just did, it has you open all 4 corners. I was frustrated at first because I didn’t want to do the extra work, but was glad to do it after I got done because it also gave me peace of mind knowing the fluid was all fresh when I was done.
I use a hand held vacuum pump and catch bottle to drain most all the oild fluid out of the master. Pour in new fluid. Bleed farthest to nearest wheel. Let lots of fluid bleed out so you get fresh at the calipers. It usually takes me most of a brand new quart of brake fluid. Always use a fresh, unopened bottle.
If you don’t introduce air at the master, you won’t need to cycle the ABS valves. At least not in my experiences with GM, Ford, Saab and Audi cars
Every two years? That’s very frequent. Was this in the factory manual, or something supplied by your dealer?
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I had [stupid] experience “burping” the brakes on Nissan Altima, where I wanted to replace caliper o-rings, so I used a C-clamp with some rounded jaws to block the rubber hoses and was remanufacturing calipers right in place, one by one. I needed to push it with air via a bleeder to pop the piston. It worked for 3 of them, but 4th one was stuck, so I increased the pressure, but it would not budge… until I managed to “burp” the brakes all the way to the master cylinder 
Surprisingly, once I filled the system, then let it gravity-bleed, and finally force-bleed, it was no air in the system left at all. Brakes were normal.
Out of this experience, I know that Nissan’s ABS system seem not to care if it caught air.
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On Nissan cars I used to own, the factory schedule is 30K miles or 2 years.
Ridiculous waste of time and brake fluid in my opinion, and my 21 year old car with original brake fluid concurs.
If you were driving in Europe, you’d fail inspection.
Brake fluid absorbs water and corrodes the brake system from the inside and should be changed at 3 years or as often as the manufacturer suggests.
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I have never owned a car that had a scheduled brake fluid change. Of course our brake fluid and fuel lines used to rot off after about 8 years.
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Yes the 2018 Versa manual says brake fluid change every 2 years. This is the first car I’ve owned with ABS and the first to require brake fluid changes. The master cylinder has a kind of labyrinth under the fill cap so a hose cannot be inserted to suck fluid out from there. I do have a hand vacuum pump so I’ll try sucking it out from the calipers and slave cylinders.
If this 2018 Versa is still in the warranty period just let the dealer do this service . Why take a chance on messing something up and then not have it covered by the warranty . Also it will be on record that it was done .
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The first cars I ever owned had cast iron or steel parts all throughout the brake system. Everything was a ferrous metal and NO one recommended brake fluid changes, ever.
Brake fluid absorbs water. Those water molecules will work their way in thought vents in the cap and through the rubber brake lines. Once the glycol based brake fluid gets wet, the boiling point drops and it will conduct electricity. That last bit is important.
A few years down the road aluminum started showing up in brake systems along with the steel that was already there. Dissimilar metals in electrical contact with one another create a battery. Old brake fluid conducts electricity and allows that steel in contact with aluminum to form that battery. Galvanic corrosion results. The brake system starts corroding from the INside.
Add ABS units with solenoid valves, tiny passages and more aluminum into the mix and the requirement to change your brake fluid grows more important.
So if your position is “In 50 years of driving, I’ve never done brake fluid changes and I’ve been fine!”
That position is now obsolete. Step into the 21st century and change your brake fluid like the manufacturer recommends.
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And George Burns smoked cigars and lived to 100.
Not everyone is that lucky.
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Remember that one time his date to an event . . . I forget which one, it was a long time ago . . . was Sharon Stone. He was well into his 90s, and she might have been in her late 30s or early 40s, but in any case, she was stunning, in my opinion. Lucky guy, indeed . . .
I’ll bet it boils pretty quickly in heavy use now…
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Just do not use it “heavily” and you gonna be all fine!
It’s only brakes after all, what bad thing can happen?
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