Car Fluids

Recently when having an oil change the Chrysler dealer told me that I should have my fluids changed since the car had 30K miles. This included brake, power, water and transmission. I didn’t realize that all fluids needed to be changed. Is this true?

Check your owner’s manual for fluid change recommendations. I doubt it recommends brake fluid, but I could be wrong. I would wait until your next brake job for that.

Even though it’s not often in the manual, replacing the transmission, brake fluid, and coolant every 30k is a good idea if you plan to own your car for a good number of years. If you sell every, say, 5 years, then just follow the manual. I would find a good independent shop to do it, though, it’ll cost much less than the dealer. Use the mechanic finder under ‘actual car info’, above.

If it is not listed in the owner’s manual, it does not NEED to be changed, but it may be a good idea. That is up to you.

 [b] power, water[/b]  What is power?  What water?  There should not be any water than needs replaced.  Replacing the radiator fluid (AKA coolant) should be replaced as scheduled. Water pump should be changed as recommended or when you are taking things apart and it is easy to replace the water pump, save the cost of disassembling the engine later when the pump does need to be replaced. 

Most fluid doe need to be replaced.  Take the brake fluid for example.  Water can end up in there and when you hit the brakes hard, it can heat the water, change it to steam and you can't stop the car with steam.  

Over all I suggest following the owner's manual recommendations plus draining the refilling the transmission fluid as well as cleaning the filter about every 30,000 miles.

Check and live by your owner’s manual for fluid changes. Don’t go back to this dealer. They are lying and ripping you off. Try another dealership or a good local mechanic.

Go by the ‘severe service’ schedule in the manual.

If your car has “HOAT” coolant (the pink stuff, not green), the recommendation is 5 years or 100K miles I think. I would personally change it at 50K or 5 years though. If the green stuff, it’s overdue. Transmission fluid should be changed every 35-40K I would say. Probably you could wait to change the power steering fluid and brake fluid to at least 50K or so.