How useful are those car dealer recommended mileage services? New car in at 15K,30K, 45k etc miles. For the high prices, are they really worth what is being paid for?
I follow the manufacturers recommended services at the miles and or months specified. I ignore the dealer’s recommendations.
Are you referring to the services listed in the owners manual?
Stick with only what’s in the Owners Manual, with a couple of additions:
Change the automatic transmission fluid every 30K.
Change the brake fluid every 3 years.
Check the valve lash (if applicable) every 30K.
Agreed. The owner’s manual, not the dealer recommendation, is your guide. Note that all such services need not be performed by the dealer. Any independent shop can handle it, often for less money. Save your records for possible warranty issues.
<font face=“Times” color="Blue>circuitsmith:
Stick with only what’s in the Owners Manual, with a couple of additions:
Change the automatic transmission fluid every 30K.
Change the brake fluid every 3 years.
Check the valve lash (if applicable) every 30K.
I think changing the automatic transmission fluid every 30k miles is excessive, unless you do it yourself and have a lot of time on your hands. Ditto for changing the brake fluid every 3 years.
The owner’s manual is the authority here. However like any authority, it can be wrong at times. But most of the time the owner’s manual is it.
On occasion the manufacturer (Not the dealer) may find out that the original recommendations were wrong and will update them.
For what it’s worth:
Brake fluid contamination can be tested by dip sticks — BrakeStrip™ and StripDip® come to mind. The latter can be purchased at Amazon.com. These particular strips measure copper ion content.
From the manufacturer’s advertising:
“Recent government research conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration confirmed that copper can form deposits around the sealing surfaces of ABS valves, which means your car may take longer to stop in a panic situation. Other research finds that copper levels in the brake fluid are the best indicators that the fluid’s corrosion inhibitors are losing their punch and major corrosion is just around the corner. The Motorist Assurance Program puts the red-flag level of copper ions at 200 parts per million. Anything above, flush.”
A competing set of strips measure water content. Absorbed water lowers the boiling point of brake fluid.
Also, there are boiling point machines that measure the boiling point of brake fluid directly. The devices cost about $300 and up.
Since I’m on a roll here, the “DOT” in DOT 3, DOT 4, etc. simply stands for Department Of Transportation. (I was surprised to learn that.) The nomenclature mainly indicates the increasing boiling points of brake fluid: DOT 3 < DOT 4 < DOT 5 in boiling point. DOT 3 and DOT 4 are polyethylene glycol based and have similar constituents; DOT 5 is silicon based. There also exists a DOT 5.1 which is polyethylene glycol based like DOT 3 & 4.
I change my brake fluid every 60,000-70,000 miles.
“Brake fluid contamination can be tested by dip sticks”
How will that little stick/strip let you know if there’s crud or even water settled down in the low point (calipers) of the system?
When I bleed out the brake it always looks dark and dirty.
Then when the clean, fresh stuff starts to come out it makes me feel good, and that’s all I really care about.
You’ll find many varying opinions on this board about changing oil and other fluids and I don’t think the technical lectures are going to change anyone’s mind.
Since water dissolves well with the brake fluid, I think the strips would work (the ones for water, at least). The dirty brake fluid you see when bleeding the calipers isn’t from extra water down there, it’s because all the rust and dirt settles in the lowest part of the system.
I do wonder about the copper test strips, seemed like an odd thing to test for.
“it’s because all the rust and dirt”
That’s what I meant by ‘crud’.
Yep, your ‘crud’ is my ‘rust and dirt’. Now that I think about it, I would change the brake fluid in the reservoir before I bled the system, because even clean-looking old fluid has water in it.
“I would change the brake fluid in the reservoir before I bled the system”
Always. Brand new fluid from top to bottom.
“I do wonder about the copper test strips, seemed like an odd thing to test for.”
If you have copper lines, it makes sense. It doesn’t make any sense if your brake lines are stainless steel.