Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General Dark Brake Fluid?

What type of brake fluid came from the factory on my '00 SVT Contour? The fluid has always been dark, but I checked it yesterday and it looks real dark. I have 25k miles on it. Should this be flushed?

Thanks

Henry

'00 SVT Contour
'78 308 GTS
'89 Katana 600

yes

ditto: yes. You can flush it yourself, but the antilock portion will not get clean juice if you do... unless you do it all around and then when it's raining or such make the antilock system do some work. You'll know when the system is working Then redo all the wheels... I'd wait to redo them a couple of weeks and make sure you excercise those antilock systems in between.
In my opinion, if you have a grease monkey do it, they may not do the antilock system as they would need the right codes and the right equipement to flush the antilock portion... My bet would be they would SAY they did 'em and would just ignore it.
The antilock parts are VERY expensive to replace, so clean brake fluid is the only preventive measure. I do mine every year, flush all the old stuff out of the main parts and let nature kick the new fluid into the antilock portion when it snows or rains.

Ah heck. Just jump on the brakes from 70mph. The ABS will kick in...

For fluid I recommend Valvoline SynPower or a good Dot 4 like Ford or Castrol Lima.

I've got 57K on my break fluid... never knew I was to have it flushed...

I guess it's way past due? ooops

Maybe they flushed it when I had them checked at the dealership. Probably not knowing them...

Why doesn't the booklet that came with the car state when you need to have this done? Oh, that's right... they want to continue making money off of us...

Duh!
Eurythmian

See, here's the odd thing about all this:

My mom's 95 LX has over 105K miles on it now, and the brake fluid has never been changed... ever! But the ABS is still as good as ever, even with the snowy Colorado mountains.

I talked to my dad about it, and he said it was fine. I'm changing mine this summer.

My advice is...change it now!

I bought my tour last feb. (with 85K) and during the summer found out the hard way that the ABS didn't work (didn't break anything luckely), anyway took it to Ford and the ABS pump is shot, you gussed it, bad fluid. Turns out that a new pump is something like 1500 (canadian). Needless to say I won't be tailgating

Do it now, before its too late.

So tell me, how do you flush your break fluid?

I don't have ABS on my car.

Eurythmian