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Our just-purchased 2015 Z51 will be at the dealer for a coolant flush and A8 transmission triple flush soon.
The maintenance schedule calls for brake fluid changes at 72,000 miles or three years. Our car is over on years, but low on miles (13,000). Obviously GM's engineers know more about this than I do, but my old-school feeling is that the car doesn't need this yet. Or does it? What do you all think?
Doesn't matter how many miles are on it, age ruins brake fluid.
I had the same situation as you, I got a 15 in 2019, and I did the rear diff, trans and brake fluid pretty much right away assuming the original owner never did them.
The brake fluid in the reservoir looked a little brown, but holy crap you should have seen what came out of the calipers for the first few pumps while bleeding the system.
It looked like used motor oil, black as all hell and nasty.
I guarantee those nice calipers of yours are filled with black garbage by now. Definitely bleed that factory fluid out, you'll be happy when you see what the first 3 pumps look like.
Plus, remember you have good calipers, so there's two bleeder screws per caliper.
yeah got that on my list as well of to do's for sure, highly doubt its ever been changed since new but the level is up i havent checked the look on it yet though.
but still need to tackle oil change, trans and rear fluid first since I have all the fluids for those currently.
yeah age kills it just as bad as miles and use.
how do they enforce that for people that do their own work?
bring a piece of paper that says "I flushed my brakes"?
Generally speaking there is a tech form to be filled out. Who can sign off on that form various from organization to organization. Sometimes your own signature is good enough while other times they require a shop to sign off on it. Also many organizations have their own tech inspection prior to allowing you out.
Our just-purchased 2015 Z51 will be at the dealer for a coolant flush and A8 transmission triple flush soon.
The maintenance schedule calls for brake fluid changes at 72,000 miles or three years. Our car is over on years, but low on miles (13,000). Obviously GM's engineers know more about this than I do, but my old-school feeling is that the car doesn't need this yet. Or does it? What do you all think?
TIA,
Larry
It should be getting its second brake fluid change by now. Do it.
Brake fluid (and coolant) is far more sensitive to age than mileage. Degradation for brake fluid comes with moisture accumulation, and with pH changes over time due to that moisture accumulation and chemical breakdown of the fluid itself. Old fluid can corrode or damage brake components. Also, the moisture accumulation makes the fluid more compressible and "spongy" feeling.
I tell people that 90% of the "upgrade" you feel when you upgrade the flexible brake hoses to braided stainless (a common performance "upgrade" on many cars, I'm not necessarily talking about Corvettes here), 90% of the "stiffer pedal" you get from the braided stainless hoses is the new fluid you put in the system when you make the change. You get a "stiffer pedal" and better feel for the brakes with fresh fluid, too.
One Porsche group I ran with required your brake fluid to be flushed (not just bled a little) no more than two weeks before the event.
Originally Posted by rtv900
how do they enforce that for people that do their own work?
bring a piece of paper that says "I flushed my brakes"?
Originally Posted by Wicked Weasel
Generally speaking there is a tech form to be filled out. Who can sign off on that form various from organization to organization. Sometimes your own signature is good enough while other times they require a shop to sign off on it. Also many organizations have their own tech inspection prior to allowing you out.
Wicked Weasel got it right. With that particular group, I had a tech inspection sheet that required each item on the list to be initialed by whoever did the work, and the bottom of the form required a signature/stamp/letterhead, showing this was done by a commercial shop.
Only instructors could could inspect and sign off their own cars.
I'm going my method:Turkey Baster.As much I can get out.Refill drive a bit.Back to baster.Done!
I'll let ya know when I have a brake issue..HA,Been doing it for years.
Question: I have the C7 GM manual and it details the sequence of inner and outer bleeders on the 4 corners. All Data shows only corners but no mention of inner & outer bleeders.
I had mine at a GM dealer recently and later I realized the only bleeded the outers.... saves having to remove the wheels. They contend that is all that's needed. I sent them the manual and they dismissed it and the ABS procedure. HACKS!
01-20-2022, 08:24 AM
Brake fluid change?
and the 2019 manual says 3 years. At some point in between GM switched from DOT3 to DOT4.
