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Car Forum / Driving, Maintenance, Tuning / Maintenance and Repair / February 2005what is the expiration date for brake fluid?
what is the expiration date for brake fluid? i found an opened prestone brake fluid bottle, with unused portion in my garage. It's been over 2 years since it had been opened and only a tiny amount had been used. > what is the expiration date for brake fluid? i found an opened prestone > brake fluid bottle, with unused portion in my garage. It's been over 2 > years since it had been opened and only a tiny amount had been used. Brake fluid is extremely hygroscopic (absorbs moisture from the atmosphere). Once the factory seal is broken, it begins getting wet. Suggest you dispose of this 2-year-old fluid in a safe and approved manner and go buy new. >> what is the expiration date for brake fluid? i found an opened prestone >> brake fluid bottle, with unused portion in my garage. It's been over 2 [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] >Suggest you dispose of this 2-year-old fluid in a safe and approved manner >and go buy new. when i need to top up the brakes, i go buy a new bottle. i never use an old one. after two top-ups, the front brakes need pads anyway so i get that done. using old brake fluid is false economy. ...thehick Don't you then cause an awful mess when you put the pads in and the fluid pukes out all over the engine bay stripping paint and eating up fuse panels??... In my experience, if the MC needs topping up, the pads need changing. There should never be a need for adding brake fluid unless you are bleeding the system or changing hydraulic parts. Mike 86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's > >> what is the expiration date for brake fluid? i found an opened prestone > >> brake fluid bottle, with unused portion in my garage. It's been over 2 [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > fluid is false economy. > ...thehick > what is the expiration date for brake fluid? i found an opened prestone > brake fluid bottle, with unused portion in my garage. It's been over 2 > years since it had been opened and only a tiny amount had been used. I don't like to keep brake fluid in a container that's been opened (even if it's tightly sealed) for more than a couple weeks. It's extremely hygroscopic and probably has absorbed a decent amount of water. That's why, incidentally, it comes in such small containers. nate  Signaturereplace "fly" with "com" to reply. http://home.comcast.net/~njnagel > I don't like to keep brake fluid in a container that's > been opened (even if it's tightly sealed) for more than > a couple weeks. It's extremely hygroscopic and probably > has absorbed a decent amount of water. That's why, > incidentally, it comes in such small containers. Isn't it OK to still use an opened bottle of brake fluid if the fluid is still the original light color? I've found that it turns very dark in my master cylinder's unsealed plastic reservior after just 3-6 months of absorbing humidity, even during the warmer months here in Phoenix. OTOH it stays its original light color in the bottle, even years after the bottle was first opened. > I've found that it turns very dark > in my master cylinder's unsealed plastic reservior after just 3-6 > months of absorbing humidity, even during the warmer months here in > Phoenix. OTOH it stays its original light color in the bottle, even > years after the bottle was first opened. Somewhere I read a study that concluded it changes color from chardonnay to burgundy because of miniscule bits of rubber and so forth, not because of water. (This seems consistent with the drift of fine sediment to be found at the bottom of the reservoir -- which I carefully suck up with the Mityvac when changing brake fluid, rather than risk dragging it through the system.) Of course, by that time it's probably got a fair bit of water in it too. As a crosscheck, I just scrounged up an opened container from the back of the garage and sacrificed a little of the contents to science. When mixed with water (a roughly equal volume of water, not the few percent that it absorbs from the air in just a few years' service) it turned milky and translucent, not reddish-brown like the stuff in my waste bottle tht came out of cars. Run-of-the-mill DOT 3 and 4 brake fluid (as opposed to exotica bought by racers) is pretty cheap relative to how little you need, so there's little reason to keep old dribs and drabs around -- though the keen-witted may have inferred from the previous paragraph that I'd done exactly that. Do not use silicone-based (DOT 5) brake fluid unless you really know what you are doing and have a good reason (racing, usually) for doing it. This stuff is incompatible with glycol-based DOT 3 and 4 brake fluid. Dirty or old brake fluid is supposed to be saved up in a sealed container until you can get it to the household hazardous waste facility. (That's the procedure for consumers, of course, not mechanics disposing of it in the course of their business.) Don't mix it with motor oil, antifreeze, or other substances that might have a shot at recycling rather than disposal. Cheers, --Joe > > I've found that it turns very dark in my master > > cylinder's unsealed plastic reservior after just 3-6 [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] > translucent, not reddish-brown like the stuff in my waste > bottle that came out of cars. It's possible that the brake fluid in my plastic reservior turned dark because of the two rubber seals between it and the master cylinder, but on an older car with an airtight metal reservior, the fluid came out came out clear after a year (I siphoned some out so it wouldn't spill when I changed the brake shoes and pads), and I'm sure that this fluid was exposed more to rubber than was the fluid in the plastic reservior because the former reservior's metal lid had a rubber liner that was definitely wet with brake fluid. > what is the expiration date for brake fluid? i found an opened prestone > brake fluid bottle, with unused portion in my garage. It's been over 2 > years since it had been opened and only a tiny amount had been used. Depends > DOT 3 & 4 (most common) are polyglycol based = hygroscopic = attracts/absorbs moisture/contaminates i.e. it protects brake components from corrosion! This stuff will even absorb moisture through the rubber hoses! This is the reason that we use > http://www.motodepot.com < their DOT 5.1 and recommend a complete fluid (flush) r/r every 2 years or 20,000 miles which ever comes 1st!!! So, the answer is NO the fluid in question is with out a doubt contaminated and therefore should be disposed of in the proper manner SignatureBBA ??? BBA's RC Site - http://www.billybadassrc.com When Privacy Matters -- http://www.epic.org > reason that we use > http://www.motodepot.com < their DOT 5.1 and recommend a oops > wrong site < here's the one >> http://www.motul.com > So, the answer is NO the fluid in question is with out a doubt contaminated and > therefore should be disposed of in the proper manner On Sun, 20 Feb 2005, Billy Bad Assr wrote: > DOT 3 & 4 (most common) are polyglycol based = hygroscopic > attracts/absorbs moisture/contaminates i.e. it protects brake components > from corrosion! This stuff will even absorb moisture through the rubber > hoses! This is the reason that we use Motul's DOT 5.1 and recommend a > complete fluid (flush) r/r every 2 years or 20,000 miles which ever > comes 1st!!! Wagner's DOT 5.1 is more available and less expensive. Once opened, the extra is garbage. There also should be no need to top it up between brake pad changes. If the fluid is to the 'add' mark, then the pads are worn out and when new pads are installed, the fluid will come back up to the 'full' mark. If you add fluid between brake pad changes, then the added stuff will just pour out all over your engine bay and firewall peeling paint and destroying things like fuse panels if they are anywhere close when you do the brakes. Mike 86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's > what is the expiration date for brake fluid? i found an opened prestone > brake fluid bottle, with unused portion in my garage. It's been over 2 > years since it had been opened and only a tiny amount had been used. When replacing pads on a vehicle with an ABS system, one should ALWAYS open a bleeder screw when pressing the pads back in, so as not to contaminate the ABS unit with pieces of rubber debris from the seals. So this shouldn't happen. I'd even go so far as to say that you should be completely flushing the system with every pad change if not sooner to preserve the calipers and master cylinder. nate > Once opened, the extra is garbage. > [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > > brake fluid bottle, with unused portion in my garage. It's been over 2 > > years since it had been opened and only a tiny amount had been used. > Once opened, the extra is garbage. Not really. As long as it's capped, it will store just fine. > There also should be no need to top it up between brake pad changes. If > the fluid is to the 'add' mark, then the pads are worn out and when new > pads are installed, the fluid will come back up to the 'full' mark. The whole point of a reservoir is to have fluid in reserve. Lines leak, hoses leak, wheel cylinders leak, the fluid in reserve is there to cover these contingencies. IIRC, there is a specification that the MC reservoir has to be XX percent of the total system capacity. > If you add fluid between brake pad changes, then the added stuff will > just pour out all over your engine bay and firewall peeling paint and > destroying things like fuse panels if they are anywhere close when you > do the brakes. Anyone doing brake work should be able to afford $1.00 for a Turkey baster to suck down the master cylinder level before the pads are retracted. > > Once opened, the extra is garbage. > > Not really. As long as it's capped, it will store just fine. Wrong answer, sorry.... Brake fluid is hydroscopic and once the seal is broken the unused part will get contaminated with some amounts of water either from carelessness or from the humidity in the air so as a very good general rule, the left over is garbage period. There is no way to tell by looking at it if it is still safe and there are no dates on the bottles, therefore none is safe once opened. Your life and other's lives depend on that fluid being 100% good. This is a world wide forum and sure 'maybe' a tight seal can be made on the bottle and maybe you live in the Desert with 0 humidity, but most of us can't and don't. Mike 86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's > > > Once opened, the extra is garbage. > > [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > carelessness or from the humidity in the air so as a very good general > rule, the left over is garbage period. You're supposing that the little tin anti-tamper seal has some undefined power to restrain moisture that the rest of the bottle and cap do not have, that's not so. I have yet to see a warning on any bottle of brake fluid that says to discard the remainder once the top has been removed. If things were as you claim, certainly (given the liability involved) there would be such a warning. > There is no way to tell by looking at it if it is still safe and there > are no dates on the bottles, therefore none is safe once opened. Your > life and other's lives depend on that fluid being 100% good. Actually, there is a way. Is the cap on tight? And you're right, there is no expiration date, just a warning to keep the bottle sealed up properly. Properly being the key word. > This is a world wide forum and sure 'maybe' a tight seal can be made on > the bottle and maybe you live in the Desert with 0 humidity, but most of > us can't and don't. Then I'm sure that there are others out there in this world wide forum that have seen brake fluid supplied in 5 gallon pails. 5 gallon pails of brake fluid have been in use for as long as I can remember, they take a while to go through for a moderate sized shop, there is no wholesale brake failures as a result. A sealed container is not the same thing as a just opened virgin container. |
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