3 years / 30k miles - Shop says I need to flush brake and coolant, is this true?

[halligan1201]

It seems early in its life to already need to flush the fluids - but from what little I could find on the forum, one person said the brake fluid can absorb water and yes needs flushing 'regularly'.

Dealer quoted 400$

Maintenance schedule in the owner's manual for my 2021 calls for brake fluid change every 3 years and coolant change every 200,000 miles.

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[ben8jam]

Maintenance schedule in the owner's manual for my 2021 calls for brake fluid change every 3 years and coolant change every 200,000 miles.

Thanks maybe I'm blind - or it's missing from my OG 2019 manual... I'll go check it again.

 

[RedlandRanger]

For earlier 2019s the coolant interval is 100k - later ones it is 200k. In my manual there is no recommendation on brake fluid - that seems to have been added later. 3 years doesn't seem unreasonable to me though.

 

[halligan1201]

Thanks maybe I'm blind - or it's missing from my OG 2019 manual... I'll go check it again.

There's at least 3 versions of the manual depending on your build date. I'm not sure if the maintenance schedule differences are due to Ford addressing issues/oversights or from actual changes in fluids and components. Sounds like probably both.

 

[RedlandRanger]

Thanks maybe I'm blind - or it's missing from my OG 2019 manual... I'll go check it again.

From an early 2019 manual:

From a later one in 2019:

Neither of these I have has a recommendation on Brake fluid though.

 

[Aonarch]

Yes you should replace the brake fluid in ANY car around 3-4 years.

$400??? FUCKING HELL

I'd expect $40 in materials, then an hour of labor.

 

[Aonarch]

Maintenance schedule in the owner's manual for my 2021 calls for brake fluid change every 3 years and coolant change every 200,000 miles.

200k miles is wild.

I'd use coolant test strips every say 20k instead. They are cheap.

 

[NotBudule]

My old truck ,2011 GMC 4x4 had the same fluid in it the entire time i owned it ... never even added any ... same on coolant...

 

[rcairflr]

My 2020 manual (v2) says to change the brake fluid every three years (page 417).

Good catch. I had V1 and did not have any service for brake fluid

 

[DonB]

It seems early in its life to already need to flush the fluids - but from what little I could find on the forum, one person said the brake fluid can absorb water and yes needs flushing 'regularly'.

Dealer quoted 400$

Go by your owners manual.

 

[KNI]

It seems early in its life to already need to flush the fluids - but from what little I could find on the forum, one person said the brake fluid can absorb water and yes needs flushing 'regularly'.

Dealer quoted 400$

Three to five years is good time to flush brake fluids. To pay 400$ for it is ridiculous.

 

[Floyd]

Nope. Not unless you have opened either system and contaminated it in some way

 

[halligan1201]

200k miles is wild.

I'd use coolant test strips every say 20k instead. They are cheap.

Yeah, I'm not comfortable with the 200,000 either.

 

[dtech]

If the dealer recommended those services - seems strange they didn't also pitch a fuel injection cleaning service, that's pretty standard as a way to fatten wallet, make boat/rv payment.

 

[dtech]

My old truck ,2011 GMC 4x4 had the same fluid in it the entire time i owned it ... never even added any ... same on coolant...

I never flush the brake fluid, but bleed out a fair amount when replacing brakes. Live in an area of low relative humidity though. Haven't had to rebuild a brake piston in over a decade, but recollect it wasn't easy to find a rebuild kit back then.

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