Car maintenance is a very important factor in how your car runs.  To ensure the best quality of your vehicle, you need to keep up with the proper maintenance.  There are a few things you should always check on your vehicle every so often: Oil, transmission fluid, power steering fluid, and brake fluid.  These should all be tested regularly to prevent any vehicle damage.  To help start you off, follow the steps for checking your break fluid:

Supplies you’ll need:

- Proper brake fluid
- Brake bleeding kit (vacuum pump)
- Rags
- Drip pan

NOTE:  You will know what kind of brake fluid to get by going to an automotive store and asking, or by looking in your owners manual guide for your car.

  1. First you will want to park your car, turn it off and pop the hood.
  2. Now locate the brake master cylinder.  It is usually found on the driver’s side of the car next to the engine.  (Imagine where your brake pedal is and search in that area.)
  3. There will be a cap which is where the brake fluid is kept.  You will want to take off the cap and get a close look at the color of your brake fluid.  The color of the brake fluid should be a color similar apple juice.  It should never have a brownish or dark color to it.
  4. If you have a dark color to it you will now want to take your vacuum pump and suction all the old fluid out of the master cylinder.
  5. Now put the canister on the pump, (this becomes the reservoir) and drain the master cylinder.
  6. Make sure the tube gets all the way down to the bottom to suck out all the fluids.
  7. Once the canister pump is all the way full you will want to get a rag and be sure to stop pumping. 
  8. Repeat this until all the brake fluid is out of the master cylinder.
  9. Once all the fluid is out, get a rag and wipe down the brake master cylinder.  You will want to get as much dirt off as you can to clean and keep the fluid from getting contaminated.
  10. Now you will want to get the brake fluid and pour it to the line that says “full”. 
  11. You will need to take all the wheels off of your car and get out vacuum pump again.  By each tire there is a bleeder valve.  You will want to take off the cap and suction your vacuum pump to it. 
  12. Now take a wrench and loosen the bleeder value just a tiny bit.
  13. Pump your vacuum pump until all the old brake fluid comes out.  (It will come out dirty and sometimes have air bubbles.)  Give it about 15-20 pumps.
  14. Now you will want to go back to your master cylinder up front and add more fluid since you’ve been draining it.
  15. Repeat this for the other 3 tires.
  16. When the job is completed and you are ready to test drive, you may notice that your pedal will go all the way down to the floor and the ABS light may come on.  You will want to pump the break about 10-15 times and it will firm up.  The ABS light should go off after you turn it off and back on again.  If it doesn’t turn off the first time you will want to unhook your battery (the negative terminal) so that the computer will reset.

NOTE: You should change your car’s brake fluid every 2 years or every 24,000 miles, which ever one comes first.

It may seem like a lot of work but once you do it a couple times you will have it down like that.  By changing the car’s brake fluid you will be saving a ton of money and time by avoiding the shops.  You can also guarantee yourself a great job.  Good luck!