Brake Fluid Flush?

[BlueforMonaco]

After my two year service at my local dealer, I checked for brake fluid at the bleeder screws - all four totally dry! Really makes you wonder if they're changing the oil either. Has anyone asked the dealer for the maintinence fluids, filter, etc. so they can just do it themselves? It's too bad we don't have an option to exclude this bogus service when we buy our car. Extended maintenance plan? - I don't think so.

[1speedbike]

I didn't opt for the extended maintenance plan, just extended warranty. I know they change the oil once a year, but no more. For the brake fluid, I think they only change it when you do a full brake service. They pretty much call everything but the oil "lifetime" fluid, including the tranny and power steering fluid, so that they never have to replace it for you for free.

I haven't changed either of those at all in the close to 60K miles I've had the car, except for the power steering fluid VERY recently (like 50-55K miles) after I got vibrations while turning at low speed. It's held up fine, and BMW says it's fine, but in the back of my head I'm still skeptical.

I only got the brake fluid changed once, with the brake pads, since I never track the car except one autocross I did while still under the factory warranty. I'm about to change it again to the ATE super blue (yeah, mixed reviews based on this forum, but fine if the worst I'll do in the near future is an autoX) and I suspect I'd last another 2ish years with that.

However, dry brake bleeder screws? WTF man. I'd go complain, see if I could get some compensation out of that. It's YOUR car they're messing around with. Whether you're leasing or not (I don't know, hah), if it's YOUR car, they have reason to be angry. If it's a lease, it'll become a CPO car, and it's on them when the new owner comes to them with messed up brakes because they didn't service it right. Either way, it's better for them to do it right, and it's just negligence if they don't.

Don't know what the OEM fluid is, but it can't be far in price from other brake fluids. I'd suggest just picking up an "upgrade" like Castrol SRF, Motul 600 or 660, or even the ATE super blue I use if you're not tracking a lot. For the power steering, the OEM fluid is CHF 11S in the green container. BMW sells your their own in-house oil for the engine, but you can also use any of the approved oils. Check it out here: http://www.bmwusa.com/standard/conte...ngineoils.aspx They're mostly full synthetic Euro blend oils, though their own oil is only a synthetic blend. I also think the tranny fluid is Redline D6, and the gear oil for manual is MTF-LT3. It's probably better to do this all on your own anyway, but good luck

[dtwyim]

I just had the brake fluid flush by the dealer during the final service. I didn't notice the brake pedal being any stiffer than before the flush. Other than looking at the 4 bleeder valves, is there anything I can look for in the reservoir that can confirm the flush was done? (I drove thru some pretty heavy rain and any fluid would have been gone by now)

Thanks

[bmw1racer]

Originally Posted by BlueforMonaco

After my two year service at my local dealer, I checked for brake fluid at the bleeder screws - all four totally dry! Really makes you wonder if they're changing the oil either.

What makes you so sure that they didn't do the maintenance?

They could've (and should have) cleaned up everything after performing those tasks...

Just sayin'...

[JimD]

My dealer said they changed the brake fluid at the 2 year service. I think this is bmw's current guidance. I changed it once too. It's quite easy to do if you have a pressure bleeder. I don't but I gave my son one and I can borrow it.

Jim