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My brakes instructor told showed us this brake fluid tester last class and gave a pretty good demonstration. It measures the percentage of copper in the brake fluid with just a click of a button. 2% copper or less in the fluid is good.
He gave a really good argument about this tool paying for itself after selling just one brake fluid flush. The results are indisputable and instant. He even demonstrated testing brand new brake fluid vs. a random shop car.
By showing the customer that you are actually not BS’ing them and that they actually need a brake flush, a technician or shop could greatly increase profit by selling more brake fluid flushes.
and yes, I am getting one.
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They also sell test strips. 🙂
I thought it measured the moisture content of the brake fluid and 3% or greater means the fluid should be flushed. They make one for copper?
Would seem to me moisture would be the most worrisome. The boiling point of the fluid drop rapidly with just a small amount of moisture. Don’t know about the silicon stuff but the ‘normal’ stuff sucks it right outta the air.
I used to love to see that gallon can at the local service station with the vent hole in it so it would pour without chugging.
Someone explain how the copper might/will damage the ABS. Or is this one of those asteroid hitting the earth mights that people hawking stuff use?
the main effects of copper in the brake fluid are: lower boiling point and higher freezing point… essentially turning your DOT3 into DOT1.
Penrite Super DOT4 all the way !
I have a fluid tester and when cars come in with brake fluid I’m not a custom to such as blue or green fluid and I want to check if its still good then I use my tester best $14 I ever spent.Just compared a $30 pen tester to the strips. I checked the most foulest brake fluid I have ever seen. The pen tester read >2% but the strip reported a dark purple which means “change immediately”. I don’t know about you but I trust the chemical strips more than I trust the electronic pens. All the studies I’ve read have found evidence that the pens are unreliable and downright dangerous. Here’s an example of one such article by an independent laboratory.
Save your money and just replace your brake fluid every 2-3 years.It’s still BS’ing them, just using a tool to do so. Major auto manufacturers do not advocate such tests, rather it was the AMRA which is comprised of parties with a vested interest in brake fluid change profits, people from Monro Muffler and Brake, Goodyear, Just Brakes, Jiffy Lube, Midas, Pep Boys, etc.
The fact is that modern braking systems are fairly sealed and don’t need fluid changes often at all. The typical system can go 100K mi or over 10 years on the factory fluid. It’s cheating customers to flush the fluid based on copper content if there is no indication of spongy braking.
Typically brake component problems significant enough to cost more than regular brake fluid changes would be replacing the hard lines because they rusted from the outside.
The average person who doesn’t regularly change their fluids is in the vast majority and there is no brake fluid epidemic ongoing. It’s a scam until you have evidence of a brake system failure and at that point it makes sense to flush the lines.
All the above assumes passenger vehicles on public roads, driven sanely. If you are a driving it like you stole it, you’re going to wear everything out faster, brake system included and will have a lot more repair expenses than everyone else.
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