The $8 tramp stamp that exposed my brake fluid lie

Last month I pulled the wheels off my 2006 Civic to do a brake job and noticed the fluid in the reservoir looked like iced tea, not golden. I knew I'd topped it off 2 years ago but figured it was fine. So I grabbed a $8 brake fluid tester pen from AutoZone and it flashed green, meaning under 3% water. But then I checked the DOT rating stamped on the cap and realized I'd been adding DOT 5 instead of the DOT 4 the system needs, silicone vs glycol mix. That little detail sent me down a rabbit hole and now I'm flushing the entire system this weekend. Anyone else discover a cheap tester that caught a dumb mistake you'd been making for years?

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joel_singh842d ago

That iced tea color is honestly a huge tell. I had a similar thing on my old Subaru where the fluid looked like maple syrup and the tester was the only reason I caught it before the master cylinder gave up. Youre smart to flush the whole system instead of just siphoning the reservoir, because that silicone DOT 5 likes to cling to the inside of the lines in little globs. Running a full liter of fresh DOT 4 through each bleeder screw until it comes out crystal clear is the only way to be sure you got it all out.