I own a 2018 Street Twin that I have had for 2 years now and 6,500 miles. The owners manual says to replace the brake fluid every 2 years regardless of mileage. Every 2 years seems quite ridiculous. Can anyone offer an explanation of why so often.
Being hygroscopic means the boiling point of the brake fluid is lowered. Fluid boiling i.e. adding heat due to extended application turns contained water vapour to steam, meaning that the previously non-compressible fluid now turns into a very compressible gas. This leads to a soggy lever or pedal. Every two years sounds excessive but a line needs to be drawn somewhere. The dealers would like to alleviate you of your cash but obviously in the name of welfare for your safety!
Easy enough to change brake fluid on most older vehicles, but the possible snag is not being able to purge the ABS modulator of old and contaminated fluid without access to the dealer diagnostics tool to open the the unit's valves and pump/flush through. Apparently it runs a purge cycle in diagnostics. Having seen what contaminated fluid did to a mate's ABS on his Mondeo after it was neglected, and the bill that came after, you've got to get the old fluid out of the whole system regularly or corrosion might get you. Just topping up the master cylinder and pumping out the old stuff from the cylinders and brake lines won't do it by all accounts. If there's a way round the diagnostics route, I haven't found it yet. Any ideas? A fifty quid job in a main dealership if the worst comes to the worst, so not too bad. Not sure how non main dealers manage. One of the things I've been looking into since returning to biking.
Every two years seem excessive, but think every bike/car manufacturers interval is two years. Really grinds my gears when the stealership want to charge £50, to put £3 of brake fluid in your bike. I just do my speed triple the normal way, but apparently (don't quote me) if you then ride the bike, and brake to activate the abs, this will pump fresh fluid through abs system. Alternatively you could buy 'dealer tool' as I have done http://dealertoolcouk.ipage.com/ Which you can use to flush abs system, I've recently bought it and will be doing a video on how to do it soon. https://www.youtube.com/user/topbanana0 Ps I've got a 6 year old car with 160,000 mile which has never had new brake fluid.
The Dealertool device looks to be the answer, although their website hasn't been updated since 2016, so whether it'll work with the very latest models would have to be confirmed, software/firmware being notorious for subtle changes and updates that can cause havoc.........another hobby of mine - don't ask! My bike's still a couple of years away from needing any work like this so not overly worried at the moment. I only ride in the good weather these days and the machine's stored in a heated and dry environment - the brake system shouldn't be exposed to humidity as badly as some bikes will be. Look forward to seeing your video of the process when you get the chance.
Yeah I found the web site a bit difficult to understand, so was unsure if it would work on my bike (2016 speed triple) I emailed them to check, they were very quick to reply, and they guaranteed it would work. So just drop them an email
