Greetings all
My 2005 Outback XT is about due for a 30,000 mile tune up. Among the items Subaru wants to attend to is changing the brake fluid. I have never had that done before, at the 30,000 tune up, on any other car I've owned before. Is that really necessary? They also want to change the transmission fluid and radiator fluid. What do you think?
Thank you for your input.
Franklin

Brake fluid (except silicone) absorbs moisture and therefore lowers the boiling point of the fluid. With much hard braking, the fluid boils and you have no brakes. Even with no hard braking, the moisture makes the fluid corrosive and your brake lines and calipers can corrode.

With performance driving, you change the fluid at least once a year and racers bleed before every race, if not a complete flush.

Radiator should be flushed every 2 years if not using 5 year fluid. I don't know the reliability of 5 year fluid yet. The corrosion inhibitors "wear out" and need to be replaced.

I'm not sure why transmission fluid needs to be changed. Can't hurt though.

i changed my wrx 5-spd transmission fluid & rear diff at ~32,000 miles. it was still golden and clean. but why not do it to make sure?

fuel filter should be done at 30k.

i also had my coolant changed at 30k.

I change my tranny and diff fluids every year when summer ends.

Probably overkill, but since I do it myself, it's definately cheaper than new diffs or gears.

BTW, my tranny has never made grinding noises, so maybe I'm onto something.

yeah just do what they said

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=995498

With ABS brakes, plus the sometimes rainy climate you get in Florida, I would not wait any longer that 30K.

I have never changed brake fluid, fuel filters, and coolant in that short of a time period and never experienced any problems. Though my experience is all with hondas. My girlfriends civic is an '02 with 118k on it. Never replaced the fuel filter or the brake fluid. Coolant was possibly done when i had the time belt service at 105K. My parents '99 V6 accords both are on original fuel filters and brake fluid. I think 30k replacement of those items is not really needed except for brake fluid if you have a track car.

I think the other thing flushing the brake fluid does is it removes some of the crud (rust etc) that accumulates in the wheel cylinder.

You can use this as an excuse to buy a motive products power bleeder.