2007 Prius - To Flush or Not to Flush Brake Fluid

You might be thinking of this page by hobbit, which describes the test strips about 1/3 of the way down the page. Those were from Phoenix Systems, as you say. Per his description, they seem to test for dissolved copper, and some evidence was gathered that that's a particularly good test. There may have been earlier/other strips that simply indicated water content. If I buy some, which I probably will at some point, I'll probably go with the Phoenix.

-Chap

 

I suggest both of you consider flushing your brake fluid. "Any car" that has the original brake fluid 8 or 11 years exceeds any service duty cycle. While it's likely neither of you will heed this advise, know this friendly comes from someone who has worked on cars, aircraft and most every common machine out there for decades...and still does. In fact, the safety of the flying public is in my hands every day.

Respectfully, the question was asked and has been answered.

 

The car we are talking about here is the Prius, not some super car that requires to stop going 150 mph.

The pros for changing fluid in a Prius.

1. The fluid gets changed

The cons for changing fluid in a Prius

1. You can contribute to ruining a $1000 part, which the dealer will quote $4000 to fix.

So you decide which is best for you.

 

Same subject just happened to come up recently in another thread: here you go.

That thread is Gen 3-specific. In Gen 3 it matters to keep the words actuator and accumulator straight, because in Gen 3 those are two separate parts, and the concern is actually the longevity of the accumulator.

For your Gen 2 the distinction is less important, because you only have one replaceable assembly that combines those two parts.

That discussion avoids the other issue of possible outright mistakes during the process, like letting air get sucked in while replacing, which can turn a simple procedure into a complicated one. Toyota provides a Techstream procedure for a complete system bleed, but it isn't clear whether even they are convinced it always succeeds. In their Gen 3 recall campaign for the sometimes-failing-too-early accumulator, they had a rule that if any of the nitrogen had already escaped into the actuator, to just unconditionally replace that too, not to try to bleed it.

-Chap

 

So there you have it. Preventative maintenance, reactive maintenance (wait until it brakes), afraid to do maintenance (I heard it might break) and cheaping out. My signature below says it all...and I earned that "Top Wrench" title by the way.

I will leave you folks to it now, because this is like an "oil thread"...and I should've known better. Best wishes sdrocker. I further suggest, if not already done, you have the transmission drain and fill and have both coolants replaced. Those are not lifetime fluids either.

Peace Out.

 

I think the argument is "if cost is not a factor", you should always replace your brake fluid every 3 years or so. Just as preventive maintenance.

 

So, i live at Finland where there is 4 seasons. We change our brake fluids every 2 years. Still even if i live at one season coutry i would follow that. Just to make sure that fluid is good for ABS. Brake fluid change every two years cant be too much but buying few cases of beer is ok for example

 

Flush it!
Bleed air from the system.

Flush every 2 or 3 years to minimize the amount of moisture in your brake system.
Toyota OEM fluid is fine, or use top quality fluid...noting the dry and wet boiling points and DOT rating.

Following the Toyota maintenance schedule is good practice.

Yes, you can test with special stripes of paper you soak into the current fluid...but I would just change the fluid instead of testing based on fluid age.

 

I have not changed any of the fluid on my gen 2 cars in California and I have not noticed any braking issues. . Here are some examples

1. 2006 with 266k miles
2. 2005 with 207k miles
3. 2005 with 211k miles
4. 2005 with 173k miles

All working properly with no issues

 

I think it's trickier replacing gen 2 brake fluid. Gen 3 Repair Manual has a specific instruction for changing without Techstream, by just putting the car in "invalid" mode. It is sanctioned. I've done it, no problems.

Gen 2 OTOH, has only an instruction with Techstream. I'll attach the gen 2 instruction.

Regarding "to change or not to change": Toyota Canada recommends every 3 years or 48K km's (30K miles), for all their vehicles. Since maybe 2012 model year?

Maybe ask a dealership how much they'd charge, are they experienced with second gen brake fluid change, and let them know you can supply them with brake fluid; perhaps that'll reduce the cost?

A typical vehicle, it's $100~200 to have a dealership do it, my experience. A bit of caution: the last pro brake fluid change I had done, they misplaced most of the bleed screw caps, AND managed to leave one rear brake completely inoperative. I'm thinking they had an intern mechanic do it, something like that. A return visit rectified everything, and they did a test drive after.

 

Two pints is a quart, 16x2=32 oz. You have more, at 12x4=48 oz. OTOH I hope I'm not having a brain bubble about the Toyota fluid I got being pints (aka 16 oz and 473 ml): I recently got some Honda brake fluid, and it was 12 oz. of course translated to some incomprehensible ml measure, like everything up here.

Bottom line: I think you have plenty. For me the big concern would be is this DIYable? It seems like going from 2nd to 3rd gen they smartened up a bit, made the process more friendly and doable.

It'd be nice to find a DIY video for second gen, before diving in.

Again, low hanging fruit would be to first price it out, having it done through dealership.