Well, I’ve found both my front and rear brakes to be MUCH more responsive since flushing the brake lines… a VERY worthwhile service!
So much so, last weekend I helped the ex-girlfriend do the same to her Harley Sportster (she was going to pay a Harley Dealer $80.00 to do the same thing with her regular Annual Service work. A side story to that too in a bit). In her case she needed DOT 5 fluid. WAY more expensive than my DOT4, but a valuable and worthwhile service. I had taken a peek at her fluid level window for her front brakes and it was BROWN!! Like dark brown. I showed her the window on my bike (nice and clear!!) and offered to do her brakes and save her some money.
So last weekend I did her brakes… Of an interesting note, when I removed the Master Cylinder cover to evacuate the old brake fluid, it turns out the fluid wasn’t all THAT dark. But I still replace and flushed the brakes. The DOT 5 was more purple-ish then the clear fluid I had in my bike, but her view finder window was so dark, it looked like there was still old fluid in it! She also noticed how much better the brakes were after the flushing/service!!
Here is the funny part (NOT!!!). She took her bike into get an oil change and to have everything else checked (an "Annual Service” she would get Harley to do). They called her about an hour later saying that her front brakes needed to be flushed as the fluid was dirty!
She nearly LOST IT with the dealership!!
She asked about the rear brakes and they said that was fine (of course it was)!
She then told them that both were flushed a couple of days ago with NEW DOT 5 fluid while she watched me do it! They insisted it was dirty and would need to be replaced (at $80.00 per brake). She asked them if they were just looking through the inspection window as it is VERY dark or did they actually open the cover. The Service Writer didn’t know for sure, but said he was told by the Tech that there was “bits and pieces of crude in the fluid”. In a nut shell, they could ONLY have looked through the window and NOT actually opened it up because when we got her bike home, I opened it up with her and it was PERFECT inside! NO crude at all (they were told NOT to touch the fluid and they left it alone). She was NOT impressed by this! This is the reason WHY she is now going to do a lot more of the “general” service work herself, including the Oil and Filter change…