Hi everyone,

I haven't replaced my brake and clutch fluid since I bought the car (it's an '07). I will be doing this soon but I wanted to check with you experienced folks on damages to look for as a result of not replacing the fluid. That is, since the fluid has never been changed, what should I check for like leaking fluid, damage to the master/slave cylinders, degraded seals, etc. As far as I can tell, the fluid levels are fine, so hopefully no leaks or damages to seals. However, I see a bit of small black specs around the top of the fluid level on my clutch fluid reservoir though. I'm guessing this is mold? Thanks in advance.

 

You'll know when your cylinders die.

Just change the oil.

 

Thanks. I am going to change the brake and clutch fluids. I just wanted to know what to look for in terms of damage so I can change the damaged parts (hopefully none) now while doing the brake and clutch fluid changes.

 

How do I check for damage on the brake system? I'm worried it might fail on me. Do I need to replace the brake master cylinder and the calipers? The car is an '07 with about 26k miles and has been tracked once. Brake and clutch fluids have not been changed.

 

This is not a chevy man. You bought a honda, stop worrying. I replaced the clutch master and slave on an 01 with 150k miles the other day that still had the original fluid in them. The master had just started leaking a bit. I changed both for the guy just as a precautionary measure. Change the brake fluid when you do the brakes, or if you track a lot maybe a bleed or two between pad changes. If there not leaking there fine.

 

Thanks. Just checked. It looks like the fluid is between min and max. Do they come like that from the factory or is it supposed to be at the max line?

 

Maybe lower brake pads.

 

I neglected my RSX-S. I think I went about 8 years before changing the brake fluid. The front left caliper started to drag and I prematurely killed a set of brake pads. (They had over 50k miles, so it wasn't that bad.) I swapped the caliper with a rebuilt one and now the it's fine. 16k miles no problems.

 

Hey Dwight, how many miles did you have in those 8 years?

 

The brake problem was noticed at 128k.