Eurol Lubricants | Brake fluids

What is a brake fluid?

Brake fluid is a liquid that helps to ensure that when you depress your brake pedal, the brakes move and the vehicle actually slows down. Good brake fluid is essential. Without brake fluid, the brakes on your car, bus, motorcycle, or truck will not work. It also helps to lubricate the brakes and to prevent rust formation in the brake system.

Changing the brake fluid

You should change your brake fluid regularly. Brake fluid attracts moisture. If the moisture content in the brake fluid increases, the boiling point, and the effectiveness, of the brake fluid will fall. This is why it’s so important to change your brake fluid once or twice a year.

To see whether your brake fluid needs changing, you can check the colour of your brake fluid. Brake fluid is usually bright yellow in colour. If the brake fluid turns brown or black, it’s probably time for a change.

Topping up brake fluid

How do you top up brake fluid? It’s very important to change your brake fluid once or twice a year and to top it up, especially if your brake fluid lamp comes on. This helps to ensure that your brakes continue to work properly. You can have someone top up your brake fluid for you, but you can also do it yourself. If you’ve decided to do it yourself, it’s important that you know how. We’ll explain.

The first thing you need to do is determine which brake fluid you need. This is important as you need to add the right brake fluid to your vehicle. You can use our Oil Advisor to find out which brake fluid your car needs. Once you’ve worked out which one you need, you can start looking for the brake fluid reservoir. This is usually somewhere near the steering, close to the brake pedal. You can identify it from its white colour.

Once you’ve found the brake fluid reservoir, you can check the brake fluid by opening the cap. If the brake fluid is brown or black, it’s a good idea to change it. It’s also a good idea to top up your brake fluid if the reservoir is not filled to maximum Before doing this, it’s extremely important to work out the cause for your brake fluid not being filled to maximum. There’s every chance that there’s a leak. It’s also important to make sure that the brake fluid is not filled to beyond maximum. It mustn’t run out of the reservoir, as this can cause damage.

The easiest way to top up your brake fluid is from an unopened bottle. This is recommend because it’s the best way of ensuring that your brake fluid has the highest possible boiling point. Having the highest possible boiling point is important because when you brake, your brake fluid will be exposed to extremely high temperatures. If the temperature of your brake fluid is too low, the brakes will have reduced power, which will increase your braking distance.

It’s also important that you’re not lubricating any other parts while changing or topping up your brake fluid. Make sure to have some cloths nearby as there’s always the chance of you accidentally spilling some brake fluid while topping up.

In a nutshell, checking, changing, and topping up your brake fluid are essential to ensuring that your brakes work properly.

Types of brake fluid

Brake fluid is available in different varieties. These are DOT 3, DOT 4, and DOT 5.1. The DOT coding represents the boiling point of the brake fluid. The higher the DOT number, the higher the boiling point of the brake fluid.

Which brake fluid?

Want to know which brake fluid you need for your vehicle? Consult our Oil Advisor and enter your registration number for advice on the brake fluid that you need to use, or see your vehicle’s maintenance logbook. Make sure to check which brake fluid you need so that you don’t top up your brake fluid reservoir with the wrong brake fluid. If you do, the boiling point of your brake fluid will fall and your braking distance will increase.

Location settings

What is a brake fluid?

Changing the brake fluid

Topping up brake fluid

Types of brake fluid

Which brake fluid?