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Brake Fluid and metal cans

O

OleBoy

Charter Member 2015
Word of warning, never, EVER keep brake fluid in metal cans. Why? They draw moisture inside. I knew this.

Now the rest of the story.

Here about two months ago it was time for the 3 month checks and services on our vehicles. Like normal I checked all the fluids, brakes wipers, tires, etc, etc. All the vehicles were fine except my wife's car. It was abnormally low on brake fluid. I jacked it up and had a peek at all the fluid connections. Strange, no apparent leaks anywhere. Without another thought I went to my cabinet and got the brake fluid. DOT3, in a handy 1 gallon metal can that has a nifty hose, and pump mechanism. I opened the master cylinder cap, topped it off, and put the cap back on. Easy enough. I let the wife know to check it maybe once a week. ALL FINISHED!

Prior to Christmas my wife called and said the brake pedal in the car went right to the floor when she stopped. My thought, HUH? Not good. Being as she was in town I told her to take it to the LES SCHWAB shop (Crooks!) and have the mechanic check it out. The wife called me back about an hour later with some, not so good news. The whole brake system was contaminated. I thought, HUH?? The she commenced to tell me that there was water in the system. (Insert many bad words HERE) I was not buying it. The mechanic said that the whole brake system (all parts containing rubber) needed replaced. I was extremely skeptical due to the way LES SCHWAB operates, but I told the wife to get an estimate anyway. A parts list was categorized, and an estimate was drawn up. To the tune of $1472.00 +/- (Insert more bad words HERE!) My wife was told not to drive it until it was fixed. I told her to bring it home.

After looking at the list of parts needed, what they were going to replace, and how much was for labor for this fiasco, I got online and went to a website called "Rock Auto" to look up parts and prices. Wouldn't you know it, LES SCHWAB buys their parts there! ALL the part numbers matched the estimate they gave us. After looking up the parts, prices, etc, my cost for the parts was $562.00 + $170.00 shipping. I ordered the parts and did the work myself. I replaced everything from the master cylinder (and everything between except metal brake lines) to the brake shoes/pads. I did the job in less than 12 hours, and saved a HUGE amount on their labor rates. You do the math.

Lesson learned here; Never store any type of fluids in metal cans!!

Now tell me doing something so damn stupid would not make you feel like an idiot :icon_lol:
 
It happens sometimes. I myself had old brake fluid lying around (not in metal containers of course, but the opened original bottle), and I had kept it around for years. Luckily by some stroke of luck a buddy of mine SAE qualified mentioned to me it was not a good idea to keep it stored around, and I got rid of it before putting the old stuff in my cars. Being in aviation we tend to store some oils with dehydrator kits as to stop water intrusion (and corrosion of the canisters).. Maybe that would work in this case? Either way sorry to hear about this happening to you, but good on you for fixing it yourself. I hate auto repair shops, and TRY to do all my work myself. Short of engine rebuilds and transmission repair.
 
I bet the big issue was that the metal can you had the brake fluid stored in was not quite air-tight. As such, when the temperature changed, the volume of the air changed and exchanged some air with the outside world thus bringing in some moisture.

If metal cans were all the issue, then Paint Thinner, Alcohol, Kerosene, Gasoline, Rifle Bore Cleaner and a whole lot of other stuff would not be so packaged, stored and sold.

Sorry for your misfortune.
- Ivan.
 
Yep

Brake fluid is a anhydrous it will pull the moisture right out of the air.

I had the same situation with a friends truck years ago. I changed the front brake pads and when I was done blew out one of the rear lines bleeding the brakes.

The whole thing was rotten because of age and moisture. I ended up replacing the whole shooting match from front to back.

What a pain in the ********** that was.
 
Brake fluid always used to be supplied in metal cans rather than plastic containers and the only way I can see moisture absorption happening is if the can lid is leaking or is open to the atmosphere and thus allowing moist air into the can.

If the lid is on tight and the seal is good moisture cannot get in.

As Dave said brake fluid is anhydrous and modern brake systems usually have a rubber bellows system in the fluid reservoir filler cap. The principle is that as the brake pads/shoes wear so the level in the reservoir goes down as more fluid is needed in the system to make up for the lost thickness in the pads/shoes. The reduced level in the reservoir causes a small suction effect and the bellows are pulled down aided by a breather hole in the cap which allows air in to the space behind the bellows equalizing the pressure. If that bellows mechanism is punctured, torn or rotten then moist air can enter the brake system and contaminate it with water. The bottom line is always check the bellows for holes whenever you top up your brake fluid.
 
Yep, I know. My grandfather was a machinist rebuilding engines, master cylinders, brake cylinders and transmissions all his life. He had the can of brake fluid in his shop when I cleaned it out. I've had it for years too. The can has a real nice (1940's) hand pump on it. Only thing I can think is the plastic hose (or the can) has a pin hole it.
 
Never have bought it by the gallon might get a quart if I need to do some maintence (bleeding,wheel cylinder,master cylinder,pads,line replacement)
Oil however whole different story my old truck loves the oil it makes pretty designs in the air using oil as I drive.
Replacing the entire braking system because it got some moisture in it seems a bit drastic to me.
I would just get one of those kits and flush and bleed it first unless the moisture caused rust build up,getting the air and water out and replacing the fluid should do just fine.
 
The metal can has nothing to do with the water. Up until the 80's, brake fluid always came in metal containers. Glad it all worked out and nothing bad happened!

Don
 
I have never tried to store brake fluid. When I have purchased it, I open the can, use what I need, then dispose of any remaining fluid. Once the container is opened, moisture laden air has now been introduced. Even if you can completely reseal the container, the fluid is going to absorb the moisture from the air inside the container. You might be able to safely store brake fluid if you can vacuum seal the container, but that seems like a lot of work for just a little monetary savings.
 
We buy in batches packed in the minimum size containers [1 Litre] on a weekly basis having calculated the amount we expect to use over seven days.
As we know [most of the time] which bikes will be finished to the point of flushing and re-filling the hydraulics it costs a little extra but we never have any problems.
Anything left is discarded.
You only get once chance on a bike when you need the brakes ........... :kilroy:
 
Any time I've ever needed some brake fluid I'd buy on the day it's needed,use whatever amount was necessary and dump the rest*. I use DOT 4 fluid, which doesn't absorb moisture as much as DOT 3 and has a higher boiling point. DOT 5 doesn't absorb moisture IIRC as it's silicone based.
Also...brake fluid is a very effective paint stripper.




*in the wives cornflakes :kilroy: :icon_lol:
 
kilo delta said:
Also...brake fluid is a very effective paint stripper.
Click to expand...
Ah yes, my late father learned this lesson the hard way! :isadizzy:

The first car he ever bought was in the 70's (I was about 15 or 16 at the time) and it was a lemon. Needed a whole bunch of work doing to it including new brakes shoes. We were working on it one weekend bleeding the brakes with my older brother lying under the car with the bleed hose going into a jam jar, I was in the car pumping the pedal as required and my Dad's job was to keep the fluid reservoir topped up (he really didn't have a clue on how to do anything else, not very mechanically minded my Dad). He'd placed the open can (yes it was a metal can in those days) on the wing/fender but then managed to knock it over with his elbow and almost a full can of fluid ran down the white paint and across the thin, bright red, pinstripe along the side of the car. What a mess! The red paint was obviously not as durable as the white as it instantly started to run down the bodywork in big smears and dribbles. :banghead:

So that was another job to do now on top of everything else, fix the paint. :icon_lol:
 
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