Brake and PS Fluid recommendations - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

tr7driver · 03-02-2011, 08:39 AM

I plan on doing a quick baster bottle change of my brake and power steering fluid in the next week or so. Any recommendation on the fluids to use? I'm the second owner of a car with 165K miles, so I"m not sure what is in it now.

Thanks!

***Tom in Tacoma*** · 03-02-2011, 12:07 PM

Why not use what ever brand meets the minimum specs spelled out in the owners manual? Your car seems to have survived pretty well so far...

ChiTDI · 03-02-2011, 01:11 PM

I use plain DOT 3 for the brakes and have had very good service from Mobil1 ATF in the P/S system.

tr7driver · 03-05-2011, 10:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom in Tacoma

Why not use what ever brand meets the minimum specs spelled out in the owners manual? Your car seems to have survived pretty well so far...

Thanks Tom, I appriciate the reply. That was pretty much my plan. Since the owners manual is now 12 years old (printed in 1999) and many new/improved/reformulated products have been introduced since then I wanted to see if anyone here had any experience I should be aware of.

Musicman555 · 03-08-2011, 02:36 PM

I recently used Valvoline Synthetic DOT 3&4 Brake Fluid when I bled my brakes and Valvoline Max Life Power Steering fluid. I am very happy with the performance of both.

Just as a side note... my 2000 Avalon XLS has 131,300 miles on it and this was the first time that the brakes had been bled and the power steering fluid pumped/drained. Surprisingly (or not depending on how you look at it) both fluids were still in decent condition, not burnt or terribly discolored. The previous owner may have changed them and never written it down but he did not remember doing it when asked. These are great cars!