Christmas and New Year holidays are times when your favorite car can be taken on long trips. As stated by PT Jasa Marga (Persero), private vehicles are still the most favorite choice for people for mobility during religious holidays and at the end of 2023. For this reason, for those who will travel by car, you should pay attention to the following tips regarding lubricants or brake oil.
Quoted from the Antara news agency, checking the lubricant or fluid, aka brake fluid, is mandatory when traveling using a private car. Especially considering that checking the braking system is sometimes overlooked.
“In short, the main function of brake fluid is as a fluid in the hydraulic system to transfer pressure from the pedal or brake lever to the piston in the caliper,” explained Dhany Ekasaputra, Promotion Manager of PT Autochem Industry in a written release.
The ingredients contained in brake lubricant fluid have characteristics that need to be replaced periodically. The reason is, if the brake fluid is mixed with just three percent water, the consequence will be to lower the boiling point to more than 100 degrees Celsius.
Illustration of car brakes. [Shutterstock] If the boiling point decreases, it becomes difficult for pressure to reach the piston in the brake caliper due to the presence of air bubbles as a sign that the fluid in the brake system is starting to boil. So the potential for brake failure is increasingly open, which has very dangerous consequences.
According to Dhany Ekasaputra, the case of the brakes failing could be caused by the owner’s wrong habits when checking the volume of brake fluid in the reservoir tube. If the rubber cover of the reservoir tube is opened, it will cause the water content (moisture) in the air which reaches up to 85 percent to be absorbed by the brake fluid.
To prevent brake failure, owners are expected to monitor the indicator on the brake fluid storage tube connection so that the process of opening and closing the tube can be reduced as much as possible.
Checking can also be done by looking at the color of the liquid. If it is clear, it could be a sign that there is no water in it.
It’s different if you see the color of the fluid starting to darken, indicating that there is starting to be water content in the brake system. The darker the color of the brake fluid, the more water it contains.
What vehicle owners should know is to avoid water content in the brake fluid as much as possible. As an illustration, the boiling point of brake fluid in new conditions can reach 265 degrees Celsius.
However, when the water is contaminated by three percent, it will drop to 155 degrees Celsius. For the climate in Indonesia, three percent water contamination can be achieved within one year or 20,000 km.
“It is at this point that vehicle owners should replace the brake fluid regularly,” said Dhany Ekasaputra.
Vehicle owners are also not advised to use brake fluid packages that have been unsealed, because this has the potential to reduce performance.
“So, you should choose the right packaging when you want to use brake fluid. “You can choose 1 liter, 300 ml or 50 ml packaging, if you just need to add it,” he concluded.