There is the brake fluid. If you see through the reservoir in the side that the level is good. Here is an indicator that says maximum; this car has a sensor so it's going to tell you when the fuel is getting low which would indicate your brake pads are getting thinner. But, if you look at the color of the fluid, you can see there you can't see through it. Brake fluid should be clear, similar to like a Crisco like cooking oil. This brake fluid, as we can see it looking in the reservoir, is far from clear, actually it's turned to greenish color which is kind of common for Fords and is murky, not clearly visible.
What happens here is very similar to the rack-and-pinion synopsis, trying to lighten up cars now-a-days, they are making a lot of new braking components in your master cylinder, some calipers, wheel cylinders, your ABS components are being made of aluminum, and aluminum just doesn't dissipate heat like cast iron. Trying to lighten up the cars, so they are using a lot of aluminum to get better gas mileage for you but the maintenance, obviously, is being neglected on this one.
What this does is when you have a metal material that doesn't dissipate the heat like cast iron, when they start going to aluminum, it makes your operating temperature inside your brake system operate at a higher temperature which boils the fluid. Now, if you look at this reservoir, it's plastic, it's like that great Tupperware. And the seal, the cap is also a plastic. So what happens when you have a boiling fluid is you get condensation inside of the Tupperware, as you are driving down the road, that condensation which is water drips into the brake fluid contaminating it, which lowers the boiling point of the brake fluid. Water also starts causing rust in your brake lines and your brake components. That's where you start getting a caliper disease, seals on a caliper or wheel cylinder start going out, ABS pumps or module start to fail, master cylinders start to fail. This is a fluid that's very often overlooked and neglected. AAA now is on preventive maintenance recommendations and they are even recommending to change - completely flush your brake system every year or every 20,000 miles or at anytime you do a brake job.
The advantage here is a complete system flush is normally under a $100, you have to buy calipers, some of these cars have 4-Wheel calipers, you could be looking at about a $150 a piece, not including labor and then you have to do the flush anyway. Your master cylinder, ABS components will all be damaged by neglecting this fluid.
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