Air con/ brake fluid

[buddfridge]

The gti is going in for the second service on the service plan, is it a good idea to pay the dealer £99 for the air con and brake fluid change? 8500 miles.

[Vwjap]

Brake fluid is normally 20k miles or 2 years
And is your air con cold?

[Gnasher]

I'd say get the brake fluid done, but get a quote from a non franchised garage, as they might price match it.

Personally if the aircon is still blowing nice and cold, I'd leave it until the performance of it deteriorates significantly.

[buddfridge]

Air con is working fine, the dealer has an offer for both at £99 they wanted about £70 for just the brake fluid.

[SRGTD]

@buddfridge, VW first brake fluid change is at 3 years, then every 2 years after that, so assuming your car’s now 2 years old, the brake fluid change doesn’t need doing until next year.

I’ll be getting mine done when my car has it’s third annual service and first MOT.

[buddfridge]

The car is three in September, the service is out of sink because it spent 5 months on the dealers forecourt, I don't want to have it back in again this year so I am also bringing the mot forward too.

[Finglonga]

Purely "Money Makers" for the dealer. I am on year 4 with original brake fluid and original air con gas and everything is still perfect.

You will know when you want a gas change as you will not get crisp cold air like usual.

The brake fluid will also not just fail and you will spin off the road in a ball of flames. You will feel sponginess at some point and then not anything to make a difference to the braking force. You will not boil brake fluid under normal driving conditions. If you do track days then you will need to change it sooner but still not as often as VW try to get you to do it.

So many people are just throwing money at the dealers when they don't need to.

[mkviken]

Disagree with that. After 2 years the brake and clutch fluid should be changed. It deteriorates with age and absorbs moisture and has to work pretty hard with temperature etc so for the sake of a few extra quid should be changed.

Just because it won’t make you spin off the road in a ball of flames doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be changed. If it’s done regularly there’s less chance of seized bleed nipples etc and having manky fluid in the lines can’t be good for the system.

Every time I’ve changed brake fluid, even fairly low milage or new fluid, I have felt the improvement.

[TwoSheds]

Air con is working fine, the dealer has an offer for both at £99 they wanted about £70 for just the brake fluid.

Check they are quoting for an actual air-con gas change rather than just an air-con ‘refresh’ normally about £29 (the potential difference between the £99 and £70 brake fluid only change quoted)