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Save your money. Everything is cleaned when your brakes are changed and they would not have to be cleaned again until you need new brakes. If you are referring to the brake fluid being changed that would not be a bad thing if your vehicle has higher mileage.
Brakes being cleasned is nothing but another name for brake inspection and possible repair to be done.
Free brake inspection is another scam towards any brake repair. This may be needed depending on the miles driven since last brake work. Better to be safe then sorry.
The gimic is to remove the drums or rotors and show all the dust and what is left of the brake shoes or pads. An air hose (illegal to use today) would clean the dust but todays mechanics use Brakleen to wash off the dust.
As long as there is no visible leakege of brake fluid and you have 25% or more of shoes or pad showing your safe. Would depend on how much driving you do and how hard you are on the brakes.
I only drive 5000 miles a yr on my car that had new shoes 3 yrs ago and they are still in real good shape. Never had to add one drop of fluid in all that time. Should say that I'm a retired mechanic and watch my cars workings real close.
Brake dust is just that...dust... and will not wear out any metal.
Normal procedure is to drain/flush out and replace the brake fluid during a brake repair. This is done when bleeding air from the system during the work. Pumping out the old fluid until clean fluid shows.
Have done many brake jobs in 28 yrs working on cars.
Disc brakes clean themselves everytime the are applied.
Drum brakes retain some dust because they are pretty much enclosed. (Drum and backing plate)
A little dust in drum brakes is no problem.
Any repair shop that says the brakes need cleaned is usualy a ripoff shop and shouldn't be trusted to perform any type of repairs.
I'm a retired mechanic with 40 years in the trade and the only time a brake cleaning is justified is when a wheel seal or other part fails and allows grease or fluid to accumulate on brake parts long before those brake parts need replaced. And this is generaly just done on larger vehicles like buses, large trucks, etc., and only on the drive axles or trailer brakes. The cause of the leak is repaired and the brakes are cleaned if they are in otherwise good ahape.
We never cleaned front wheel brakes. Never wanted to take a chance of having steering tire brakes pull. We might clean the disc or drum but always replaced the shoes or pads if they showed any sign of being saturated with oil or grease.
Thanks for the replies. Now I will know better.
This happened at a Goodyear tire store when they put new tires on my car they inspected my brakes on my 2005 Toyota and said they were still OK but they recommended giving them a "cleaning" for an extra $40. Oh well, live and learn.
Got talked into having my brakes cleaned. Is this a legit maintenance procedure or a just another rip-off?
Rip-off. Sorry.
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