just thought id let every one know what i learned.

my truck had started feeling slow. like i was dragging an anchor behind me. i finally heard brake squeal while off the brakes pulling up in a mcdonalds drive through, so i figured stuck calipers.

i bought new calipers, and when i put em on when i pulled off one of the brake hoses at the caliper, brake fluid shot out of the caliper. i didnt think nothing of it, and put the calipers on it. the ones on there were stuck on the rotors i had to pry them off the truck. i bled the brakes and the fluid was nasty

it drove fine for about a day then slowed down again.

i told my friend about that and he said if fluid squirts out of the caliper, its a hose thats swelling up on the inside and its not letting fluid evacuate the calipers, hence the dragging. makes too much sense dont it?

so i bought hoses from ford, and put them on. first thing i noticed was with the hose undone from the caliper, it was a slow drip of brake fluid from the hose. we put the new hose on, and it was a steady drip then through the hose.

so we put the two new hoses on, bled all 4 corners and its working great. truck is driving friction free again and has been for days.

if i had used my head i could have saved buying the calipers which probably weren't even bad. now i have fenco calipers in there that i dont trust.

makes sense too because the brake pedal in my truck had toughened up some, like didnt require as much travel to start slowing down. when we put the calipers on it and bled it it was back to normal, then the pedal throw shortened up again (the hose swelling up) now since doing the hoses the pedal feels right and its been a week since doing it.

no idea why an 07 with 82k on it needs brake hoses, but i thought i should let you guys know before you go replacing calipers like i did. pay attention to when you take the hose off the caliper, see if fluid squirts out. if it does it should then let go of the rotor and you have a hose screwing up.

 

if the brake fluid was contaminated in any way can cause the brake lines to break down or swell on the inside.

 

yeah it was gross fluid. if any of you are bored and have never changed your brake fluid, suck your resovoir out with a turkey baster, put in fresh brake fluid, and bleed all 4 corners. when you see the stuff that comes out, youll thank me. my back right even had a couple air bubbles in it.

 

yes your brake fluid should be clear and not have anything floating on top of it. if it has a floating film or is a dirty its a good idea to flush it out, i've already done mine when i had to replace the right rear caliper due to the piston broke apart and started leaking while doing a brake job.

 

Good idea, I just ordered 2 rears for my 05. My brakes seem to be doing the same thing, plus at almost 100k on the truck its time anyhow. Did you use DOT 5 fluid when you replaced or DOT 4?

 

check your owners manual for your brake fluid type i belive it should be DOT 3

 

no dot 5 is totally different stuff. stay with 3 and 4. i used wearever dot 3. has done me fine in the past.

 

The system must be completely flushed in order to convert it to DOT5.

 

Your brake fluid will never be clear. New fluid is amber color. Simply heating the brake fluid will turn the additives dark. Having dark fluid is not necessarily a bad thing.

If you have stuff floating in the fluid it could be bad. As your seals wear you will get some small amounts of EPDM rubber floating in the brake fluid. This is normal and flushing the MC won't really change anything.

If you have somehow introduced foreign contaminants (dirt, etc) then it would be more urgent that you flush your brake system.

NO NO NO NO NO
You cannot put DOT5 in your system. Simply "flushing" it will not change that.
DOT5 is silicone based and it does not get along with DOT3 or DOT4 which are glycol based.

I know this for a fact. We use DOT5 fluid in our test lab for some military programs. If they accidentally mix up setups the combination of Silicone and Glycol will trash all the seals. I have personally seen this happen.

The only possible way to change to DOT5 would be to remove every brake component and replace it. Seems silly to spend that kind of money for no real benefit.

You need to put in the correct fluid. These trucks are designed for DOT3. The reservoir cap says DOT3 and the manual says DOT3. If you do the proper research there are DOT4 fluids you can use too.