Brake fluid, how often to flush/change?

[docboy]

I looked over the 2025 4Runner Warranty and Maintenance Guide, and I can't find often to flush out and change the brake fluid. All I can find is "Inspect All Fluid Levels" every 5k miles. Any idea on official recommendation for brake fluid flush? FWIW the only fluid I can see that Toyota recommends changing regularly is the oil, and that's every 10k miles.

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[CO/ZA]

Initially 3 years from new, then 2 year intervals thereafter is the conservative recommendation.

At least, this is what is recommended by most brands.

It's very easy to do if you have a jack and some basic tools, all you need is an empty bottle and some vinyl tubing:

 

[Burgi]

Probably not the right way to approach this but I don’t change it unless I’m having problems or I’m doing brakes which is somewhere between 50-80k miles. On my old Tacoma I went like 7 years before replacing the fluid while doing the brakes.

 

[Hacksaw]

I've never used them but there are brake fluid test strips to measure the moisture level and copper level in the fluid.

With the caveat that this link is from the maker of the test strips, this is at least in theory an objective way to determine if your brake fluid needs to be changed: https://www.acustrip.com/res/pss/PSS-BST3001.pdf
Like anything else, searching the internet will probably reveal people for and against this proposition. I'm only putting it out there for consideration.

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