Brake fluid flushing

Most of us don't ever think about our car's brake fluid.
Even when we have a brake job done or if we happen to be handy enough to do it ourselves.
Replace pads and resurface or replace rotors, clean & lube caliper slides, slap it together and move on.
Meanwhile, the blood of the braking system gets ignored.
I just got done flushing 4-year old fluid in my '13 Mustang, and I was surprised how dark and cloudy it was.
The thought to flush it came after a recent autocross event where I overheated the fluid, and had smoke coming from the brakes.
During the course of those 4 years that the fluid has been working, it got hot, it got cold, it carried away dirt and other contaminants that might have entered the system, and it got water in it from the moisture in the air.
So over time it loses its efficiency, it gets dirt- and water-contaminated, and when pressed hard to perform, it fails.
So, out it went, a simple procedure.
New fluid going in, Motul RBF600:

Jacked up the car, removed the wheels, pumped out as much of the old fluid as I could out of the underhood reservoir, topped it off with the new fluid, and asked my lovely fiancee to be the pedal pusher inside the car while I was handling the bleeder screws at the calipers.
Roughly 1 hour including jacking up the car, and the brake fluid was fresh, nice and firm brake pedal, ready for a year of whatever I might throw at it.
This is some of the old fluid, cloudy and dark:

In the master cylinder, old then new fluids:

Also, a few months ago I installed a separate reservoir for the clutch fluid, and at the time I topped off that fluid using new Amsoil DOT4 fluid.
Yesterday I was shocked how dark that fluid looked, and since there's no easy way to flush that system, I sucked out the fluid out of the reservoir and topped it off with the same fresh Motul RBF600 fluid that I used for the brakes.
This is a picture of the clutch fluid reservoir showing the difference between the old dark fluid and the fresh stuff:

So next time you're having brake work done or scheduling some work for the car, remember your brake fluid, and if it's been more than 3 years since the last flush, or if you don't remember ever having it done, schedule it!

- Gabe.