How to Check Brake Fluid Level 1994-2002 Dodge Ram 1500

Okay friends, so today we're going to be working on our 1996 Dodge Ram 1,500. This is the Laramie with a 5.9 liter and I want to show you some very basic stuff. We're going to be checking the brake fluid. Brake fluid reservoir's right here. When vehicles get this old, they're kind of hard to see through the outer area here. So I'm going to grab a rag, I'll clean this up real quick. And then once we get it cleaned off, I'll show you how to open up this cap right here so you can take a better look. Just grab a rag. Start with the cap. It doesn't have to be perfect, but we want to make sure that any dirt particles that might fall off of this once we have the cap off are going to be very clear and out of the way. So that way there, nothing falls into the brake fluid, potentially contaminating it.

Right on the cap, it's hard to tell from your angle because it's upside down essentially. But it says DOT 3 only. You need to make sure you use only DOT 3 brake fluid. You cannot use DOT 5 and you should not use DOT 4. So here's where the little line is. If I give it a little shake, you can kind of see where the level is there, but if you were worried about it and you really wanted to make sure that you knew what was going on, just take this lip right here and this one right here with your thumbs, peel them up nice and slow. You can lift your cap up. Now that you have your cap up, you've got a little rubber gasket here. Generally speaking, this just lifts right up. Give it a little tap, try to get off some of that brake fluid. And here's your reservoirs.

There's two separate reservoirs, one's for the front, one's for the rear brakes. Just in case, for some reason, one of the lines might happen to, God forbid, maybe one of the lines blows or something's loose for some reason, and one of these sides goes empty, you'll still have brakes in either the front or the rear, okay. So we know that our brake fluid is full. If it was not, we would use DOT 3 brake fluid to top it off. To continue, we'll use the cap, we'll put this right back on. Just sits right in there. Just like that. I'm going to turn it so the words are facing this way. Might be easier for people to read down the line. Set it on there, give it a little bonk, bonk, bonk. That's my thing.

Try to lift it up. It's not lifting up. That's good. It means we've got a good seal. Clean off any brake fluid you might have. If you've got some on your gloves, then of course you want to change out your gloves and you do not want to touch any brake fluid on your paint. Brake fluid will actually eat the paint right off your car. So I showed you how to check your brake fluid. Easy peasy.

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