brake fluid?

Sorry for going a bit off topic,but do you not have to upgrade rubber seals in the master cylinder and calipers to take DOT 5.1?Was told that in college years back but never had any dealings with the stuff so I dont know

ijwhiteman said:

I knew what you ment

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lol

When bleeding, best way to put it is you start with the caliper furthest from the MC and work round finishing with the closest one

am looking for some brake fluid, mine is only a daily so dont need some expensive stuff, would motual dot 3/4 be ok?

MOTUL DOT 3 & 4 BRAKE FLUID 100% synthetic fluid for hydraulic actuated-brake and clutch systems

thanks

I'd advise that you shouldnt buy brake fluids based on its price or brand, but focus on the application.

If its a street car, using DOT 5.1 is dumb. Simply because its made for short interval use like race cars.

DOT 4 and SUPER DOT4 is what you need for a street car that sees some occasional track days.

If you dont really care about all that and just want the best stuff, then I'd suggest you take a look at Castrol SRF. Probally the best brake fluid there is at a whopping $80US per litre. But with all race fluids, occasional change is required.

On the MityVac website it says that RWD and FWD cars bleed in different orders.

for FWD its;
FR
RL
FL
RR

To bleed the brakes 100%, you'll need a vacuum hand pump. Also all nipple threads will need to be removed and have teflon tape added to it when using a vacuum type bleed method.

Traditional 2 man pedal bleed wont give you that new car firm pedal feel.

Its easy to do it right, but also easy to do it wrong.

The higher the DOT rating, the more quickly the fluid will absorb water from the atmosphere and the more often you have to change it. A DOT 4 fluid, despite having much higher boiling performance ratings than DOT 3, will have the nearly the same boiling point when saturated with just 3.7 percent water. 3.7 percent water is what's called the wet boiling point on the bottle.

DOT 4 fluids will be fine for everything but a dedicated track car. Believe it or not, when the rotor is glowing red and over the 1200 degrees, the fluid rarely overcomes 400 degrees. Most good DOT 4 fluids are rated at around 500deg +/-, dry boiling point.

So most people can just use DOT 4, (I use Amsoil personally), and after the occasional track day make sure to do a service bleed. Save the money if you only go to the track occasionally.

And remember guys, once a brake fluid bottle is opened you should use it because it will be rapidly absorbing water when on the shelf.

yup this man speaks the truth as brake fluid is hygroscopic. I baught some dot 4 from halfords for my daily hack now as i dont rag it any more. (used to run rbf 600). And they wanted £6.99 for half a litre and once i gave them my trade card i paid £1.80, the mark up was ridiculous.

I would recommend dot 4 rbf 600 though as steven etc said, very good stuff but again if your putting your brakes through alot of abuse they should be bled alot more than standard.

ijwhiteman said:

3 bottles should do it nicely. What bleeding method are you using? Also i used some cheap fluid to push through the old stuff... Just a cheap 500ml bottle.

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Sorry to revive this but saves me starting a new thread for one question.
I will be doing this next week
Do I open all the nippers to flush the system or one at a time. And how do I flush it with the cheap bottle just open one or all nipples and pump the brakes or what. Never done this before so don't have a clue
Thanks

y56vtec said:

Sorry to revive this but saves me starting a new thread for one question.
I will be doing this next week
Do I open all the nippers to flush the system or one at a time. And how do I flush it with the cheap bottle just open one or all nipples and pump the brakes or what. Never done this before so don't have a clue
Thanks

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Do one corner at a time mate starting at the furthest caliper from the master cylinder. Here this video might help:

Thanks alot for the video that will defiantly help me. Just one question. When I'm using cheap stuff to flush it when do I start putting in the rbf600. If that makes sense

y56vtec said:

Thanks alot for the video that will defiantly help me. Just one question. When I'm using cheap stuff to flush it when do I start putting in the rbf600. If that makes sense

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I think when you start seeing the new clear brake fluid coming through the bleed hose like shown in the video at each caliper so you know the old dirty fluid has flushed out (?)