Got a question on exactly what the title suggests, any reccomendation on brake fluid brands? Going to be used for autocross, and maybe even a road race driving school next month, so need to be pretty heavy duty. Car's an 85 SE.

Also, while I'm on the subject, brake pads? I seem to remember reading about Hawk blue vs blacks... Anyone to refreash me quickly?

Thanks for the wisdom...

 

If you plan to race the car at all I would use
DOT4. DOT5 is not compatable with DOT3 or DOT4 so I would not bother with it.

If you are just street driving then DOT3 is ok...DOT4 is still better

Mark

 

sorry to cut in on your question but I have an gsl-se also. I just have regular blake fluid. Dot 3. If I drained that crap out and put dot 5 braking will improve? Cause the braking on my car seems spongy, I also want to improve on braking without having to get the Big Brake Kit which is like $1895+tax calipers, rotors, and hardware.

www.portugesethug.homestead.com/jim.html

 

DO NOT PUT IN DOT5 after only draining DOT3!!!

DOT5 is not compatable with DOT3 or DOT4. You must completely clean out the entire system...lines, calipers, master cylinder etc.

DOT4 is compatable. I suggest that you just use the DOT4. Then you can simply drain out the DOT3 and be done with it...

The major improvement of the DOT4 and DOT5 is that it won't boil over under hard braking conditions...ie racing


Mark

 

Dot 4 it is then... Thanks for the warning... When it comes time to replace all the brake lines I'll go for the highest. I'll drain and try DOT 4 in the coming weeks. I'll fill you guys in on any results.

 

ditto... thanks for the info.

 

I switched to DOT 4 this spring. Oh YEAH it's good. No more pedal going away after repeated 100-40mph full-tilt braking. If fact the pedal seems to get BETTER as the brakes warm up, although that might just be my "mystery pads". (Dunno what they are but they grab great and are lasting forever)

Forgot the brand, but it was a 32oz bottle, gold, I think it was Castrol or Pennzoil but it had nice high boiling points and only cost about $5. 32oz is more than enough to flush the system out... just suck the reservoir dry, try to get the sediment out too (turkey baster type tool), fill 'er up, open all of the bleeders, and just keep adding fluid. Takes a while so kick back, crank some tunes, have a cold one, etc. When the brake fluid runs clear then close all the bleeders and go around bleeding the brakes as you normally would.

If you're really **** retentive and have too much energy to spend you could pull the master cylinder out, dump its contents, and blow compressed air through the lines (with bleeders open of course!).

 

If you don't drain DOT 5 all the way out it will cling to the brake/clutch lines like crud in a kitchen/bathroom sink. Yuck! I had this prob with an X1/9 that I swapped the clutch master and slave on. The lines were empty before I installed the parts, or so I thought. Part way through the bleeding process all this gross oily stuff started coming out. Then I remembered that the previous owner used DOT 5. That was several years ago and had since went back to DOT 3 or 4 on that car.

The moral of the story is to just step up from DOT 3 to DOT 4 and stay there, even on a clutch. Don't bother with DOT 5 unless you are ready for the extra hassle it requires.

 

DOT5 is 200x more compressable than DOT4 so you will get terrible brake feel. The DOT5 is not needed and tends to get diluted and must be bled much more often. If you want to retain a much better brake feel stay with DOT4. It doesnt compress like DOT5 but has a very high dry boiling point.

 

The best deal in brake fluid is Valvoline SynPower, which is $5 for 32oz and available at just about any auto parts store. Another good deal is Ford Heavy Duty brake fluid from a Ford dealer. It has a higher dry boiling point, but also costs a little more. Neo HP fluid from http://www.bakerprecision.com/ is also a good deal if you can't find anything good locally.

To get rid of the spongy feel, get braided stainless steel brake lines, or even newer stock ones.

Hawk HPS are decent street pads and are cheap from http://www.pegasusautoracing.com/ but they do dust a bit and they will definitely fade under really heavy usage. Hawk HP+ are higher friction, but they dust like mad and squeal, and can still fade if you take them to the track. Hawk Blue and Black pads are track-only because of lack of stopping power when cold, extreme caustic dusting, and rotor wear. I have heard a lot of good things about Porterfield R4S for the street, and also EBC Green pads which I will be trying next.

Speedbleeders make it super-easy to bleed the brakes. Pressure bleeders also seem to work well. Vacuum pumps like the MityVac aren't so effective in my experience.

-Max