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What brake fluid do you recommend?

59K views 24 replies 20 participants last post by  RayPooley  
#1 ·
My new rotors, pads and sensors arrive today. Tomorrow I'm doing the front brake job. What brake fluid do you recommend?
 
#16 ·
I use Valvoline Synthetic Dot 3 & 4 brake fluid. I also have another car that uses Dot 3. It's easier for me to use the same fluid for both cars. I have used Pentosin and ATE before. They are both fine brake fluids. OP, I hope your front brake job went well.
 
#17 ·
Either Pentosin or ATE is fine, just make sure it's DOT 4. Not sure if DOT 5.1 is approved or not, never heard of it for use in our cars so I'd stick with the DOT4.

And before someone says 5.1 is DOT 5... it's not. Definitely don't use DOT 5! It's silicone based, and therefore hydrophobic not hygroscopic. (i.e, will not absorb any water in the system, potentially very dangerous)
 
#19 ·
You just need DOT 4. I think you can find Pentosin in the Autozone, O'Reilly stores. Be sure you do all wheels starting from the furthest wheel working your way to the closest to the master cylinder.
 
#24 ·
DOT 4 isn't all the same.

In general the higher the dry boiling point, the more hygroscopic the fluid is. An all-out race fluid needs to be changed every few months (the expectation is before every racing session). A high performance fluid should be changed every year or two. And a fluid that barely meets the DOT 3 spec might be OK for two decades in car-as-appliance use.

Of course the plant can always do a mediocre job of synthesizing the fluid, resulting in a mix of molecules thus a very hygroscopic fluid that still has a low dry boiling point. The difficultly is doing well on both parameters.

Bottom line: buy a quality fluid, but don't buy a "better" (higher dry boiling point) fluid than you need.