Lucas sythetic brake fluid

[Maddie]

New brake caliper came today with various other parts I ordered from atlantic British. In a hurry to get parts in and dave the salesman told me any other fluid is going to give me trouble. I've been using the specified fluid the manual suggest. He sold me lucas synthetic. Now if I use it, I better flush the system totally. Bought more than enough to do this. I've used this before in my triumph spitfire and it seems it had it's draw backs. This fluid is gtlma. Min wet boiling of of 329 degrees f. What do you think? Got no leaks with 130180 miles on my 95. Been changing brake fluid out every year as recommended.

 

[joey]

If you change brake fluid every year, then you will be fine... the only issue I have with Synthetic brake fluid is it tend to draw moisture faster than non-synthetic.

 

[Maddie]

Thanks joey for the quick reply. I knew that their was a difference of some sort. The other point was the lower boiling point. I never did find a fluid that was as high as required. Close but not as high. Whereas castrol sythetic is at 329 not the 400 or above. But it's not a race car and I don't use much braking. In addition I'm ignorant of the "wet boiling point". I'll just have to educate myself.

 

[joey]

Here is some good reading:

http://www.afcoracing.com/tech_pages/fluid.shtml

http://www.aa1car.com/library/bfluid.htm

http://www.type2.com/library/brakes/brakef.htm

 

[Maddie]

Thank you so much joey!!!!! You are a truly on top of the game of knowledge for the go to. I read and comprehened all three article and I suggest everyone to read at least the second one dealing with the stats. It will have you reading the other two. Make me a bit uneasy using the sythetic as it doesn't mix so you've got steam and a section that is more suseptible to corrosion. I guess that is why I didn't care for it in the spitfire motoring thru the rocky mountains very spongy stuff. Didn't no it was critical from the standpoint of moisture but rather dust for replacing the cap either. Saftey first!! Thanks again.

 

[jastutte]

it's funny you referenced the type2 library, joey. that's the other car list i'm a member of. my daily driver is a 77 air cooled vw bus. the rover is supposed to be my wife's.

 

[joey]

Lets just say I not only surf the web a lot... but I have a very large hard drive full of daily info that I have gathered on and off over the years. Just upgraded my pc to a 750 Gig drive and installed a 1.5 tb backup drive on my home network...

 

[Disco Mike]

If you change brake fluid every year, then you will be fine... the only issue I have with Synthetic brake fluid is it tend to draw moisture faster than non-synthetic.

I hate to step in and correct this statement, but you are 100% wrong. The whole reason for using a synthetic brake fluid like Vavoline or Castrol is it will take more heat and absort virtually no moisture in the process.
Vavoline make only 1 synthetic, it is for both DOT 3 or 4 and I have been using it for over 7 years on the hardest brakes to keep cool, DBA's with kevlar pads.

 

[Maddie]

Ok disc mike: so how often do you change your synthetic brake fluid? I used castrol synthec in my spitfire and it sure looked like it picked up moisture to me after a year. It was gross. Mind you this was many years ago maybe there has been major advancements made but the castrol I just put in says low moisture not no moisture absorbtion. So what say you to that?

 

[Disco Mike]

Every 25,000 to 30,000 miles depending on how hard I have been driving it up here in the mountains. The Castrol you just installed was it their new synthetic, even Castrol, which was what Rover recommended years ago, will tell you their new synthetic is far better.
You can go on line a do a Google search for brake fluid tests and compare for your self.