Changing Brake Fluid - Issue

[Patrick Taylor]

12 minutes ago, Pete Lewis said:

were they tempting fate  ???

Well (and I'm tempting fate in saying this) in 27 years of driving the car -including several when she was my daily driver- I have never needed the big red triangle that lives under the boot floor.

[Pete Lewis]

thats what we like to hear 

Pete

[Mjit]

On 19/09/2021 at 10:55, Patrick Taylor said:

So can you change to Dot 5 simply by putting it in the reservoir and bleeding it through? I have a dim memory of needing to fit new seals throughout first?

On the technical side, yes you can.

• Part of the US DoT brake fluid standard #5 requires it to be compatible with fluids that meet standard #4.
• Automec, the main DoT5 brand we get in the UK explicitly state you DON'T need to change seals when swapping DoT4->DoT5.

On the practical side, it's often a false economy not to.

• No seals last forever and DoT5 fluid's quite expensive, so when was the last time to changed yours?  If you replaced them all 12 months ago they I'd just swap fluid.  If you can't remember when you last changed them you'd be better off doing them all now as part of the swap than changing fluid, then losing some of that purple gold bleeding the brakes as and when each seal needs replacing.

[SpitFire6]

Purple fluid looks good.