What's your favorite brake fluid?

I'm still using Valvoline Dot 3. Still no failures or issues. It's cheap and it works.

I use Castrol in the Spitfires. It was hard to find so I used some Valvoline, which ruined the seals in one car. I think last time I went to AA, I bought CARQUEST in whatever DOT I needed.

rslifkin wrote: I've been using ATE Typ 200. It's better than the white bottle Valvoline stuff and still pretty reasonably priced. Seems like anything better costs dramatically more money.

Not being argumentative, just trying to learn .... what quantifes "it's better than the white bottle Vavoline stuff ... " ?

I'm still using Delphi Lockheed DOT5.1 in the Corolla's brakes, Delphi Lockheed DOT4 in everything else. Redline RL600 is a new brake fluid worth considering:

https://www.redlineoil.com/product.aspx?pid=148&pcid=29

ATE type 200 in both my track and street cars. Never had a problem.

einy wrote:

rslifkin wrote: I've been using ATE Typ 200. It's better than the white bottle Valvoline stuff and still pretty reasonably priced. Seems like anything better costs dramatically more money.

Not being argumentative, just trying to learn .... what quantifes "it's better than the white bottle Vavoline stuff ... " ?

Higher boiling points, both dry and wet. The Valvoline stuff is 480/311 (dry/wet), the ATE is 536/388.

This chart is a nice brake fluid comparison: https://www.lelandwest.com/brake-fluid-comparison-chart.cfm

I use the white bottle Valvoline synthetic in street cars -- works great for street & autox use and since it doesn't absorb water as fast as the high temp ones it doesn't need to be changed as often.

For the track I was using ATE for a long time and while I never boiled it out on track, it had an annoying tendency to give me a soft pedal if I parked the car in the paddock without doing extra cooldown laps. I recently switched to Motul 600 which seems to have helped with this.

So I had been using a ford racing labeled brake fluid in the endurance race car with no problems.

This year we put in some cheap gas station brake fluid, it worked fine for 7 hours of Joliet's 90 degree temps. Then out last driver went out and radioed in that there were no brakes. We were in fourth place to we told him to deal with it.

Basically they boiled in the pits as they worked great when I pulled off the track.

The next day we all ran one cool down lap before pulling in, no problems even with the cheap fluid.

We will upgrade for next year.

This year was an experiment on how little we can do to the car and still finish.

Front brakes can go three races, rear, forever.

Tires three maybe three and an half or four races.

Engine bearings looked good after four races, the third run with little to no oil for a couple of hours.

Brake fluid, don't skimp, although it worked fine in Michigan 75 degree weather.