Brake fluid

[TW]Fox

[TW]Fox

[TW]Fox

Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
160,218
I need a brake fluid change.

Can I buy super amazing pro awesome brake fluid for not much more than regular stuff? Will this do anything other than give me internet cool points? Or shall I just go with whatever stuff the dealer has.

PLEASE ADVISE ME KTHXTA
 
I can't see you being the sort to really get near the boiling point of normal brake fluid, just go with what the dealer puts in :)
 
Normal DOT 4 is about £7 or so, Castrol SRF is about £40. Its your money, you makes your choice. As said, I dont think you rag your car so hard that you might boil the fluid so I wouldnt bother.
 
dot 5 is highly unlikely to be the correct one for your car fox

if you fancy something spec fox, get hold of some ATE SUPER BLUE, but if your old stuff didnt boil, just get BMW stuff

i changed the fluid in my GF's fiesta, it was a few years old and slightly darkened. it made a really nice improvement to the pedal for almost no cost/effort.
 
It'll take them less than half an hour to do the whole car I would imagine. They'll probably use a vacuum bleeder or similar so there will be very little work involved.
 
[TW]Fox;14702480 said:
Wow its as cheap as £7? Makes me wonder why BMW just quoted £72 to do the job :confused:

Perhaps it takes ages.
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£10 is normal for brake fluid, even ATE super blue is only £13 ish.

i cannot work out why labour is so high, it doesnt take long
 
Nickg said:
buy the dot5 stuff from local motorfactor?
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Don't do this at all.

Dot5 stuff is totally different from DOT3, 4 or 5.1. If your car already uses DOT 5 then this is what you should put in, otherwise any decent DOT 4 or 5.1 fluid should be fine.

Putting DOT 5 fluid in a system which was not designed for it will most likely destroy various seals in the system.
 
[TW]Fox;14702504 said:
To be honest my brakes feel fine, I last had it changed in 2007 but apparently its time for it to be done again.
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ive got a feeling the bmw fluid will be cheap anyway. if you fancy being daring, get a £15 pressure bleeder from halfords (made by gunson) and DIY. the spokes on your wheels have pretty big gaps between them so you prolly wont even have to get the car off the ground
 
Wouldn't bother with the super pro vtec-yo fluid only boiled my fluid once and that was on the track, this made me switch to dot 5.1 which i never boiled.

Never managed to boil it on the road, i was under the impression 5.1 needs to be changed more oftern than dot 4 or super dot 4 anyways?
 
not sure on that TBH. all fluids are hydroscopic, some more so than others, but ive never heard 5.1 being more suseptible etc.

i ran halfords 5.1 in mine for a couple years, including the ring and its daily ritual thrashing and never boiled it
 
Yea i ran Halfords 5.1 in the 5 and currenly run it in the Passat and its fine, i'm sure i read its more hydroscopic than Dot 4 someplace, need to hit google and find out :p
 
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