Thread: Whats this, Dot 3 silicone

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Originally Posted by BigTruckDriver

What about flushing the system with alcohol ? Whats the procedure?

Unless you were going to "try" silicone, for the most part just a flush with regular fluid should do a sufficiant cleanup of the old fluid. Either way, take a turkey baster, suck out the MC brake fluid and fill it with fresh then bleed the system - just make sure you don't pump the brakes without any fluid in the MC or it will just take a bit longer. You can get different color fluids to tell when the new stuff is coming thru. When I do it, I go around each of the bleeders at least 3 times just to make sure - but it is messy even with a hose and catch can. An alternate way as long as the MC is above the brake cylinders or calipers is to gravity bleed them thru a clear hose into a clear bottle with a bit of fluid in the bottom covering the end of the hose - but just don't expect to do it in a hurry - like hours. Then you have to do at least one pressure or pump and hold bleed. Or if you have a MityVac pump you can try to suck it out, but I have never had much luck with mine

JUST DON'T SPILL ANY OF THE FLUID - OLD OR NEW ON YOUR PAINT AS IT WILL ALMOST INSTANTANEOUSLY GO THRU IT TO BARE METAL

Did the info sheet happen to mention if the synthetic DOT 3 is harmful to paint?

And if it's hygroscopic (water attracting) like regular brake fluid?

Price comparison with the regular stuff?

The paint damage bit the reason I went with silicon in my 32.
The pedal is a touch softer, but not a whole lot.
It's been in the car since 93 and still works fine.

Topped it off twice in that time period.

Me too. I've used silicone since about 1989, and love it. That's what is going into my current Tand all cars beyond. But, as mentioned, I started off with a clean system, with no mixing.

Don