hey guys im planning on changing my brake fluid sometime soon. i track the car every 3-5 months and autox once a month, and also DD the car. does this amount of abuse warrant a DOT 4 brake fluid? if so what brands do yall suggest

 

and if i should just bleed rather than change let me know, but im at 43k miles and 3 years with the car, so im guessing it should be changed

 

If you track your car then DOT 4 is the best choice and the two most popular seem to be from Motul and ATE.

I use ATE as it was suggested to me that Motul is not good for northern climates. The ATE has been fine for 3 seasons. I use SuperBlue one season and then flush it out and use TYP 200, which is amber the next season.

 

do you switch because of weather? im in the south so weather isnt too much of a concern for me

 

No, he swaps it out because he tracks his car regularly. Over time the fluid absorbs moisture from the air. If the fluid has too much moisture in it a few hard stops on a track will heat the fluid past the boiling point of water and presto you have a spongy pedal. Regular bleeds prevent that.

 

Correct - I do this based on my understanding that DOT4 fluid is more susceptible to absorbing water and that when it does the boiling point drops off faster than for DOT3 fluid.

If you leave it in too long then the boiling point of your DOT4 fluid ends up being lower than that of a DOT3 fluid, not a good thing when hauling it down from 130+ MPH to get through turn 8 at Mosport

 

good thing i dont have to worry about my car ever getting up to those speeds! lol

and while i have you here you might have seen my other thread. how much superblue do i need to order?

 

Actually, at least as far as the basic specifications are concerned, DOT 4 specifies higher boiling points than DOT 3.

For instance, the DOT 3 fluid spec requires a dry boiling point of 401 degrees and a wet boiling point of 284 degrees, while the DOT 4 fluid spec requires a dry boiling point of 446 degrees and a wet boiling point of 311 degrees.

However, individual fluids can be better than this - for instance, Motorcraft DOT 3 has a dry boiling point of 500 degrees; they don't specify the wet boiling point.

 

if you are going to track or autox in the texas heat, dot4 is certainly something you want to do. i like brembo lcf 600+, but a lot of people at the track use motul. i don't personally know anyone that runs superblue. if you are swapping yourself get the motiv speed bleeder, fantastic device makes bleeding a snap. slurp all the old fluid or at least what you can out with a turkey baster or big syringe. top off with your new stuff, then put two bottles in your motive and let each bleeder screw flow for a while.

 

yea i know i really have been meaning to do it. im not gonna do it myself i just dont have the time to or the know how lol