Re: Brake fluid

Posted by su8overdrive On 2012/6/25 17:12:17

I bow to the above, but been using nothing but silicone DOT-5 brake fluid in my Packards since the late '70s with never a problem. Pedal pressure feels fine, and i've driven other Packards so filled that felt fine, "normal" pedal. Just make sure you flush out your brake system, master/wheel cylinders, lines, with isopropyl alcohol, etc. available at any drugstore, blow the lines/system out with compressed air, before switching to DOT-5.

I'll never go back to DOT-3. It draws water into the system, which rusts your wheel cylinders. A friend has the
same batch of DOT-5 silicone brake fluid in his '42 One-Sixty drophead that he installed in 1978 and it still looks new.

Lotta these silicone campfire stories sound akin to the don't use multiweight/detergent oil, you "hafta" use antifreeze, don't rest a battery on a cement floor, your engine will wear out without ZDDP additive-- that entire decades-old litany of malarkey so-and-so knows someone who heard someone say he heard tell that Henney Penny said...

It's always easier to blame the big bad oil company, the gasoline, the product than deferred maintenance, ancient hoses, et al.