Re: DOT 5 issue

Posted by Owen_Dyneto On 2008/6/11 8:20:35

I believe that alcohol (methy, ethyl or ispropyl) is the accepted solvent for cleaning DOT 3 (and presumably DOT 4 which is similar) brake fluid residues from hydraulic parts. I also seem to remember when converting a car to DOT 5 years back that alcohol was the recommended solvent to flush the steel lines and cylinders (all rubber parts replaced). Like others I had good success using gasoline to clean grease from contaminated brake linings, but never had much luck cleaning and putting brake shoes back into service that had become saturated with brake fluid, no matter what they were cleaned with. Nowadays with a few more $ in my pocket I wouldn't even consider it, new shoes are relatively inexpensive.

Back to PackardV8's question about lacquer thinner and acetone, I don't have formulation info in front of me for lacquer thinner but I think the major components are a chemical class known as esters (like methyl or ethyl acetate), not ketones (like acetone or MEK).