More brake questions - Brake Fluid

[Jim Bowen 1]

how important is it? when i went to fit my brakes i forgot about the fluid, so had to buy some stuff from local garage, it was £5.99 a litre and made by carplan, its dot 4 and says synthectic on the bottle..

 

i didn't do my brakes in the end, so not used it, is it worth getting something else or will that be fine?

[Dec 1]

Any idea what sort of fluid is in the car already?

 

dot-4 is fine though. dot-4+ and dot-5.1 can also be used, and have a slightly higer boiling point. The three are also intermixable (not ideal though), so I wouldn't worry too much about topping up with dot-4(+) when there is dot-5.1 in the system and vv.

 

You can get expensive racing high boiling point brake fluids, but for normal road use any of the above is fine.

 

The one to stay away from is dot-5, as it's silicone based and corrodes seals.

[dinkus 10]

DOT 4 is the bog standard stuff that the car probably has in it already, so it'll be fine.

 

You can't buy DOT 5 anywhere nowadays, but if you can, avoid like the plague, as Dec says.

 

DOT 5.1 is the best readily available stuff as it's got a higher boiling point and is slightly more resistant to water soakage, but whatever floats your boat :)

[Supercharged 2]

If that bottle's still sealed then it will be fine, never use fluid from a container that's been open for more that a few months

 

VW supply DOT 4 and the VAG stuff seems pretty good tbh.

[KIPVW 0]

The stuff from the dealers is around £5 or £6 by the way for a litre.

[shawshankkid 1]

I had my brake fluid changed at the dealers last week, the best £48 i've ever spent on the car. the brakes are now brilliant and i wish i'd had them done properly ages ago (the dealers use 5.1 by the way) go and get them done !!