Braking, Wheels, Tires, Suspension Modifications to Brake Rotors, Calipers, Wheels, Tires, Springs, Struts, Coilovers, Swaybars, Strut Tower Braces, etc.

DOT 4 or DOT 5 fluid?

Thread Tools
 
Old 08-24-2010 | 08:02 AM
  #1  
boostintibby's Avatar
Thread Starter
Senior Member
 
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 183
Likes: 0
From: OHHHH HIIII OHHHH
Vehicle: 2001 Tib
Default DOT 4 or DOT 5 fluid?

Whats the difference between the 2? My local autozone has them both right next to each other on the shelf, with the same label. Dont see any difference between them other than price and one being 4 and the other 5. dunno.gif
Old 08-24-2010 | 09:06 AM
  #2  
i8acobra's Avatar
Super Moderator
 
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 5,735
Likes: 3
From: Vegas, Baby, Vegas!!!
Vehicle: '14 Ford F-150
Default

DOT 4 is petroleum based. DOT 5 is silicone based. They CANNOT be mixed. That being said, DOT 5 is not the same as DOT 5.1. DOT 5.1 is petroleum based, like DOT 4 and can be mixed with DOT 3 or DOT 4.
Old 08-27-2010 | 02:32 PM
  #3  
daytonmvp23's Avatar
Senior Member
 
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 201
Likes: 0
Vehicle: 2001/Hyundai/Tiburon
Default

Yes stay away from silicone based products. They tend to absorb water faster.
Assuming you stay in a petro based fluid, What you want to look at is Dry and Wet boiling points the higher the boiling point generally the better the brake fluid.
Simply put the dry is super fresh fluid assuming you have bled all the old brake fluid out first
Wet is after the fluid has been in the system for a while and it has absorbed water.
If you by ATE BLUE Brake fluid it makes it easy because once all you see is the pure blue you know you have fully bled the brakes. Then whenever you change you can use the ATE GOLD and bleed until you see only gold color fluid. They are the same fluid just different colors to help make sure you do a complete fluid change. If you daily it you can safely go a year before the next fill and flush people go longer but this is my recommendation. If you autocross and daily no more the 6 months and if you seriously road race the car flush and fill after or before every race.




All times are GMT -6. The time now is 05:54 PM.