Silicone Brake Fluid

[Joe L.]

silicone brake fluid joe lucia i'm still very interested in learning of experiences that others may have had after installing silicone brake fluid dot in their corvette braking systems i'm particularly interested in situations in which the silicone fluid has been correctly installed i e complete removal of glycol based fluid and careful installation of silicone fluid to avoid air entrainment

[David K.]

Re: Silicone Brake Fluid

re silicone brake fluid david knowles after much research i installed dot brake fluid in my ' i heard conflicting reports that it causes prevents corrosion because it does not mix with water i also heard that there is a danger when changing elevation since i live in florida i didn't worry about changing elevation too much fortunately i have not had any brake problems since i put in the fluid over a year ago my system was pretty much dry when i got it i had the ss inserts done to all calipers i blew compressed air through all the lines i installed a new master cylinder while i re build the original then i added dot brake fluid one additional note when i had some rear end work done wheel bearings alignment etc the mechanic accidentally put in dot brake fluid when i notified him that i had dot in my system he flushed the brake system and re filled it with dot using a vacuum pump this was last december

[Carl R.]

Re: Silicone Brake Fluid

re silicone brake fluid carl rose dear mr lucia i also installed silicon brake fluid in my car i flushed the entire system with denatured alcohol and was concurrently replacing the flex lines and front steel lines i did not use compressd air to blow out the system i re filled it using silicone and bled using the pedal pump method and it has worked excellent since i already had stainless calipers i was mostly concerned about ease of handling since i understand it may not protect against future corrosion i did not have any problems bleeding the system and i live in austin so elevation is not a problem it was so good to spill this on the master cylinder and realize that i could just wipe it right off shall convert my mustang when next working on the brake system carl oh the refill and bleed used about quarts at a quart

[Dave.T]

Re: Silicone Brake Fluid

re silicone brake fluid dave t i rebuilt the brake systems in my ' and ' about years ago i used florida caliper zero tolerance calipers rebuilt the master cylinders replaced all rubber hoses flushed the lines with denatured alcohol and blew them clear with compressed air i used standard bleeding techniques and have firm pedals with no apparent problems i've owned these cars for over yrs and made the switch to see if i can avoid rebuilding the brakes every or years if any one is interested i have an extra set of zero tolerance pistons and seals for sale i'm asking e mail me privately if interested dave thornton thornton kode net

[Pete Lindahl]

Re: Silicone Brake Fluid

re silicone brake fluid pete lindahl joe redid the original system had the calipers and master cylinder sleeved on my ' in blew out the lines reassembled the system put silicone brake fluid in bled the system and haven't touched it since i also have a good friend who happens to be the original owner of a ' and to talk to him he nearly got rid of the car because of the constant brake maintenance he installed ss brakes and silicone brake fluid in the late s or early s and hasn't encounter any problems i'm convinced that ss sleeved brakes and master cylinder plus silicone brake fluid are the way to go if you want to drive your car instead of work on it pete

[Joe L.]

Re: Silicone Brake Fluid

re silicone brake fluid joe lucia something else which is very important that i neglected to mention in my original post i am particularly interested in learning of the experiences of corvette owners who live in high altitude areas like denver cheyenne reno etc and use silicone fluid i don't live in such an area but i like to take my car on trips over the sierra nevadas i have had problems for years with brake pedal sponginess low pedal this problem has occurred with both glycol based dot and silicone dot fluid however if there are corvette owners who live in high altitude areas and use silicone fluid without problems that would end at least in my mind that there is any fundamental problem with silicone fluid at high altitude i'm greatly interested in hearing from such owners

[Everett Ogilvie]

Re: Silicone Brake Fluid

re silicone brake fluid everett ogilvie joe i live in new mexico at one mile high my car is a ' and it has silicone brake fluid i have not experienced any issues however i have only had the car about months the calipers have been sleeved but the work and the fluid replacement were done by a previous owner so i cannot give you any details about that my understanding from what i have read is that issues may be encountered when changing altitudes not staying at a constant altitude i do not know how accurate this is and i am not totally convinced that air will out gas into the brake system from the silicone fluid as a car goes up in altitude in a properly bled system i have not driven my car from one mile high over the foot passes nearby yet but will let you know if i have any trouble as far as the fluid working fine at one mile high no issues

[Daniel W.]

Re: Silicone Brake Fluid

re silicone brake fluid dan wilson joe i too converted my car a to silicone brake fluid a few years ago like everett i live at an elevation of about one mile above sea level and last summer drove the car from my location over six feet plus elevation passes over the course of three days without any braking problems or changes in the feel of the pedal hope this helps

[Joe L.]

Re: Silicone Brake Fluid

re silicone brake fluid joe lucia thanks dan and everett the fact that there are at least two cars equipped with silicone fluid and operated at high altitude which don't exhibit brake pedal loss absolutely disproves the theory and or opinion that there is a fundamental problem with silicone fluid at high altitude if there were a fundamental problem with silicone fluid there should be no cars so equipped which are unaffected

[Steve G.]

Re: Silicone Brake Fluid

re silicone brake fluid steve g i have a ' with zero tolerance pistons stainless sleeved calipers stainless brake lines and silicone brake fluid i did this about years ago i drive up to lake tahoe from the bay area via hwy at least twice a year i have not experienced any braking problems
Northern California Corvette Association