If your brake fluid isn't Castrol or Girling, and your seals have lasted a
year, then you don't have natural rubber seals. My experience has been
that ordinary American DOT3 fluid (Wagner, I think) will eat the natural
rubber seals in under 6 months, even without driving the car. However,
both Castrol and Girling DOT 3 won't.
I'm personally a big fan of DOT 5 silicone, as it has a whole raft of other
benefits besides being compatible with all brake rubbers (doesn't eat
paint, doesn't get old, doesn't make brake parts rust, etc.). However,
it's somewhat difficult to find, getting more so, and expensive when you
do.
Randall
On Tuesday, March 23, 1999 8:56 AM, George Richardson
[SMTP:grichardson@hpower.com] wrote:
>
> How about DOT 5 silicone fluid then?
>
> I don't know how you could verify the material the seals are made of,
although
> I've used DOT3 in my TR3 for about a year now.
>
> Barry Schwartz wrote:
>
> > >I've been told that the Stag requires that you use only Girling brake
> > >fluid or the seals will give out. Since this is a Lockheed brake
system
> > >with nothing special about it that I can see, I find this hard to
> > >believe, especially since none of my manuals say anything in
particular
> > >about it.
> > *****************************************
> > This is true of all BL cars of pre 80's vintage. This had to do with
the
> > material used in the seals of the brake components. They *were* made
of
> > natural rubber and as such REQUIRED the use of Girling Dot 4 brack
fluid.
> > If you used anything less than your seals WOULD swell incorrectly and
fail
> > within a short period. If you can verify that all the seals in your
system
> > are synthic rubber and not natural rubber, then it would be safe to use
Dot
> > 3, but unless there is a problem getting Girling Dot 4 (shouldn't be,
every
> > auto store I've been in, and even some stores like K-Mart, and Target
> > carry it. It's not much more than Dot 3) then why take a chance?
> >
> > Barry Schwartz (San Diego) bschwart@pacbell.net
> >
> > 72 V6 Spitfire (daily driver)
> > 70 GT6+ (when I don't drive the Spit)
> > 70 Spitfire (long term project)
>
>
>
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