I was wondering ...
These strips supposedly detect copper levels produced by the
degeneration of copper lining in steel brake lines (I had no idea steel
brake lines were copper-lined, anybody here know that?).
Does this mean the strips are useless for testing fluid in stainless
lines which, presumably, don't need or have a copper lining?
What about cupro-nickel lines which, presumably, might have a high level
of copper almost from the start (this is a SWAG, I have no idea what the
chemical stability of this material is--it may be much higher than the
copper lining in steel lines)?
At the very least, these issues should be addressed by the FASCAR people
(along with the PhD dissertation on how well this product works).
I can envision the yahoos at my neighborhood quickie oil-change shop
pointing out to unsuspecting customers that their brake fluid must be
changed immediately, because the copper level isn't high enough (half ;)
bs
Dave Russell wrote:
> Bob,
>
> I believe you are talking about "FASCAR". You can read more about it here.
> http://www.brakestrips.net/tech_myth_stopper.htm
> http://brakefluidtest.com/news/specialreports/map-standards-and-guideli.shtml
>
> Basically it tests for the amount of copper in your brake fluid.
> Increased copper content in the fluid indicates that the corrosion
> inhibitors in the fluid are being used up & above a certain level of
> copper indicates that the inhibitors are nearing the end of their useful
> life. This is considered a more important test of brake fluid condition
> than the commonly used moisture level test which shows nothing about how
> corrosive the fluid may be.
>
> I've been using this test method for several years & it appears to
> correlate well with fluid condition. It also appears to be geared toward
> selling more frequent brake system flushes & refills.
>
> New fluid shows zero copper. Three year old fluid shows moderate copper.
> The fluid in my truck is 24 years old & shows a very high copper
> content. I'm just letting it go to see what finally happens.
>
> Sales gimmick or important test? - Who really knows? It does appear that
> loss of corrosion inhibitors (copper in the brake fluid) is more of a
> problem with ABS systems than with the older systems.
>
> Dave Russell
>
>
>
***************************************************************
Bob Spidell San Jose, CA bspidell@comcast.net
'67 Austin-Healey 3000 '56 Austin-Healey 100M
***************************************************************
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