[Healeys] silicone brake fluid

[Bob Spidell]

I've used silicone BF in my BJ8 for close to 30 years (and when I 
replaced the brake MC, 15-20 years and 80-100K miles ago, I disregarded 
the same warning).  As somebody mentioned, your problem is symptomatic 
of the 'check valve'--aka 'foot valve--malfunctioning or damaged.  I had 
similar problem with my brakes on a long road trip; had to pump the 
pedal a couple times on every application (for a couple thousand miles).

We put the highly-touted Castrol BF in our 100M after a thorough 
restoration--with all-new brake system--and the fluid jelled when that 
car sat for a couple years.

Side note: Most BFs are calling themselves 'synthetic' these days.  Are 
they a new formulation, or just jumping on the bandwagon as, AFAIK, BF 
has always been synthetic (the glycols used don't occur in nature)?

Bob


On 6/16/2019 7:44 AM, Team.net wrote:
> I have used silicone in all my british cars for 25 years with no problems
>
> On Jun 16, 2019, at 09:31, HealeyRick <healeyrik at gmail.com 
> <mailto:healeyrik at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>> Apparently, silicone can cause swelling of the seals in Girling and 
>> Lockheed systems: http://www.gomog.com/brakes.html I have a Howe 
>> hydraulic clutch in my Nasty Boy, and that also came with the 
>> advisory not to use silicone fluid.
>>
>> Rick Neville
>>
>> On Sun, Jun 16, 2019 at 8:24 AM Brian Drab <bgdrab at redzone.ca 
>> <mailto:bgdrab at redzone.ca>> wrote:
>>
>>     Last week I completed a driving tour in our BJ8. It was a great
>>     tour and everything ran well except for one thing.  4 or 5 times,
>>     when I used the clutch, the clutch master cylinder bypassed. The
>>     rest of the time it worked well. As I don’t want to be caught
>>     without a clutch at a later date I am changing the clutch master
>>     cylinder. I have received a replacement and am preparing to
>>     install it.
>>
>>     On the box is a quick summary of the bleeding procedure under a
>>     warning – “Using Silicon Brake fluid will void warranty”. I have
>>     used silicon fluid for well over 10 tears and never experienced
>>     any problems with it and have never seen or heard of this type of
>>     warning before. I have never heard of any destructive qualities
>>     of Silicon fluid.
>>
>>     My question is – does anyone have any idea what it is about.
>>
>>     For me to change to Dot4 fluid is quite a big deal as I would be
>>     changing out the clutch as well as the brake system seeing as
>>     they share a common reservoir.
>>
>>     I’d appreciate any comments on the warning.
>>
>>     Brian Drab
>>
>>     BJ8
>>
>>
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