When was the last time you changed your brake fluid? Yes, that's right, your brake fluid. Not just topped it off, but changed it? If you answer "never" or "years ago", you may wish to consider that failure to do so every couple of years can be an expensive oversight!
The problem is twofold: conventional brake fluid is hygroscopic (it absorbs moisture from the atmosphere) and water causes corrosion. A third consideration is that constant heating and cooling (which happens when you use your brakes a lot) also causes eventual deterioration of hydraulic fluid. Most British sports cars these days, we surmise, are either restored (or at least very clean) and saved for occasional use only, or they are worked very hard as everyday drivers! The former spend most of their time parked, driven only occasionally; the latter are driven often and the brakes get lots of use.
If your car does a lot of sitting around, every time you take it out, there is a chance that one or more wheel cylinders will have stopped working due to corrosion. Eventually, you will have to rebuild your brakes again, even though you have put very few miles on your car. With today's costs for wheel and master cylinders, changing brake fluid regularly seems a much more attractive alternative.
Perhaps the most attractive alternative, however, is making your next change the last one you'll need to do! How is this possible in light of what we said earlier? By replacing your conventional brake fluid with silicone brake fluid.
There have been many views put forth about this product, but two are inescapable: it must work as brake fluid or it never would have received DOT 5 approval, and, it physically cannot absorb moisture. This latter point was confirmed in a test performed by two members of the Society of Automotive Engineers, with the results published in SAE Paper
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