brake questions. silicone fluid, or not?

ok, ive already orderded new brake lines,master cylinder and wheel cylinder rebuild kitsand the rubber lines to the wheel cylinders. my question is is there any real advantage to useing silicone fluid?, is there anything eles i need to replace or rebuild? my 59 bel air has serious stoping issues that need to be adderessed before i can drive it anywhere! any help is welcomed

 

I never used Silicone fluid, mainly for i never got it when it was time to fill the brakesystem.

And ive heard it can be a troublesome getting it in (you can get a spongy pedal).

And the main reason for using it as i understand it is thet it will not hurt your paint job when leaking.
And with new hardware it never leaked for me.

In short i dont think its worth the trouble....

 

I have been using it for 11 years. They say it allows a 'spongy' feel to the pedal but that doesnt bother me since I know its normal and acceptable. The reason I really wanted to try it is that I hate the sludge and corrosion I find in old wheel cylinders. Silicone fluid does not absorb moisture and does not allow sludge and corrosion. It is GREAT stuff! I keep my cars a long time and appreciate that my wheel cylinders and pistons are not gummy and sticking. I have the 47 Mercury I bought in 1967, I drove my 66 Chevy truck 17 years, my 35 and 39 Fords 11 years so far, my mom drove her 66 Chrysler Convertible 25 years, I've had it 8. If you dont keep your cars very long, the benefits of silicone may not matter to you.

 

Pinball, if you want, go to the AACA forum and do a search. This is a much talked about topic. I wouldn't use it because you can't mix regular fluid with it in an emergency. It will find leaks at fittings that regular won't. And if you are driving the car regularly you shouldn't have trouble with moisture. Just my opinion. They ruined a flatbed's brake system mixing in silicone fluid at work, the stuff gelled in the master cylinder and truck had NO brakes. I was the lucky guy driveing.

 

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Pinball, if you want, go to the AACA forum and do a search. This is a much talked about topic. I wouldn't use it because you can't mix regular fluid with it in an emergency. It will find leaks at fittings that regular won't. And if you are driving the car regularly you shouldn't have trouble with moisture. Just my opinion. They ruined a flatbed's brake system mixing in silicone fluid at work, the stuff gelled in the master cylinder and truck had NO brakes. I was the lucky guy driveing.

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There is a label on each bottle of silicone fluid that states it is compatible with other fluids. If it finds a leak at a fitting, its obvious that fitting needs to be tightened. I've had NO problems of ANY kind that were caused by silicone. Every car I ever worked on (except those with silicone) since 1964 has had sludge and corrosion in the wheel cylinders caused by moisture. These cars WERE driven daily. Silicone is GREAT stuff and would not be on the market if it was not approved and accepted.
Which AACA forum? There must be a hundred.

 

If you do run silicone, make sure to keep a bottle in the car in case of trouble. And make sure you don't want to paint the car after using it, because if any leaks on to the body then paint won't stick there (without a lot of careful prep work)

I used it on a couple cars years ago, but I wasn't impressed enough to ever use it again.

 

I'm with Bruce, any car I do new brakes on gets the stuff, mostly because I also dislike dealing with the nasty crap growing in my wheel cylinders. I noticed no spongy feel on my 62 or 64 Fords with manual brakes.

 

The debate about DOT5(silicone)brake fluid seems like it's been around forever.
I've been an auto. tech. for the Postal Service since 1983 and I know for a fact that the U.S.P.S. has been using DOT5 in ALL of the various types of vehicles they run.
This includes quite a few jeeps that we converted from DOT3 to DOT5 after the post office purchased them.We simply syringed the original brake fluid from the master cylinder and then pressure bled them with DOT5.
I've used DOT5 in my personal vehicles and even in a few oval track late models and never can recall ANY problems related to using or changing over to DOT5.
DOT5 won't eat the paint off your car and it doesn't absorb water either.

 

I have used silicone fluid in the last two hot rods built. No problems, firm pedal, no leaks, no blistered paint where master meets firewall. I Love It.

 

I used it 25 years ago when it was the hot lick. It worked fine. I don't bother using it any more. I just don't feel it's necessary for me.

One thing I'd like someone to explain to me is the "spongy pedal". I never took physics but I've been told that you can not compress a liquid. I don't think it said "You can not compress a liquid except for silicone brake fluid." I believe it applies to all liquids. To get a spongy pedal you need some type of trapped compressable gas or a poor adjustment. My guess is that they didn't get all the air out when they converted to silicone fluid but finally got it out when they went back to DOT3...Therefore silicone fluid gives a spongy pedal. I never had a spongy pedal. I'm still learning but I personally believe the spongy pedal deal is a wives tale that gets perpetuated on forums like this. I am not bad mouthing any one who believes differently.

 

I've used it in 3 cars. Two of which I still have, the 37 p/u has had it for about 14 years and no problems. Just converted my Crestliner two months ago. I'm tired of going through the brake system ever two years. The only problem I've had is with brake light pressure switches. It seams to ruin them, so the answer is put a 52 chevy lever switch on the pedal.

 

thank you all for your input. its amazing how many differing opinions there are on this subject! once again thanks for the help