all the silicon brake fluid ive used in the past has been purple in color. i bought a new pint, sealed from the local NAPA and when i removed the seal the fluid looks dark and on a rag its yellowish in color. my question is, is there going to be a problem usining it in a system that has the purple colored fluid. i checked it in a small container and it didnt curl like oil in water. just wonder if anyone else has encountered this
I used to use silicone in my Chevelle. When I installed disc brakes on the front I was advised by the manufacturer to only use standard brake fluid. Just my 2 cents.
If it's DOT 5 it'll work with any body's DOT 5. Different brands are often different colors. The Harley-Davidson brand fluid is purple and expensive as hell.
They have stuff called DOT 5.1 an upgrade to DOT 4. No bueno in silicone only applications. But besides that you should be fine.
I have never seen DOT 5 any different than the Purple you speak of. I worked Retail Auto parts for about 20 years, Take it back & get Puprple DOT 5. Could be miss labled or somthing alltogether different.
DOT 5 is always silicone and from what i've seen always purple. They have DOT 5.1 which is hi temp like DOT 5 but non-silicone so you can mix it with DOT 3 or DOT 4. True DOT 5 can not be mixed with 3 and 4. So if it was yellowish like regular brake fluid and not purple you might want to look into that!
I tryed looking on the internet, with no luck. If NAPA sells it you would think it would be ok. But if it were me i'd get the purple stuff for peace of mind. It is brakes we're talking about.
I use dot 5 in my car, after 5 years my master went bad, when I took it off the fluid was a nasty yellow color. It was purple when I put it in. I thought maybe it was contaminated with old dot 3 fluid even though the system was flushed and bled. I would not use the yellow stuff.
I always had the understanding that silicone brake fluid was purple to easilyshow that it was different from regular brake fluid.
I wouldn't put any DOT 5 that wasn't purple in my rod or a customers rod for the simple reason that say a year from now you check the fluid level or bleed the brakes or whatever, and peak in the master cylinder reservoir and see non-purple fluid... you just might fool yourself into making a BAD ERROR. I've never had the purple fluid change color on me, but I have only used it on brand new installs, so I don't know how it behaves in a system that has previously had alcohol based fluid used in it. Good technology is supposed to make things simpler, not freakin kill your family.
I have a gallon of military aircraft fluid and it is yellowish brown in color. It is Mil Spec: Mil-B-46176A . They do sell labels that advise not mix it with others on EBAY but the purple color makes sense.
.Mil acft Struts & brakes, hydraulic pumps etc., different flavors hydraulic fluid. 5606 etc. The .mil trucks and hmvee etc made the switch to silicone brake fluid many moons ago. It was purple then, too. DOT 5 is good stuff but it's not compatible with old school rubber compounds (supposedly). I never had any trouble with high quality DOT 3, it's fairly thin viscosity and bleeds real easily. It does need to be changed periodically.
DOT 5 is perfectly fine in any system provided it is flushed of any glycol based fluids first. The down side is it’s not hygroscopic so it requires more frequent maintenance. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Used Russell silicone brake fluid when all new system installed. Had to add fluid when rear residual valve installed, when changed to Camaro rotors and calipers. Check it periodically, never added additional fluid since 1986. Oh yeah, it’s purple. Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
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