6000 mile service....

[Gavin]

I don't have a local dealership...so it looks like I will be doing some work on my bike myself. If you see an explosion from New Mexico, that was me

I had a quick question. Brake Fluid. The manual says Dot 4....the cover over both the brakes and the clutch say Dot 5.

Which should I go buy?

Gavin

[protomech]

DOT 4.5?

Probably DOT 5, but definitely good to check..

[barboo]

DOT 4 absorbs water and changes color over time. Does your brake fluid look amber colored or dark brown? If so, very likely DOT 4 is what is in there now.

You can do a quick experiment to validate that hypothesis:
Pull some of the fluid out, mix about the same amount of water with it, and shake it. If the water separates from the fluid it is synthetic = DOT 5.

You do not want to mix DOT 4 (glycol/borate) and DOT 5 (synthetic) - it makes a gooey mess in your braking system. If you wanted to go to DOT 5 you'd have to completely dry/clean out your current system...much safer to stay with DOT 4 assuming that is what is there now.

[Richard230]

Do not use DOT 5 brake fluid.  If you want a higher spec brake fluid than DOT 4, you can find a synthetic brake fluid marked 5.1 or 6.1.  I have no idea where they get these numbers from.   

[BrammoBrian]

Gavin,

Please use DOT 4 brake fluid. 

https://www.brammo.com/documents/Empulse_Owner's_Manual-2013&2014-Release1.05(web%20version).pdf

See page 56 of the owner's manual for Brakes and page 58 for Clutch.

[Gavin]

You got it...I read the manual...I was just confused by the covers

Thanks

G

[Virtually Yours]

I went with this it was a little more $$$ but not that much...
http://www.amsoil.com/shop/by-product/other-products/brake-fluid/series-600-dot-4-racing-brake-fluid/

[Shinysideup]

Although I had my dealer change out my brake fluid, so I don't know what spec they used, the covers on my Empulse R, purchased 12/12 say to use DOT 3÷5 , whatever the heck that means.

In researching this cryptic term, I found this on a Ducati forum:

"That lid confuses almost everybody, it means
use DOT 3 and anything up to but not including DOT 5 which is a silicone
fluid which is NOT compatible with 3 and 4 which are compatible.
DOT 4 has a higher boiling point so use DOT 4 if available."

Oddly, I also learned that DOT 5.1 is NOT silicone-based but is glycol-based like 3 and 4. Reminds me of the saying, The nice thing about computer standards is that there so very many to choose from. And also, recently, since DOT is a government entity: NSA, the only government agency that listens.



(I'd go with Brian's direction on this to use DOT 4!)

[Jeff]

Because my housemate is a sometimes AFM racer, there's the unicorn blood Castrol SRF sitting around the garage, so that's what I'm using.