I heard from another racer that Ford has changed their HD brake fluid and it's not the cheap racer fluid it once was. Does anyone have any solid info on this? My local ford dealership has a less than helpful parts guy "We only have one kind of brake fluid."

 

There are two Ford brake fluids. One comes in a white 7(?) oz. bottle that's DOT 3. It's nothing special, dry or wet.

The other one (which I call Focus fluid) is DOT 4, comes in a 12-14 oz BLUE bottle and has a decent wet BP (~380°) and ~500° dry BP. It was $12 when I bought it two weeks ago.... not the bargain it once was. The parts guy was also surprised that my "Focus" used it anymore. *shrug*

Andy

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by maxQ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">There are two Ford brake fluids. One comes in a white 7(?) oz. bottle that's DOT 3. It's nothing special, dry or wet.

The other one (which I call Focus fluid) is DOT 4, comes in a 12-14 oz BLUE bottle and has a decent wet BP (~380°) and ~500° dry BP. It was $12 when I bought it two weeks ago.... not the bargain it once was. The parts guy was also surprised that my "Focus" used it anymore. *shrug*

Andy
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They went to the white plastic bottle sold under the Motorcraft name about a year or more ago at about the same price as the old Ford Heavy Duty Fluid. My dealer said it was the same stuff but who is to say how much they really know. The Focus fluid is something totally different and is silicone I beleive and you DO NOT want to mix it with regualr brake fluid at all as they are not compatible.

I still have a few unopened blue steel bottles of the older stuff and the text on teh side of the white and blue bottles are basically the same. The problem with private label, commodity stuff like this is that you never know what changes are made upstream of buying the bottle off the Ford dealer's shelf. You never know if the stuff "meets or exceeds" certain boiling points by just a little bit or if it truly blows the lid off Ford's minimal requirements.

I have used the Ford blue bottles for over 10 years in street and race cars and will continue to use the stuff in the white bottles until I either have a problem myself that is attributable to the fluid or until I see something that I actually believe from someone who really has access to the right information and not just assumptions or projections.

 

I recently searched for most manufacturer's data on brake fluid. This is the only official info I found on the Ford DOT 3 brake fluid:

http://www.fcsdchemicalsandlub...ducts

550 F dry boiling point, wet boiling point unspecified so DOT 3 min value can be assumed at 284 F.

There is also a Ford Super DOT 4 brake fluid, and info about is is here:

https://www.fleet.ford.com/tru...9.pdf
Dry boiling point quoted as 260 C (500 F) and wet boiling point quoted as 180 C (356 F). It is not made by Ford as listed in the link.

I made an up to date list of wet and dry boiling points and listed prices for most fluids here:

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=829503

Use Motul 600 fluid. Best bang for the buck.

 

Chris has probably already seen this reply to the same Q on it.com but, for the good of the order...

Ford changed the PN on the HD fluid. It used to be C6AZ-19542-AA but is now called PM-1. The old stuff had BP listed as 550 (dry) and 290 (wet).

It's my understanding that it is the same and I've been using it in my SS car this year. No problems to date but I haven't seen a truly hot weekend yet.

K

 

maxQ, we definately arent talking about the blue focus fluid.

ill also add that my use of the ford HD fluid before and after they went from metal to plastic cans i noticed no difference and never a lack of performance while racing. i find no reason to use anything else.

 

So the focus stuff in the blue tin container is not the good stuff? I've been using that since the beginning with no problems... hm.

What does the "proper" ford HD fluid bottle look like? It's dot3, not dot4, correct?

 

the "Focus" stuff works fine, I ran it all during the '02 season, very good stuff

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by descartesfool &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I recently searched for most manufacturer's data on brake fluid. This is the only official info I found on the Ford DOT 3 brake fluid:

http://www.fcsdchemicalsandlub...ducts

550 F dry boiling point, wet boiling point unspecified so DOT 3 min value can be assumed at 284 F.

There is also a Ford Super DOT 4 brake fluid, and info about is is here:

https://www.fleet.ford.com/tru...9.pdf
Dry boiling point quoted as 260 C (500 F) and wet boiling point quoted as 180 C (356 F). It is not made by Ford as listed in the link.
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I've stood in the Ford dealership with two bottles in my hand, the white DOT 3 fluid and the dark blue DOT 4 fluid. They are different and have different wet boiling points, as specified by decartesfool's post above. The dark blue DOT 4 fluid says "Focus" in the little marketing blurb. This is what I use with no ill effects so far.


That's all I know.

 

Is the Ford HD fluid considerably better than Valvoline SynPower Dot 4? Not that I'm really concerned about boiling my fluid at this point, I'm just curious how the hierarchy of cheap brake fluid goes.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by robbin &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Is the Ford HD fluid considerably better than Valvoline SynPower Dot 4?</TD></TR></TABLE>

As noted in the list posted by descartesfool (see link in his post above), the dry boiling point (relevant for fresh fluid) is better for the Ford HD fluid, and the wet boiling point (relevant for fluid that hasn't been changed in a while) is better for the Valvoline.

Motul RBF 600 has higher dry AND wet boiling points than either of these fluids.