The relevant difference for Triumph owners is that the DOT 5 will not eat
paint the way DOT 3 does.
Joe
-----Original Message-----
From: triumphs-bounces@autox.team.net
[mailto:triumphs-bounces@autox.team.net] On Behalf Of Dave
Sent: Friday, June 01, 2012 8:27 PM
To: triumphs@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [TR] brake fluid
but the question still remains (at least for me) what's the difference
between dot 3 and dot 4?
-----Original Message-----
From: Randall
Sent: Friday, June 01, 2012 5:32 PM
To: 'Don Hiscock'
Cc: triumphs@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [TR] brake fluid
> If "synthetic" fluids are not based on petroleum, then what are they
> based on?
Sorry, I mistyped. I meant to say not directly based on petroleum.
Petroleum may have been the starting point for some of the chemicals
involved, but there were multiple chemical reactions involved in producing
the brake fluid, it wasn't simply distilled or cracked from petroleum (the
way gasoline, diesel fuel, "conventional" motor oil, etc are).
I did a bit of poking around on the net. According to one paper, one
formula for conventional brake fluid is approx 53% glycol ether and 35%
Boric acid ester; plus smaller amounts of polyglycol, bisphenol A,
"antioxidant", and "anticorrosive".
"Glycol ether" and "boric acid ester" both cover an entire class of
chemicals, the paper did not give specifics. But apparently glycol ethers
are commonly made by reacting ethylene oxide with anhydrous alcohol in the
presence of a suitable catalyst. Boric acid esters are made by combining
boric acid with either an alcohol or a phenol, then using various techniques
to extract the desired ester from the result. One text said:
"Some of the methods that have been used to separate methyl borate from the
azeotrope are extraction with sulfuric acid and distillation of the enriched
phase (18), treatment with calcium chloride or lithium chloride (19, 20),
washing with a hydrocarbon and distillation (21), ..." (I didn't pay to
read the remainder of the paper)
Ethylene oxide is produced by oxidizing ethylene gas, which in turn is
produced (by cracking) from petroleum (either oil or natural gas). So there
is your link back to "dinosaur juice".
Does that answer the question?
<g>
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