Switch to silicon brake fluid?

[tubman]

If you are having that many problems with corrosion in your brake system, there must be some other problem. I have found that the typical life of DOT-3(4) brake fluid to be 9-15 years. How many "beaters" are out there with 20+ year old brake fluid that are still functioning? A bunch. In my opinion, you have ongoing contamination in your system which needs to be flushed out and eliminated.

I would advise against using DOT-5 for a number of reasons. The most important of these is that, since it is incompatible with ABS systems, it will get harder to get and much more expensive in the future. I do have experience with it and do not recommend it. I put DOT-5 in a '68 Corvette in the late nineties. It was a bitch to get bled properly. It had to be heated to drive out the air and I had to close the bleeder after each pump of the pedal (this almost cost me the relationship with my late girlfriend). After I finally got it in with a firm pedal, it was great. However, it was such a problem that I swore off it after then.

These days, I use DOT-4 in all of my cars. I have an electronic doohickey I got from Amazon that tests the moisture content of the brake fluid. I have found that collector cars stored under good conditions will go 9-15 years before the moisture content gets high enough to become a potential problem. I test my cars every couple of years, and if the moisture content starts getting to be a problem, I grab a fresh bottle of DOT-4 and run it through the system. It has been mentioned that I am a believer in "Speed-Bleeders". That is true, and allows me to cycle the fluid with a minimal expenditure of time and effort all by myself.

I use DOT-4 instead of DOT-3 because it's a little better and costs about the same. Bleeding is the same as DOT-3. If you have the extra money, a lot of time, and a cooperative companion, DOT-5 is OK, but I'm short on all of those these days.