Re: Brak Fluid: Synthetic vs. Regular
Yearly change out is good. Despite popular belief, you can't tell the condition by the color. With regular heating/cooling cycles at the calipers with the rotors, lots of heat is built up that can pull or condense moisture from anywhere. Whether you know it or not or how long it takes to occur can vary. Brake fluid is one of the things that folks don't change often enough I don't think. They use their rigs all the time and don't realize there's a problem till it's too late, then you're replacing more stuff just to fix what broke. Preventative maintenance is a good thing on many levels.
I did a lot of searching for fluids back when I did the original Vanco 15" test kit. Blaine recommended I look for something with the highest wet and dry boiling points I could find. After some searching, he then told me what to look for. That stuff was great, but is no longer available. Having just upgraded my Vanco kit again, I went on the search again for new fluid for yet another change out. I do this yearly basically but forgot and ran a bit long on the last one. Fluids have changed a bit but what I use currently and have for a couple changes now is the Valvoline Synthetic Syn Power or whatever it's called in the grey/silver bottle with blue label. From what I can find here, it is slightly different than the really good old valvoline but still had the highest wet/dry boiling points. It works well and I've had zero issues. Just be sure to bleed properly. Been running this or the original good stuff since the original swap when the rig was basically new off the lot back in '05. Multiple change outs but like I said, went a little long on the last one.
Best of Luck,
Mike