360 brake fluid

It's that garbage brake fluid Ferrari uses.

Get it out and keep it out.

 

We install the Motul RBF 600 seems to work much better without those issues.

 

I've got this problem with gel chunks in the brake system in my 360. Pedal was feeling very mushy and brake performance was aweful when I bought it, just had the major done which bleed the system and we got all the air out, but two chunks of the gel floated to the top of the resivoir, and despite getting the air out, brake performance is still aweful. I took the car up to triple digits briefly and trying to slow from that speed felt like stopping on ice with ABS and juddering despite dry roads. Any aggressive driving fades the brakes way to fast. We've already manually pumped each brake line and got all the air out, but need to put in some sort of dissolver at this point, which I'm told has worked well on a prior customer's 360 with the same problem.

Any suggestions for best course of action to get the gel chunks out?

 

In over 40 years of driving, I've never heard of such a problems with an automobile. What on earth does the "engineering" department in Maranello do other than drink espresso and take long lunches.

Unbelievable...........Unfathomable........Unacceptabe!

 

Your kidding right? We are discussing a 10 year old car what does engineering have to do with it unless your claim is that the reservoir is disintegrating.

We don't know nearly enough to make any judgments about the cause. How long has he had that fluid in the system? What kind of fluid was it? Did they mix synthetic and non-synthetic? How frequently was it flushed in the past?

 

Ya, I'm not sure when the last time the brake fluid was changed on this car, or what brake fluid was used, buy a prior owner. The car came with very good records overall, but I don't see reason to dig through them to satify my curiousity at the moment as I'm doing full fluids service on everything as part of the major anyway. I'm just looking for suggestions for best course of action to clear out the gel chunks in the brake lines? The current plan is to drain the fluid entirely, put in some "brake cleaner spray fluid" for 24 hours that I'm told worked the last time on another customer's car, then redo the brake fluid.

I assume Motul RBF 600 recommended to fill back up once the problem is fixed?

 

Castrol SRF is quite, quite superior to RBF600. It's pricey but.

 

My comments weren't directed at you but I assume you know that. I surely don't know the best path forward but maybe some of the pros on the board will chime in with some help.

My choices in order would be 1) take it to my mechanic 2) clear all of the lines and use compressed air to blow it out (clearing all segments one by one) then refill and bleed it again 3) go back to option 1.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

Good point. hadn't thought of that. Hence the reason I have choice 1.

 

It is, but unless you are driving the car on a track, you won't notice it at all, and SRF is incompatible with any other fluid due to its synthetic base technology.

Motul 600 is more than enough for a street driven car, I used it in my 997.2 GT3, and bled every two (hard) track days with no issue. I can't imaging a scenario on public roads where you would need the higher boiling point of SRF

 

For street use (which is my driving), my Fcar mech told me to use this (more than enough to handle street use + I am changing it every year anyway).

Valvoline DOT 3 and 4 Synthetic Brake Fluid
http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_x_7080002-P_x_x?cm_mmc=CSE-_-Google-_-VALUE3-_-VALUE4&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=#utm_source=cse&utm_medium=google&utm_campaign=value3&utm_content=value4


One bottle (32Oz) was enough for me to bleed my 4 brakes.

 

I'll probably stick to a more reasonable priced fluid, as I won't track the 360, and I'm also expecting to have to drain a couple times/switch resivoirs until we finally get the brakes functioning properly again.

Thanks for the comments. I'll call Studio47 and discuss our options and keep you guys updated how we eventually correct this gel in the brake line issue. (fortuantely, I can still enjoy the car so long as I'm not out for a high performance drive, so Red Dragon will still get us to dinner tonight safely and in style ).

 

Accepted (in terms of track use versus street use) but it is compatible with regular Dot4 fluids and the seals and metals used therein.

 

You are correct, I just downloaded the data sheet from Castrol. Today is a good day, I learned something new!

 

Cheers!

 

Had my 360 8 years with 65K miles. Always changed the brake fluid every 2 years. Didthe last one myself and used Castrol SRF.

Never had a problem with gelled fluid. But I live in So Cal and keep the car in the garage where it doesn't get very cold.