What brake fluid for a 147? What is the diff between dot4 and dot4s?

[Thevak]

Just had car 6 months and brakes are spongy under foot. Just not sure what fluid to use if I was to do a bleed?

[Cool Jesus]

Must be fully synthetic Dot 4 minimum to preserve the seals.
Difference? I'm only assuming that Dot 4s (super) is just an improvement on Dot 4, so it has the qualities of Dot 4 with some further added features (what they are, I don't know)

[colcol]

Dot stands for Department Of Transport, and they do all the testing of the different brake fluids to determine the boiling points, etc, should be changed every 2 years as it absorbs moisture that lowers the boiling point and rusts everything.
If you have a manual, then bleed the clutch as well.
Try to use a different colored brake fluid to whats in the car, so when it changes color, you know you have the fresh fluid coming through, Colin.

[Cool Jesus]

Hey col on the subject of colour, how can one tell what colour the fluid in the new bottle will be? Having just changed my clutch master, the old man had an open bottle of PBR fluid and I had valvoline. They were both different in colour, can't remember but I think the PBR was a light blue and can't remember the other. Is it on the bottle?

[Steve S]

If it does not say on the bottle you are not going to know. Valvoline is blue. You can use dot 4 on dot 3 applications. I dont understand why dot 3 is so popular.

[Cool Jesus]

Yeah I figured it would be backward compatible. If the Valvoline was blue then the PBR was the other colour (whatever it may have been). I checked the bottle and it doesn't state the colour of the fluid. Could always check the data sheets on line for an answer, but Col does have a point. It would make it so much easier to see when the new fluid has come through.

[colcol]

Buy a different brand of brake fluid to the same specification, usually i use PBR fluid and Mobil as they were different colors, but sometimes they are not, someone told me once that it all comes out of the same factory, and today is for PBR, so its brown and tommorow it is Mobil so its blue, but sometimes its not, and you don't know until you open the bottle, and don't open the bottle until you are ready to use it.
You should change the brake fluid every 2 years or so, i have a brake fluid moisture indicator, which you stick the probe in the master cylinder and a series of lights glow, green = good, yellow = moisture present, red = danger Will Robinson!, handy little jigger purchased it as a job lot of a retired mechanic, now i only change fluid when i need to, these have come down a hell of a lot in price lately, Colin.