For spirited driving and a few track days a year, but I was on the track last time and I was experiencing brake fade more than I wanted to early. I have staneless lines but not sure what fluid they put in when it was done. I have a track day this weekend and was wanting to get my new Hawk HPS pads put on as well as a good High Temp Brake fluid.

 

I use Motul RBF 600. (600º dry boiling point).

With this fluid, my Hawk performance ceramic pads, SS lines, and slotted rotors, I don't have brake fade anymore. Even back to back very spirited runs of The Dragon utilizing left-foot braking did not induce fade. Also, downhill mountainous roads, conventional twisties, and hurried stops from interstate speeds also failed to induce fade.

I purchased my Motul RBF 600 from Pegasus Auto Racing Supplies.

 

If your brake fluid is more that 2 months old & you are headed to the track you need to change it. As brake fluid gets old it absorbs moisture which lowers the boiling point of the fluid leading to faded brakes & possibly bent fenders. The fact that you have no idea of what fluid is in there also says change it.

I use ATE brake fluid & for me it works well. For a street driven car a change ever 2 years is fine. Once you hit the track you need fresh fluid.

EDIT.... Bed those new pads in before you get to the track!

 

keep an eye on the wet number as well when you select. There are lots of good fluids out there at tons of price points. Somewhere in my gazillion of posts I think I made a table of dry and wet BPs, but really, just changing it more often with any of the decent fluids will do you tons of benefit.

Matt

 

Basically for perfomance oriented brake fluid the popular choices are Motul 600 and ATE Superblue or ATE Type 200 (same thing, just not blue).

Motul is just a little better for the track, ATE lasts a little longer for street use. Both are great and with the Mini on street tires you'll be fine either way IMO.

Castrol SRF is great but very expensive.

I faded Hawk HPS backing out of my driveway on my old car. Not really, but I don't like those pads. Maybe they work better on the lighter Mini but I'd never track them on my personal car.

- andrew

 

I recommend the Motul RBF 600 over all the others. It has a higher boiling point than ATE.

Also the biggest reason is it's still amber in color so it won't void your warranty if your car is under warranty like the blue fluid will.

 

I run RBF600 myself, awesome stuff!

 

FYI no one voided my warranty when my car was in the dealer with nice blue ATE in it. My dealer has been great & most honest with me. MAG MINI in Columbus.

FWIW what ever fluid you choose to use, make sure it is fresh if you are going to the track.

 

just4fun, you mentioned "brake fade". Did you mean the brakes went away and came back after cooling? If so, that's not a brake fluid problem, more likely a pad problem. If they went away (spongy pedal) and never recovered, that's boiled fluid.

 

Crashton, be careful one of my customers in OH, at an OH dealer not mentioned did get his warranty voided because of the fluid. They tried to void the cars warranty, but he had a fight with them and they only voided his brake warranty. So be careful if you end up at another dealer.

 

I would flip out if they tried to pull that on me....Super Blue is DOT approved.

ATE Typ 200 is the same thing, but not blue.

- Andrew

 

+1 on all points!
For track and aggressive street I would seriously try Hawk HPS "Plus" pads instead of the anemic justa-HPS pads. Any of the fluid mentioned by Andy would more than suffice. Wish I could afford the SRF fluid. I want to try Prospseed RS683 brake fluid, it sports a wet boiling point of 439°F and dry boiling point of 683°F

 

Thanks for the warning Way. My car is long out of warranty so no issues for me on anything I've done.

My dealer is very good & mod friendly, not all dealers are. The ATE blue does meet the specs for brake fluid in a MINI. If anyone has their warranty denied for that I'd recommend that they 1, fight about that being a mod 2, find another dealer to give their business to & 3, tell other MINI owners how poorly that dealer treated you. Dealers need to realize that how they treat a customer in their service department really does affect their business.

 

On a serious note, almost ANY FRESH fluid is better than even an older, wet fluid....so flush those brakes for track events, and $$$ wise, choose a fluid that you will still be able to do it often!!
The best, most expensive fluid in the world will not help you at all if the system has not been maintained, or the fluid is older, moisture laden, and dirty!
As for that dealer voiding warranties for blue brake fluid, I'd love to see what they would do with purple engine oil!!! I hope that individual went straight over the dealers head, and faxed a photo-copy of the side of the can of the brake fluid to the regional service manager....just to prove the product meets/exceeds specs that MINI requires, and that the color is there to aid in flushing the lines.

 

This says it all....

 

Valvoline is Plenty.

But if you want to go with real good stuff I use nothing but NEO Synthetic Brake Fluid. At one point in time this had the highest dry boiling point, I know endless came out with something better now, so did Project Mu but too expensive.

Anyways any of these fluids you have to change out real often.
On my daily driver/track car I use Valvoline, and trust me unless the course is real tight the fluid wont boil.

 

Holy Crp! Some dealers will void the warranty for anything.

"Really, you parked the car in public? Unfortunately that voids the warranty because someone could have drained the engine oil, stolen the brake pads, bled the brakes and let the air out of your tires."

 

Dump the HPS pads and get something more aggressive for the track days. Went thru a set of HPS in a single session.