Corrosion on caliper

[hard road]

I read some place that Dot5 was developed specifically for HD? Dot 4 strips the chrome off a little too easily.

I would agree youd need to start with a new system and have rubber seals resistant to silicone.

My BMW uses light mineral oil in the clutch, 'never' needs changing, apparently....I think 'never' is defined as 'within the warranty period' by BMW.

yeah just like the auto box in their cars that never needs its oil changing !!!! fecking crazy   

[Eric GSX1400K3]

Yep, "sealed for life" from an oem means "just past the warranty then your on your own, unless you want us to rob you blind"

[Hooli]

I believe a lot of french stuff uses Dot5 too. I'm not sure but I think it might be used in the old shitrun BXs etc that have liquid suspension.

[gsxbarmy]

They do warn of that and say to wash off straight away

To be fair Mr Notty I have a spray bottle of soapy water in my shed on permanent stand by..
Whenever I bleed brakes (or swap the calipers) I ALLWAYS have this within a 2 second reach!!
Irrespective of whether the Calipers are OEM or Refurbs I liberally spray around the bleed nipple after Ive finished bleeding (Just in case)..
I do find it surprising that a fluid hasnt been developed thats NOT so visciuos with paint work!
After all, hydraulic oil isnt corrosive !

Absolutely and after I've washed it off, it then gets a liberal dose of brake cleaner to make doubly sure.

A (good) few years back I bought some pipe cleaner sticks and also now cut a piece off one of the cleaners and wrap it around the base of the nipple. It's narrow enough to not get in the way of the nipple spanner, but absorbent enough to catch slight spillage without it getting near the caliper.

Pipe Cleaner (example)

[1AW022]

DOT5 (silicone) ... not to be confused with DOT5.1 (glycol/synthetic)
Problem with it mainly.. .is that its compressible... so not real good for small cylinders with low fluid capacity.
And while it won't absorb water (hygroscopic) any water absorption into the system means you still have bubbles of water in the system that boils off when things get hot... and you end up with zero brakes and you can still get rust/corrosion in the bores.
And never use it in a system with ABS.