Rich Sandor

ATE doesn't cut the mustard for me.

Our local tracks, Seattle and Mission, are HARD on brakes. (very short straights, very little cooling) and it's HUMID up here compared to Cali. Even with a fresh flush my pedal would get spongy after a full day, especially if the sessions are long and I'm going hard.

When I switched to Motul I immediately noticed a difference. I can't go back to ATE other than for my street cars.

I do like the idea of the different color for flushing purposes though. I wonder if a food dye added to tint a can of motul would be detrimental to performance.

The Gov might be able to pull ATE blue from the shelves, but they can't stop us from adding the tint ourselves.

winders

Rich,

I wasn't suggesting that ATE Super Blue was great for every car in every situation. It does have its place and it is not "crap".

How humid it is shouldn't come into play. How hard the brakes are used clearly does....

Scott

kurt M

You might be ignoring the fact that it is still availble as ate gold, same stuff same price. There are also other fluids that offer the same or better price to peformance.

How humid does come into play. Some fluids resist moisture better than others. Live in tropical northern VA like I do? Fluids like SRF might be the way to go as SRF is little bothered by moisture. It does cost more to start but you get a much longer and more stable service life and better peformance to boot. I use a true boil point tester to check my brake fluid and found that SRF was a better value overall in my conditions. I found that the boil point was stable for the entire piston seal service life. One fill per rebuild cycle. Less messing with the system and more stable brake peformance due to less drift. Ate blue/gold was 2 or 3 flushes per seal service life. Cost per quart was still more for SRF but there was far less messing with fluids and pedal feel drift as the fluid degraded. There are other fluids that work almost as well as SRF but at a far lower price point. You all might be happy with ate more from tradition than true peformance. Kind of like drilled rotors. Racers use them so other racers want to use them.

ProCoach

I'm with Kurt M on this one.

I was an Ate Blau devotee for years (and Castrol LMA before that) based on the balance of street car/track car work when I owned my shop, but after working with Historic F1 cars, Cup cars and other extremely demanding platforms, I've found that the benefits of SRF far outweigh the marginally higher cost for the reasons Kurt outlines above.

Just pouring in some SRF now in preparation for Lime Rock...

winders

Come on guys, read what I am saying.....

Mostly, the brake fluid system is closed so relative humidity from Northern California to the Deep South is not the problem.

The problem is that ATE Super Blue/ATE Type 200 is not the best fluid out there. And I never said it was. All I said is that it works well in certain race car applications. Putting Castrol SRF in my race car (in Northern California or the Deep South) would be a waste of money. My break system does not need Castrol SRF and would not perform better with it.

So, ATE Super Blue/ATE Type 200 are not "crap" when used in the proper application.

Scott

kurt M

I agree with you 100%. Can't see where anyone called it crap ether. Some pointed out that you can still use ate and at the same price too. Just not blue I used Ate for 10 years in a tracked 912. Never ever once got close to boiling the fluid.

winders

The emphasis is mine in the top quote.....to make it more visible.

Scott

Mongo

It's racist to have blue brake fluid. Holder and the DOT are watching us.

NaroEscape

I started using Motul a few years ago and really like it. BP #'s are higher than ATE and near what SRF is, but it's MUCH cheaper.
Funny, as I read kurt M's comments I realized that its been a VERY long time since I flushed my brake system...like never since I did a caliper rebuild in 2010! Mind you, I've not had a ton of track time and my car is very light relatively speaking, but our local track CMP is extremely hard on brakes and the pedal still felt rock solid when I was there in June.

As winders said...if X works for you and you're happy, no reason to change. That's why there are choices!

kurt M

Wow, I bet you like to play tug with the dog too.

That could be read as calling the blue part crap not the Ate overall. Some folks myself now included consider the blue tint to be a bother. It does nothing positive and stains all the plastic parts blue. The stain makes it harder to see how much fluid is in a translucent container such as often used on cars. Are you looking at a stain line or are you looking at a fluid line? It also makes it harder to see if the fluid is cloudy. As glycol based fluids absorb moisture they tend to cloud up. IIRC Ate blue was sold with the pitch that you can switch back and forth between blue gold so you can see when you have flushed from old to new. You can see the new old line with non tinted fluids too. After a back and forth or 3 between blue gold it is all light blue anyway. Do people use blue for it being better or do they use it after seeing other folks use it?

The equine has expired I intend to stop striking it.

mrbill_fl

It was recommended by my speed shop looooong ago. it seemed to work.

I like I can see the color, and know whats leaking if I see it on the floor.

but I do still get some brake fade, and typically bleed them saturday evening, or sunday morning.

I will try motul next time around...