- Nov 25, 2012
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Spent a while on Sunday changing the brake fluid on mom' Toyota Matrix. I had changed it out 3 or 4 years prior to Supertech from Toyota factory brake fluid of 8 or 9 years. Now, I swapped in some Castrol DOT4 that allegedly is designed for British cars with a vented brake system. That means that the fluid is designed accumulate moisture more slowly, allegedly
Observation 1 was that the Supertech came out as a vibrant opaque green. I spilled the liquid today transferring it to a Powerade bottle., so no pics available. I will say that it was much faster in changing color and thus degraded much worse compared to the OEM Toyota sauce, which was kind of dark but not really when I changed it out. So, I'd definitely not repeat with the Supertech ever again for any daily driver car; It, like many other aftermarket parts priced at the bottom of the barrel, is for resellers or someone who has no plans to keep using the car after three years. .
It's a matter of wait-and-see if the Castrol is the OEM equivalent or better, since it is priced as upper-grade aftermarket. Indeed, the price was $10.32 for a quart on Jul 31 but it has since shot up to 17.20 on Walmart
I was intending to do gravity bleeding because I had time. But, I learned a lesson no to take a shortcut. Opening up all 4 bleeders at the same time is an invitation to letting air into the system if the car is angled the wrong way. The car was leaning forward and thus air entered the rear lines. Had to rectify that with the two-person method and mom pushing the pedal.
Also, I had no hoses, so there was plenty of squirting and shooting involved.
To see how this Castrol does will probably need 3 years for an update, as that is when I expect the EBC pads I installed to wear out and require a swap, along with new rotors since the use of cheap semi-metallics prior murdered the rotor. The car will definitely eclipse 200k miles by then.
No horror stories of rusty bleeders for this car. Mom bought it new in MD, which uses salt but it isn't a severe salt.
Observation 1 was that the Supertech came out as a vibrant opaque green. I spilled the liquid today transferring it to a Powerade bottle., so no pics available. I will say that it was much faster in changing color and thus degraded much worse compared to the OEM Toyota sauce, which was kind of dark but not really when I changed it out. So, I'd definitely not repeat with the Supertech ever again for any daily driver car; It, like many other aftermarket parts priced at the bottom of the barrel, is for resellers or someone who has no plans to keep using the car after three years. .
It's a matter of wait-and-see if the Castrol is the OEM equivalent or better, since it is priced as upper-grade aftermarket. Indeed, the price was $10.32 for a quart on Jul 31 but it has since shot up to 17.20 on Walmart
I was intending to do gravity bleeding because I had time. But, I learned a lesson no to take a shortcut. Opening up all 4 bleeders at the same time is an invitation to letting air into the system if the car is angled the wrong way. The car was leaning forward and thus air entered the rear lines. Had to rectify that with the two-person method and mom pushing the pedal.
Also, I had no hoses, so there was plenty of squirting and shooting involved.
To see how this Castrol does will probably need 3 years for an update, as that is when I expect the EBC pads I installed to wear out and require a swap, along with new rotors since the use of cheap semi-metallics prior murdered the rotor. The car will definitely eclipse 200k miles by then.
No horror stories of rusty bleeders for this car. Mom bought it new in MD, which uses salt but it isn't a severe salt.
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