Acidic Brake Fluid..some info


[Follow Ups] [Post Followup] [Dodge Power Wagon Forum]


Posted by George on Tuesday, October 30, 2001 at 8:47PM :

In Reply to: Acidic Brake Fluid posted by Lonnie on Tuesday, October 30, 2001 at 7:59PM :

I am a chemist and can offer some information on this. First, pH is a concept that makes sense in water only. Litmus paper does not work relibably in non-aqueous solutions. While it is possible for brake fluid ot be "acidic" in the sense that some acid was dissolved in it, I do not think that Litmus paper is a good way to measure it.

If you must use Litmus, it should first be wetted with distilled water, then add a small drop of the brake fluid. If this shows it to be acidic, it might actually be.

Now to the question of what could cause this, note that carbon dioxide from the air when disolved in water is slighly acidic. So simply doing this test in the open air with any solution that is very close to neutral and not buffered, might well drift towards an acidic reading. I forgot at what pH Litmus gives an acidic reading, and CO2 might not do it....but who knows when it is in a non-aqueous solution. Water which can contaminate brake fluid would react with many metals (including iron, magnesium, aluminum) but would tend to make the solution basic.

I would suggest you check the Litmus paper with fresh brake fluid to at least confirm that this test does not always show the fluid to be acidic.





Follow Ups:



Post a Followup

Name:
E-Mail:
Subject:
Message:
Optional Link
URL:
Title:
Optional Image Link
URL:


This board is powered by the Mr. Fong Device from Cyberarmy.com