Brake Caliper Cleaning Advice

[Robert R.]

Is it a recommended practice to use distilled white vinegar to clean caliper halves. In the past I only used brake fluid for cleaning but I recently saw a video which showed placing the calipers in a ziplock bag filled with vinegar overnight. It seemed to work well. Does anyone have any thoughts/recommendations?

Thanks,
Bob

[Edward J.]

[Duke W.]

Re: Brake Caliper Cleaning Advice

Hydraulic parts should be cleaned with denatured alcohol. You don't want to use any kind of petroleum based solvent that might leave a HC residue because petroleum solvents will attack rubber parts in automotive brake systems.

You can use mineral spirits to clean the exterior of hydraulic parts before they are disassembled to remove any petroleum type "grease" or dirt on the outside.

I recently found out that you can't buy denatured alcohol in Southern California anymore, and what is sold as "paint thinner" (mineral spirits) is mostly acetone which is not a very good general purpose solvent and is really tough on your skin. A Home Depot paint department guy said it had to do with VOC regulations. I believe him, but acetone is very volatile - evaporates very fast - so I don't understand what's going on.

A friend recently brought some denatured alcohol and mineral spirits back from a Nevada trip. Both are the real McCoy.

Duke

[Mark F.]

any compound of carbon, excluding carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, carbonic acid, metallic carbides or carbonates, and ammonium carbonate, which participates in atmospheric photochemical reactions.does not contribute appreciably to ozone formation

[Joe L.]

Re: Brake Caliper Cleaning Advice

Hydraulic parts should be cleaned with denatured alcohol. You don't want to use any kind of petroleum based solvent that might leave a HC residue because petroleum solvents will attack rubber parts in automotive brake systems.

You can use mineral spirits to clean the exterior of hydraulic parts before they are disassembled to remove any petroleum type "grease" or dirt on the outside.

I recently found out that you can't buy denatured alcohol in Southern California anymore, and what is sold as "paint thinner" (mineral spirits) is mostly acetone which is not a very good general purpose solvent and is really tough on your skin. A Home Depot paint department guy said it had to do with VOC regulations. I believe him, but acetone is very volatile - evaporates very fast - so I don't understand what's going on.

A friend recently brought some denatured alcohol and mineral spirits back from a Nevada trip. Both are the real McCoy.

Duke

Duke-------


One problem with denatured alcohol: a common denaturant is gasoline.

As an aside, when I was in Italy and looking to obtain isopropyl alcohol for personal care, I could not find it ANYWHERE. All I could find was denatured ethyl alcohol. However, whatever they used for a denaturant (it was not gasoline because that could not be used for personal care) was so foul and offensive in odor that I could not use it.