Car mineral oil in Shimano brakes?

Ok to do this?

Oem 575’s are the model for reference…

If you mean LHM, ie. The stuff for Citroen and some others brakes and suspension then yes, it’s the same stuff.

If you mean mineral engine oil, then no.

Of course I meant brake fluid.

I’ve 3 sets of Shimano brakes in total and 500ml is a lot cheaper at the local car spares shop (£5)

Citroen now use LDS (orange) fluid so make sure you get the right one (the green stuff) as cp said LHM

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_categoryId_255218_productId_204265_langId_-1?cm_mmc=Shopping-_-Google%20Product%20Search-_-Car%20Maintenance%2FEngine%20Oils%20%26%20Car%20Fluids%2FBrake%20%26%20Clutch%20Fluid-_-Halfords%20LHM%20Plus%20Specialist%20Mineral%20Fluid%201%20Litre&source=shopping
or even better

http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/170763344674?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar&adtype=pla

Brake fluid is not compatable AFAIK

shimano fluid only

5 years ago i put 3 in 1 oil in my deore brakes.
still working.

Total rubbish about only using shimano oil. Have used castrol lhm for nearly 10 years, never had a problem. As long as it’s mineral based you’ll be fine.

Big pot of citroen fluid in the garage for mine, never had an issue in 5years.

Surely mineral oil is mineral oil.

http://www.opieoils.co.uk/p-68995-hsmo-plus-hydraulic-system-mineral-oil-bentley-rolls-royce.aspx

Another vote for LHM here. Never had any issues.

I have been using LHM mineral oil in my xt775 brakes for 3 years now. No probs 1 litre cost me 4 quid from the load car shop. If you want to carry on paying the fee to shimano ?

http://bike.shimano.com/publish/content/global_cycle/en/us/index/tech_support/tech_tips.download.-Par50rparsys-0007-downloadFile.html/01)%20Brake%20Bleeding.pdf

“Surely mineral oil is mineral oil”
If you mean that Shimano oil complies with the HM (LHM) standard then , probably yes.

http://www.fuchs-europe.de/uploads/media/RENOLIN_Hydraulic_Oils_Brochure_english_12-2009_01.pdf

ISO 6743-4

I use the Citroen LHM fluid in my Shimano brakes for the past few years with no problems.

Same here – always used brake mineral oil in Shimano, the “proper” stuff is just stupid expensive!

you can pick up 1L of Shimano stuff for about £16. Okay it is more than car stuff but come on, it’s £16 to make sure your brakes work as well as they were intended and that 1L will last you a very long time. Some car stuff can be too thick – so no, not all mineral oil is the same. Different oils have different viscosities. You wouldn’t expect the company servicing your forks to stick any old fork oil in your £600 Fox fork to save £4 would you?

How much do you need for a full bleed of 2 brakes? I’ve got a litre here.

Where are you getting 1litre of shimano stuff for £16?

If I remember correctly I got it from Parker International when I got some chains from them.

Just to clarify… Been using Shimano brakes ever since the inception of the XT 4 pot. I’ve bled hundreds of the things over the years.

Whilst on paper Citroen LHM fluid or its equivalents looks like it should do the job nicely, it is thicker, and this can cause problems. On some brakes using LHM I’ve experienced no problems, but on many it caused the pads to either stick or just not return quickly at all. Personally for the small amount extra, it’s not worth the compromise of not using the proper fluid.

you can pick up 1L of Shimano stuff for about £16. Okay it is more than car stuff but come on, it’s £16 to make sure your brakes work as well as they were intended and that 1L will last you a very long time. Some car stuff can be too thick – so no, not all mineral oil is the same. Different oils have different viscosities. You wouldn’t expect the company servicing your forks to stick any old fork oil in your £600 Fox fork to save £4 would you?

How much do you need for a full bleed of 2 brakes? I’ve got a litre here.

You wouldn’t expect a big company to spec hard to get hold of expensive oil would you.

Halfords Mineral Oil in Shimano Brakes
Whatever 5.1 in hopes
Motorbike fork oil in my forks

Same as the manufactures do.

+1 for LHM here on older and newer SLX / XT and Shimano non-series brakes.

Never had an issue and it was about £5 for a litre.

You wouldn’t expect a big company to spec hard to get hold of expensive oil would you.

I would expect them to spec the best oil for their application and what they buy might be rare to find on the high street but not rare in industrial applications.

Why should they select something with a high viscosity when they want a lower one just so people can buy it from a car parts place? I have no doubt that Shimanos brake fluid can be obtained elsewhere but it’s simply not worth the hassle to find it or mess around with the wrong stuff for the sake of a few £.

Right, Job done and brake have performed well on the ride I just did. I got a litre of Citroen / Rolls LHM + oil for £6.98.

I might add (note the above) I’ve added them to the generally-accepted-as-shite OEM 575 brakes. They are working fine but I’ve no issue if the Oil causes a failure because this was a sticky plaster before replacement of the brakes anyway. The bike they are on is a trial SS conversion and not my main FS or HT, Therefore I didn’t want to pay ££ for a new set of brakes when £7 and an hour of my time will be less wasted if I end up hating the SS.

Why should they select something with a high viscosity when they want a lower one just so people can buy it from a car parts place? I have no doubt that Shimanos brake fluid can be obtained elsewhere but it’s simply not worth the hassle to find it or mess around with the wrong stuff for the sake of a few £.

You think somehow there’s a better quality needed for a bike than a car? After all a failure in a car’s braking system is surely more potentially catastophic, so why would the quality in car oil be low?

Currently using some LHM mineral stuff form the local motor factors and my brakes(old deore 555’s) are working great in fact probably better than original,but I will put that down to spending a decent amount of time bleeding them through thoroughly.

I have previously used Jack oil and 3 in 1, all seemed to work with no issues.

hey,

Just my opinion on thle now,is, i have used the citreon oil for a while, and it does work, but recently, i re bled my slx and old ( non servo wave) xts with shimano oil, andthere has been a noticeable improvement.

If you have spent money on decent brakes, why be tight buying the proper oil? Ill never use citreon stuff again

I met a feller who used olive oil- couldn’t find any mineral oil when he was on holiday so fired it in, never bothered to change it afterwards.

Baby oil in all mine. Boots special.

Perfumed or not?

“I’ve added them to the generally-accepted-as-shite OEM 575 brakes”

really ? they are some of the most reliable shimano make IME…..

Kryton57 – Member

You think somehow there’s a better quality needed for a bike than a car? After all a failure in a car’s braking system is surely more potentially catastophic, so why would the quality in car oil be low?

It never fails to amaze me how people can either make assumptions about or try to twist what people say to suit themselves.

Where did I say they used a different quality? I said spec – ie specification and viscosity.

What I am saying as that different applications have different requirements for fluid properties. A citroen (I have worked on them when I was a kid) has big components and big pipes and is actuated by mechanical pumps. A bike brake has tiny calipers and tiny pipes and is activated by one or two fingers and needs to provide good feedback. Hence why Shimanos engineers, who know a lot more about what they are doing than you or I, would choose an oil with the properties they have.

🙄

trail_rat – Member
“I’ve added them to the generally-accepted-as-shite OEM 575 brakes”

really ? they are some of the most reliable shimano make IME…..

The don’t review well here and in some other places, and I’ve always found them wooden in a Hayes 9 kind of way. Having said that, they’ve never failed and the bleed has revamped them.

No way are they as good as my 2011 or 2012 XT’s.

Hypoallergenic 😉

andyl – Member

…can either make assumptions….

Calm down dear, maybe I just misunderstood you eh?

Where did I say they used a different quality? I said spec – ie specification and viscosity.

What I am saying as that different applications have different requirements for fluid properties. A citroen (I have worked on them when I was a kid) has big components and big pipes and is actuated by mechanical pumps. A bike brake has tiny calipers and tiny pipes and is activated by one or two fingers and needs to provide good feedback. Hence why Shimanos engineers, who know a lot more about what they are doing than you or I, would choose an oil with the properties they have

Fair enough, but lets not be so niaive as to assume Shimano wouldn’t prefer you to but their product to put your money in their pocket rather than someone elses.

It works for me, and others. So what? Live and let live….

Agree with most of the posts here about bike specific oils.
Why do we pay over the odds for tiny amounts of fluids which are easily available for other applications at a fraction of the cost. I get my Shim brake fluid at Halfords as mineral oil for less than half the price they sell brake fluid in a shimano marked container.Same with motor bike fork oil. I think this applies to other products.
When I took up MTBing some years ago after motorbike racing I was astounded to find a well known manufacturer sold MTB bars for more than M/bike bars. Obviously M/bike bars are heavier but racers are just as weight sensitive as MTBers. I sometimes feel manufacturers think they can charge a premium if they put the words ‘MTB’ or ‘Race’ on any product

As far as I can tell, the reason oils get more and more expensive is because they are “purer” at the top end of the price range, meaning little to no compression. OK, I could be making this up as I go along here, but it’s how I understand it. I work with extreme long distance hydraulic systems, and we pay thousands and thousands of pounds for a 50 gallon drum of the good stuff (think it’s about £8k off the top of my head) purely because we can be sure that the 6000psi of pressure we apply at our end tranlates to 6000psi of pressure at the business end 30-odd miles away. Use a crappy oil, and our 6000psi might end up only providing 5000psi at the other end, due to the poor compression profile of the cheaper oil.

Translate this to bikes though, you could use the creme de la creme of hydraulic oils in your bike brakes but seeing as you’re using plastic brake hoses (in the majority, anyway) the elasticity of those hoses will negate *any* benefits you have from using the expensive stuff. As long as it’s not eating seals, hoses or calipers, you could probably get away with Crisp ‘n’ Dry.

Probably.

… or FlyingOX, Squeeze the lever 0.001 psi (approx) harder eh? 🙂

You won’t get away with olive oil if you’re riding in low temperatures. It’s freezing point is around 2 – 3 degrees dependant upon the water content / type of oil.