PSA: LHM mineral oil from halfords for £3 per litre.

As above. Some use it instead of shimano mineral oil. Bargain at £3 instead of £12 I think.

Got a link? I just went in my local one and they knew nothing about it

oddly cant find it on the website….

Mine was from the Bishopbriggs Halfords, in the motor oils section.

only reference I can find is this review so it may just be old stock.

sorry

LHM works fine, but shimano fluid is less viscous and makes for a better feeling brake IMO.

I would strongly advise against using anything other that Shimano fluid in a Shimano brake. I’ve seen a couple of brakes with knacked seals due to this.

Oops, wrong autofill login on the shop computer, sorry Matt!

Not with LHM you haven’t. Its perfectly compatible with the seals. I expect you’re thinking of DOT based fluids.

Been using that there LHM in Shimano brakes for years and not had one failure. They actually made my 26” rigid SS like a 27b boost plus after a full bleed 😈

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/is-citroen-oil-bad-for-xt-brakes/page/2

Scienceofficer – Member

Not with LHM you haven’t. Its perfectly compatible with the seals. I expect you’re thinking of DOT based fluids.

I used the LHM stuff for years. I always thought the same as you.

But since switching to using the proper Shimano fluid, I’ve had zero instances of sticky/uneven retracting pistons, where I was having to clean the pistons every few weeks to avoid uneven pad wear & rubbing. Purely anecdotal, I know.

Shimano’s argument is that they know what’s in their fluid, thy have no idea what’s in halfords, citoren, castrol, magura or anyone else’s. There could be additives deliberately designed to swell the seals on old cars slightly and seal up leaks/cracks.

I like my argument from last time:

paid £12 for the big (litre?) bottle 10 years ago and it’s barely 25% used!

That’s a cost of about 25p/year.

Other things costing 25p in biking terms:
25% of an energy gel
Petrol ued in the engine whilst running the portable jetwash.
Spoke nipple
Piece of ginger for baking carrot cake pre ride
A shower at a trail center if you share with 4 other guys (or ladies).

So other stuff might work, but the shimano stuff might work fractionaly better (lower viscocity, gaurenteed not to attack the seals, correct boiling point).

And I don’t buy the “it works in a 3 ton rolls royce” argument, it may well do, but it probably has over a litre of fluid and pads 10mm thick insulating the fluid from the brakes. MTB’s have 1mm thick pads and 20ml of fluid. They also don’t have ABS, or damping unlike either car brakes or suspension.

Not with LHM you haven’t. Its perfectly compatible with the seals. I expect you’re thinking of DOT based fluids.

Nope, I’m definitely thinking of LHM/other Mineral oils.

So, after a bit of reading, it seems that ‘LHM’ is a sort of generic descriptor for automotive mineral oil intended for hydraulic applications. As such, it can be quite variable in terms of additives, depending on its intended use. I’ve not had trouble with shimano brakes that I’ve used it in for the last 8 years (same bottle in that time) but other people may not be so lucky, depending on the actual product you use. In any event, I stopped using it because the brakes felt better with the proper stuff in.

So what makes LMH safe to use and non LMH oils unsafe, isn’t LMH just French for liquid mineral hydrolique or words to that effect?

Mineral oils are not all the same, it’ a fact that Magura blue blood destroys Shimano seals!

and this is why I said ‘some’ use it 😉

I’m using it instead of Cyclo mineral brake fluid. looks, smells and swirls (technical term…) the same 😉

I know. I’m gonna die

but then, so are you..

I used Halfords LHM oils in Shimano brakes and found it harder to bleed and had a different lever feel to when Shimano branded oil was used.

The caliper seals also failed about 2 months afterwards. No idea if it was related as the brakes were a few years old anyways.

This was about 4 years ago so Halfords could have changed the ingredients in the oil since then.

I think I must bleed my brakes once every 2 or 3 years so don’t mind paying a bit more for the little bottle of Shimano stuff.