<VV> Bench bleeding (Update on Valvoline Syntec)

[Bill Elliott]

As promised, here's my update.

On the same fender of the Porsche, I poured two spots of brake fluid: one of Vavoline Syntec and one of DOT 5. The car has no wax left on it, the paint is 
some kind of cheap aftermarket job (very brittle), and the color is white. The car sat in the unheated garage for the past five days.

I went out today to examine the results. the Vavoline was still wet and oily; there was no trace of the DOT 5. The only cleaning it seems to have done was 
surface dirt.

Taking a clean paper towel, I wiped both sections clean. 

On the Valvoline side, the was definitely some reaction with the paint. No bubbling or peeling, but the color was bleached several shades whiter.

On the DOT 5 side, there was no evidence whatsoever that there had ever been brake fuild (or anything else) on the paint.

I hit the Valvoline side with some rubbing compound and the color of the surrounding paint came down to _almost_ as white as the bleached section, but 
you could still see the trail of the fluid.

I really wish I had some normal DOT4 to compare these finding with, but while the Valvoline showed much less damage than I had anticipated, there was 
definitely some damage... which I think would have been much worse on a non-white car.

Does this mean that I now recommend DOT 5 for your Corvair? Absolutely not! I'm still hard over that DOT 5 is a bad idea for anything but a trailer queen. I 
do strongly recommend the Valvoline Syntec synthetic DOT 3/4, but warn that it can indeed damage your paint... so use with care.

Bill Elliott 
Urbana, MD

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(previous) Update:
The bottle of Valvoline Syntec DOES say that it will damage finsihes.

However, the fluid has been on the Porsche for two hours now and I see no evidence of peeling or bubbling. I can see that it's soaked into the paint and 
has changed the color slightly (paint is dirty, faded white and the Syntec is cleaning it... it's whiter when rubbed off.)

The DOT 5 (I still have one car left using it) doesn't appear to be having any significant effect either... but is also cleaning the paint like the Syntec.

Sorry, I don't have any old fashioned DOT 4 on the shelf (I always used Castrol GT/LMA) to do a three way comparison.

Will update again on my return!

Everyone have a great holiday!
Bill