Conventional Brake Fluids - State of the Art

Well in excess of a trillion passenger miles are driven each year in the U.S. in vehicles employing conventional brake fluids based on glycols, glycol ethers, alcohols, polyglycols and other closely related components. The ways in which these components are assembled offer an extremely wide array of physical properties and performance characteristics in a vehicle's braking system.

This paper discusses the range of physical properties and performance characteristics attainable in conventional brake fluid formulations. The laboratory data is supplemented with field testing data.