Brake Fluid in Oil to Fix Leaks?!
I was talking to somebody who has worked on cars his whole life, and I mentioned that I have leaky valve cover gaskets. He recommended that I add 1/2 cup of brake fluid to my oil, because it softens the gaskets and makes them swell to plug the leak. Is this a pile of crap, or is it legit? It seems odd to me.
Comments
ask google lol
That is true it will cause the rubber gasket to swell as well as all other seals and gaskets giving you multiple oil leaks not to mention the internal damage that will be caused due to poor lubrication
Listen I’m no pro mechanic, but there should be specific oil additives that do exactly that and are actually safe for the engine. I’ve been putting an additive called Archoil in my Powetstrokes for years and it has done nothing but good things to my engine over the years. Never had a turbo or head gasket go since use.
That’s what I was thinking. Thanks
Kinda accidentally sent that 3 times
Just change the gasket
Ain’t nobody got time for that (it’s my daily)
Valve cover gaskets shouldn’t be that hard to fix, there may or may not be a bunch of crap in the way but still, 20 minutes if it’s clear, maybe an hour if you’ve got an intake manifold or anything else in the way, what car is it?
‘90 Pontiac Bonneville. And they’ve been leaking long enough I need to scrape all the gunk out and have somebody with a shop vac so no crap gets in the heads
Ya brake fluid (everything except for dot 5) will make rubber swell…so will possibly cause your valve cover gasket to seal…and destroy or damage every other rubber seal or gasket in the motor as well (plus it’ll probably mess up other stuff because brake fluid doesn’t act like oil, may even act as an abrasive)
Ya that’s what I thought
High mileage engine oil has seal swelling agents in it. Just throw that in next oil change. I’m not going to promise this will fix your leak though.
Ya I was thinking of doing this for a while, but my parents (still technically their car) don’t want to pay for it. I think I’ve got them convinced to let me go full synthetic or high mileage. Or I’ll just go to my backup car and do all new gaskets on my daily, and check things like cam and stuff