So I had a slight fluid leak at the right caliper (loose bleeder valve?) and noticed a couple of drops on my fender after each ride for about a month. I would wash it off at the end of each ride and figured that I would get around to it eventually. What I failed to do was look at my lowers! Had I known the power of brake fluid I would have taken the leak much more seriously!

 

That really sucks! Looks like it "melted" the lower

 

Yeah brake can be bad dot 3 and 4, The silicone fluid won't do that, not sure why Harley still like the harsh stuff. Bad on your skin also

 

Why would you ignore a brake fluid leak?

 

I wouldn't say "ignore." I was taking it in for service anyway so I wasn't really worried about riding it a few more times prior. Again, I only saw a couple of tiny drops on the fender (around the size of an apple seed). There was no puddle on my garage floor.

 

Sorry, but not attending to a brake fluid leak is turning a blind eye, no matter how big it may be - call it what you like! It was established decades ago that brake fluid attacks paint, it should be part of your DNA.

The MoCo, probably all automotive industry, dropped DOT5 because it aerates thanks to the action of the ABS system. That was over a decade ago!

 

You can't use silicone Dot 5 in ABS systems, it aerates.

 

About the only good thing about dot5 is it doesn't eat paint. It sucks as a brake fluid

 

It's great - been fine in my bikes for the last umpteen years! I've only owned one ABS bike, which was a brand who never adopted the wonderful stuff.

 

I have seen the tiniest of droplets get blown back on beautiful gas tanks on these new bikes from the very common weeping front master cylinder seal. It blows back almost invisible droplets on the tank every ride, resulting in a speckled appearance of spots that cannot be removed. The solution I finally found, as crazy as it sounds, is to get the precision torque screw driver and apply the new torque specs for the cover. Its sounds crazy and the torque is so little you'd think the cover would not stay on. It does and it stops the leak. There is no way to guess this torque by feel trust me.