Best flux remover yet: brake cleaner

mandag den 31. juli 2023 kl. 20.41.53 UTC+2 skrev Phil Hobbs:

not all brake cleaner is chlorinated

The good stuff is!

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

have you tried?

Nah, I still have 0.98 can left!

Some cleaners contain even flouric acid...

yeh real nasty stuff and at ~260'C chlorinated brake clean makes phosgene ..

It should be long gone out your good ventilation before getting anywhere near 260 C, and small amounts of phosgene are not very dangerous anyhow. I once lab tested a phosgene compressor shaft seal, and the tech who went to the plant for installation and field test reported that the place stank of phosgene and it made his cigarettes taste bad. Used in plastics manufacturing, it is shipped in tank trucks placarded "corrosive".

Alternative brake cleaners are flammable. And not tested for flux removal :-).

Do my brakes need cleaning? I've never done that. How embarassing.

We have a "vapor degreaser" with two tanks, a boiling deflux side and a clean distilled side. When it's shut down and nobody is looking and the spray wand is off, I dunk my boards in the flux side and then the clean side. Don't tell anyone!

mandag den 31. juli 2023 kl. 23.28.07 UTC+2 skrev John Larkin:

it is to remove the protective oil on the new discs when replacing

I've used it before, but you have to be careful with certain plastics.

Seems more useful for drum brake service, I "cleaned" the original pads and rotors on my Volt by replacing them and taking the old ones to the scrap yard after ~7 years. Regeneration means they tend to last a long time but less so in the Northeast than California.

Most of the bolts and pins are torque-to-yield so no point in cleaning those either, they go to the scrapper also. Modern disc brakes are pretty low-maintenance.

New manufacture boards should look new, but the e.g. HP service guides I've read have said that for repairs by techs they should just let the flux lie vs. trying to scrub it off.

I think the non-chlorinated ones tend to contain acetone

But that's ugly. I like my protos all shiny.

But the crappy allegedly-green stuff is just full of that terrifying chemical dihydrogen monoxide!

Another horrible way to die.

The good thing about dying is you only have to do it once.

I believe the red cans of crc are still chlorinated.

Cheers

Vapor degreasers are awsome.

Cheers

And get rid of all the dust that gets glued on by various bits of oil and brake fluid that leak out. You really do not want any of that inside your hydraulic system.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs