hey, my brake fluid has dropped low, and need to top it up. i've only recently got my car, so i wouldn't have a clue what brake fluid is already in there. is it fine to mix brake fluids, or will i need to bleed all the old stuff out? also what fluids would u recommend?

Its best to bleed the old fluid out and put clean fluid in. Give castrol response dot 4 a go (replaces the old castrol ultra stop, red bottle) or even better, castrol response super dot 4, higher dry and wet boiling point, both a pretty cheap, about 7 - 10 for 500ml.

You'll probably find that the reason your brake fluid level has dropped is because your pads are low on meat. Suggest you check them and don't bother topping up the fluid (unless it's down to a dangerous level )because if you do it will overflow when you replace your pads later.

u drain 3/4 of the fluid out before a pad change anyway aus880, to prevent overflow happening... So I recommend that u top up until u get new pads dude..then when the time comes to change pads, just prevent overflow by draining a bit of fluid out before hand. Too easy.

I would use ELF dot 5.1 for a road / club car, or ELF XT3167 for racing. Most people use the cheapest **** they can find and never change it in years. For the price of good race quality fluid ($30-$50 per litre) there is no excuse for not running good stuff and changing it every year. Also if you change it regularly you wont have as many problems with calipers / master / slave cylinders leaking and lines rusting. Castrol also makes good race fluid but its about $80-$90 a litre!

I found the solution to fixing my fluid dissapearing problems. Basically the rubber boots in the master cylinder were worn, and the fluid was dripping between the master cylinder and the vacume thing. Not good, but i got a new one now Some original photos have not been recovered yet.