only 2 brake fluid manufactures

[1978elcamino]

I read a comment from someone that works for a brake fluid manufacturer. He claimed that the government is so tight on the manufacturing process that there are basically two companies that make almost all the brake fluid for all the labels. He claimed as long as its the correct dot 3 dot 4 dot 5 what ever, no matter what label is on the bottle you will get exactly the contents inside. Anyone ever heard of this before?

 

[slacktide_bitog]

There are at least 5:
BASF, CCI, Clariant, Dow, and Shell

Maybe some Chinese suppliers in addition to those.

 

[Silver]

That doesn't mean there are only two types of brake fluid or that all the versions of the same grade are the same. People fool themselves with this on tires and gas. So and so makes generic lower cost tire, so it must be just as good. No. I mean I'm sure there are identical products being sold under different names, but it's a foolish assumption that they're "all the same".

 

[SuperSalad]

This info might be dated, but here is an example of how the OP assertion is a bit misleading. Yes there are a limited number of manufacturers due to the tight restrictions on performance/composition, but even within one manufacturer there can be a lot of differences. This is from a DOW spec sheet (Link)

So even though there are only a handful of manufacturers, they aren't all the same.

 

[Luftmasse]

Just an example, the company Denso makes Aftermarket and OE parts. They are not the same. Especially, their oxygen sensors.