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New Shimano LV Mineral Oil in older Shimano brakes?

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New Shimano LV Mineral Oil in older Shimano brakes?

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flag WrongTurns
FL
Posted: Sep 10, 2025 at 9:42 Quote
Curious to know if anyone has tried using the new low viscosity mineral oil in the previous gen Shimano brakes, like the XT M8120 brakes. Shimano says the LV oil is not backwards compatible due to different seals on the new gen brakes but using LV mineral oil like Redline Likewater has shown repeatedly to improve the wandering bite point issue of the older gen brakes. Appreciate input from anyone who has tried the new Shimano LV oil on old brakes!
flag WrongTurns
FL
Posted: Sep 19, 2025 at 10:49 Quote
Update: Gave the new LV mineral oil a shot on my M8120 brakes and it worked well. Took a while to bleed properly and get all the bubbles/air and had to let the brake lines sit vertical plus a lot of shaking and tapping of the calipers and levers to move the air out. Once it was all the air was out the brakes felt awesome. Haven't ridden them on trail yet but will post again for a performance review.
flag EvgeniyUSel5S
Posted: Oct 13, 2025 at 9:54 Quote
cdoso wrote:
Update: Gave the new LV mineral oil a shot on my M8120 brakes and it worked well. Took a while to bleed properly and get all the bubbles/air and had to let the brake lines sit vertical plus a lot of shaking and tapping of the calipers and levers to move the air out. Once it was all the air was out the brakes felt awesome. Haven't ridden them on trail yet but will post again for a performance review.

Hi there! How is it going? How is your experiment with the new LV oil? Did it solve the wandering bite point issue?
flag dirtcollective
Posted: Oct 13, 2025 at 13:51 Quote
cdoso wrote:
Curious to know if anyone has tried using the new low viscosity mineral oil in the previous gen Shimano brakes, like the XT M8120 brakes. Shimano says the LV oil is not backwards compatible due to different seals on the new gen brakes but using LV mineral oil like Redline Likewater has shown repeatedly to improve the wandering bite point issue of the older gen brakes. Appreciate input from anyone who has tried the new Shimano LV oil on old brakes!


I tried the LV oil in my M8120s out of curiosity. It definitely improved consistency on longer descents and helped reduce that wandering bite point a little. I’ve put around 500km on it so far and haven’t noticed any seal issues. I think Shimano’s ‘not compatible’ warning is just a safety blanket, the seals seem to handle it fine
flag Trinimon
O+
Posted: Oct 21, 2025 at 18:08 Quote
Good to know it's working well and no seal degradation so far. Def keep an eye on this thread for long term reviews. LV oil will def be easier to get a hold off than Putoline in Canada.
flag metsrangers35
O+
Posted: Oct 22, 2025 at 9:04 Quote
For sure want this to grow, see if others have experiences LV in new brakes
flag nmurdick
Posted: Oct 22, 2025 at 15:38 Quote
Someone shared this thread with me and it's a bit worrying so please let me comment on behalf of Shimano.

I'm happy to report that we did actually test the LV fluid in the older brakes on the trail. You're absolutely right that we would have said not to do it either way, but we wanted to understand the real impact, or even push to approve it if the engineers were overreacting. We put test riders and Shimano staff on M9120 brakes with LV oil around the country to try in different conditions. Like you may experience, the system was improved in some conditions. However, in other trail conditions the bite point wanders much, much worse and the lever will pull to the bar. My own intuition was to pump the lever to get it to firm up but that just makes it worse. Thankfully, we did our testing in just one brake so we could still stop.

I hope you can understand that I can't to go into detail about which conditions will cause the lever to pull the bar because it could be a surprise on the trail and it's always dangerous. If you're going to experiment on your own despite the warning, it would be a very good idea to follow our test protocol and just do it in one brake so that you can still stop when the lever pulls to the bar one day. You'll likely be back on the old fluid within a few months though.

There is no issue with compatibility between the fluid and seals. It's safe to simply bleed the brake with the correct fluid again and there will be no lasting effects.

Nick Murdick
Mountain Bike Product Manger
Shimano North America
flag ReformedRoadie
Posted: Oct 25, 2025 at 19:08 Quote
nmurdick wrote:
Someone shared this thread with me and it's a bit worrying so please let me comment on behalf of Shimano.

I'm happy to report that we did actually test the LV fluid in the older brakes on the trail. You're absolutely right that we would have said not to do it either way, but we wanted to understand the real impact, or even push to approve it if the engineers were overreacting. We put test riders and Shimano staff on M9120 brakes with LV oil around the country to try in different conditions. Like you may experience, the system was improved in some conditions. However, in other trail conditions the bite point wanders much, much worse and the lever will pull to the bar. My own intuition was to pump the lever to get it to firm up but that just makes it worse. Thankfully, we did our testing in just one brake so we could still stop.

I hope you can understand that I can't to go into detail about which conditions will cause the lever to pull the bar because it could be a surprise on the trail and it's always dangerous. If you're going to experiment on your own despite the warning, it would be a very good idea to follow our test protocol and just do it in one brake so that you can still stop when the lever pulls to the bar one day. You'll likely be back on the old fluid within a few months though.

There is no issue with compatibility between the fluid and seals. It's safe to simply bleed the brake with the correct fluid again and there will be no lasting effects.

Nick Murdick
Mountain Bike Product Manger
Shimano North America

So if there is no issue with compatibility with the seals…
Explain how this issue occurred when there are so many reports of people using Redline Like Water, Putoline and other LV alternatives and no one as far as I have seen has ever reported the issue you described. Just, for the most part, varying degree of improvement and less wandering bite point. You said from the jump that the company line would be that it’s not compatible regardless, so pardon the skepticism. Compounded with the fact that Shimano never really acknowledged they had an issue with the wandering bite point to begin with.
I say this as someone who has Shimano parts exclusively on all four of the bikes I own.
flag mosierman
Posted: Jan 14, 2026 at 5:47 Quote
They used to tell you that you couldn't adjust the limit screws on their derailleurs without a JIS screwdriver
flag bigboyroy007
Posted: Apr 15, 2026 at 19:23 Quote
cdoso wrote:
Update: Gave the new LV mineral oil a shot on my M8120 brakes and it worked well. Took a while to bleed properly and get all the bubbles/air and had to let the brake lines sit vertical plus a lot of shaking and tapping of the calipers and levers to move the air out. Once it was all the air was out the brakes felt awesome. Haven't ridden them on trail yet but will post again for a performance review.

Any update on your brakes, still working well without issues?
flag bigboyroy007
Posted: Apr 16, 2026 at 13:40 Quote
dirtcollective wrote:

I tried the LV oil in my M8120s out of curiosity. It definitely improved consistency on longer descents and helped reduce that wandering bite point a little. I’ve put around 500km on it so far and haven’t noticed any seal issues. I think Shimano’s ‘not compatible’ warning is just a safety blanket, the seals seem to handle it fine

Any update on your brakes? Still working well without any issues? Thanks!
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