Best Grease for Brake Calipers and Slide Pins

[Ramblejam]

Originally Posted By: buck91
Sil-glyde is actually a wonderfully misleading name as it is NOT a silicone lubricant for the most part. IIRC a few years ago when I looked into it it had some silicates such as methylated silica and amorphous silica which I believe are thickening agents, but also Polyproylene Glycol. I also remember some discussions about the actual lubricating agent being some type of castor oil, but I don't have any real info there.


Polypropylene Glycol: 45-60%
Caster Oil: 30-45%
Silicon Dioxide: 5-15%
Polydimethylsiloxane: 1-5%
Oleoyl Sarcosine: 1-5%

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

Permatex brake grease of any color will swell the lower slide pin bushing on Toyota calipers. Syl-Glyde has worked for me.

 

[DBMaster]

Funny thing. I owned my Honda Accord for 23 years and 350K miles. I didn't touch the slide pins until the car had well over 200K miles. Never had any problems. I decided to clean them up at that point and re-grease. I used white lithium grease. If the boots are in good shape they just don't get dirty and the grease retains its integrity for a LONG time.

 

[Tegger]

Originally Posted By: njohnson
Thinking of trying white lithium grease on the caliper pins after reading this last post.

Do it ONLY if your shop manual calls for it, which it will for most Toyotas. Using lithium grease with rubber not intended for it will likely wreck the rubber.

Originally Posted By: njohnson
white lithium spray grease, would this work?

Yes. It's the same stuff, just diluted to work in a spray can.

 

[Tegger]

Originally Posted By: Tegger
Originally Posted By: njohnson
white lithium spray grease, would this work?

Yes. It's the same stuff, just diluted to work in a spray can.

I'm having second thoughts.

While the grease is the same (aerosol and non-aerosol), the propellant and diluents which enable the grease to feed as an aerosol may attack rubbers. If I were you, I would buy a tub of the stuff and not use the spray can.

 

[The Critic]

3M silicone paste or Motorcraft XG3A for slide pins. Silicone paste works fairly well for slide pins and lasts quite a while. It is important to fully clean the slide pin bores and remove as much of the old grease as possible since greases are not always compatible with each other.

For the shims and pad ears, I have found Molykote M77 from Honda to be the best dry lube that you can get. I am not a huge fan of the tacky anti-squeal products since they can ruin some very expensive OE shims.

 

[Gebo]

Is it ok to clean the slide pins with brake cleaner? Will brake cleaner damage rubber?

 

[Merkava_4]

Pull the slide pins out to clean them -- that way you don't damage the rubber bellows.

 

[DBMaster]

Until you have well over 100,000 miles I suggest simply leaving them alone unless you have torn rubber covers and dirt has penetrated.

 

[Gebo]

They look like they are covered in solidified graphite goo.

 

[Gebo]

My outer pad went to metal and my inner pad seems brand new. On my way to my new rotors now.

 

[doitmyself]

Originally Posted By: The Critic
3M silicone paste or Motorcraft XG3A for slide pins. Silicone paste works fairly well for slide pins and lasts quite a while. It is important to fully clean the slide pin bores and remove as much of the old grease as possible since greases are not always compatible with each other.

For the shims and pad ears, I have found Molykote M77 from Honda to be the best dry lube that you can get. I am not a huge fan of the tacky anti-squeal products since they can ruin some very expensive OE shims.


I'm on the same page as The Critic. I use one grease for the rubber enclosed slide pins and a high solids "paste" on the weather exposed metal to metal points.

I use this product instead of the Molykote 77: http://www.westernalltool.com/products/pastelub-synthetic-hi-temp-brake-lubricant-gtbpl-2400.html

Test a bit under the faucet and it repels water like no other. I also found that a paper thin coat on things like rotor hats/hubs will prevent rust in our salt laden area. At work, I use it on exposed farm gate hinges and it stays put for years.

 

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted By: DBMaster
Funny thing. I owned my Honda Accord for 23 years and 350K miles. I didn't touch the slide pins until the car had well over 200K miles. Never had any problems. I decided to clean them up at that point and re-grease. I used white lithium grease. If the boots are in good shape they just don't get dirty and the grease retains its integrity for a LONG time.


It all depends on the vehicle and climate. Salty winters will cause more slide pin problems, and some calipers are just more prone to losing slide pin grease and having them sieze up than others.

 

[nthach]

Originally Posted By: The Critic
3M silicone paste or Motorcraft XG3A for slide pins. Silicone paste works fairly well for slide pins and lasts quite a while. It is important to fully clean the slide pin bores and remove as much of the old grease as possible since greases are not always compatible with each other.

For the shims and pad ears, I have found Molykote M77 from Honda to be the best dry lube that you can get. I am not a huge fan of the tacky anti-squeal products since they can ruin some very expensive OE shims.

++

I keep a generic Dow 111 substitute on hand for non-Toyota/Subaru slide pins(they both call for a glycol-based lithium grease on slide pins which I also have) and Molykote M77 - I did buy some NOS Permatex Silicone Brake Lube with Moly. I refuse to use their other brake lubes for good reason.

And disc brake quiet is only used on non-shimmed pads.

 

[Trav]

Originally Posted By: Gebo
So can I use syl glide for everything?


Sure, its good stuff. Make sure the boots are in good shape, bad boots (not just torn but loose fitting also) are the cause of a lot of troubles.
I try and replace them every time the pins also unless they look pristine.
Nothing will ruin a good brake job faster than bad pins and boots, check rotor run out also. If you don't know how start a new thread.

 

[Tegger]

Originally Posted By: Gebo
My outer pad went to metal and my inner pad seems brand new.

Then the inner pad is stuck on the mount bracket. The pins are not the culprit in this case.

The pads ought to come off with light fingertip pressure and nothing more.

 

[Gebo]

Originally Posted By: Trav
Originally Posted By: Gebo
So can I use syl glide for everything?


Sure, its good stuff. Make sure the boots are in good shape, bad boots (not just torn but loose fitting also) are the cause of a lot of troubles.
I try and replace them every time the pins also unless they look pristine.
Nothing will ruin a good brake job faster than bad pins and boots, check rotor run out also. If you don't know how start a new thread.


I just bought 2 new rotors from NAPA....

 

[Gebo]

Originally Posted By: Tegger
Originally Posted By: Gebo
My outer pad went to metal and my inner pad seems brand new.

Then the inner pad is stuck on the mount bracket. The pins are not the culprit in this case.

The pads ought to come off with light fingertip pressure and nothing more.


I wonder why the inner pad got stuck?

 

[Tegger]

Originally Posted By: Gebo
I wonder why the inner pad got stuck?

Rust. You're supposed to sand off the rust before re-installing the pads; it's part of a normal brake job.

 

[DBMaster]

Originally Posted By: rslifkin
Originally Posted By: DBMaster
Funny thing. I owned my Honda Accord for 23 years and 350K miles. I didn't touch the slide pins until the car had well over 200K miles. Never had any problems. I decided to clean them up at that point and re-grease. I used white lithium grease. If the boots are in good shape they just don't get dirty and the grease retains its integrity for a LONG time.


It all depends on the vehicle and climate. Salty winters will cause more slide pin problems, and some calipers are just more prone to losing slide pin grease and having them sieze up than others.


I guess Texas climate is easy on this stuff, though I did live on the coast (Corpus) for two of those years. I just felt like chiming in since BITOG seems to be the haven for over-maintainers. I should know. I was one for years.