Brake Caliper Pins

semi-acoustic · 10 Oct 2020

Hi

Just a quick question. I am changing my front brake pads tomorrow and have some Mintex cera tec lubricant but am wondering is it better to use red grease for the slide pins.

Any advice as always truly appreciated

chainsaw_masochist · 10 Oct 2020

I always thought the red grease was specifically for rubber items. Could you not use ceramic brake grease, lithium grease or even copaslip?

JohnD · 10 Oct 2020

they will get very hot, and the ceramic grease is the one to use.

DIYspanner · 10 Oct 2020

semi-acoustic said:
Hi

Just a quick question. I am changing my front brake pads tomorrow and have some Mintex cera tec lubricant but am wondering is it better to use red grease for the slide pins.

Any advice as always truly appreciated

Why were you thinking of using red grease on the slider pins?

The Mintex stuff is the one to use by the way and get all rust and brake dust cleaned off.

semi-acoustic · 10 Oct 2020

Hi All

Thanks for the replies, I previously used red grease because I was told it does not damage the rubber seals, no other reason.

Advice very much appreciated.

Burnerman · 10 Oct 2020

Caliper pins are usually stainless steel sliding within nylon sleeves so lube there isn't strictly necessary. Make sure the exposed ends with the threads have all the brake dust residue cleaned away and the end caps are there.
By all means thinly lube if you want, but only with ceramic grease and not with any mineral types as the protecting boot is rubber.
John

Avocet · 14 Oct 2020

Nylon sleeves on a brake caliper????!!!!

I've never actually taken one apart to check, but surely they'd get FAR too hot for nylon?!

Anyway, back on topic, yes, ceratech will be fine. I used to use copperslip, but I think it hardens after a while and actually makes things worse.

Burnerman · 14 Oct 2020

Yep, that’s the way.....to be honest I stated nylon just because the plastic is white, but they are something similar. The sleeves aren’t full length, just at the ends and the outer end has a rubber sleeve with a plastic cap.
Heat can’t be much of an issue in this area because there’s a fair bit of rubber around anyway, and I’ve never seen any deterioration of it at all.
I’ll stick by my ‘no lube here’ theory - it’ll just pick up road debris but I would protect the ends of the pins.....the allen head type are ok, the Torx ones - just hope the head doesn’t round off or the job goes on much longer!
John

Avocet · 15 Oct 2020

Interesting. I'd never looked inside any of mine in the past! I just assumed the slider pins ran in the cast iron. I wonder if the plastic sleeves might be Teflon? Nylon's other shortcoming, is that it absorbs water and swells with time, so I'm guessing they won't be nylon. Fair point about the rubber bits. Particularly the dust boots on the pistons. They must see a lot of heat. More than the slider pins, I'd guess. I'd noticed the rubber "bung" on the ends of some slider pins and always wondered what that was all about. Mrs Avocet's late X-Trail used to have them, but only on one pin on each caliper! Never managed to work out why. I assumed it was some sort of damper, maybe to reduce squeal?

Burnerman · 15 Oct 2020

The single pin caliper type was one that could be hinged out of the way to allow for a quick pad change....I seem to think that Ford used a similar design for a while.
You may well be right about the choice of plastic - Teflon would be a good choice.
The only issue with caliper pins I've found - the cheaper types were chrome plated carbon steel and the chrome would flake away, but they seem to all be stainless now.
John

Brake Caliper Pins

Similar threads