Brake inspection mini rant on slide pin bushings...

[JeffKeryk]

I took my friend's 2012 Civic EX front brake components apart for inspection and cleaning. I bought this car a year ago; it is in great shape.
Pads had life, were worn pretty evenly, etc. But they were tight in the bracket; the springs had no effect.
Pulled slider pins to clean and lubricate; they were tight! The pin with the bushing was very tight and in the upper position. I thought the bushing was supposed to be in the bottom? Anyways the pin was almost stuck, there was no movement.

The bushing was swelled, I guess to the lube used? Dang thing slid right off. I've seen this too many times. Reassembled and ordered a kit.

 

[Nukeman7]

I took my friend's 2012 Civic EX front brake components apart for inspection and cleaning. I bought this car a year ago; it is in great shape.
Pads had life, were worn pretty evenly, etc. But they were tight in the bracket; the springs had no effect.
Pulled slider pins to clean and lubricate; they were tight! The pin with the bushing was very tight and in the upper position. I thought the bushing was supposed to be in the bottom? Anyways the pin was almost stuck, there was no movement.

The pin with the rubber bushing is normally in the lower position of the caliper bracket on Hondas as you assumed. Someone reassembled it incorrectly the last time it was serviced.

The bushing was swelled, I guess to the lube used? Dang thing slid right off. I've seen this too many times. Reassembled and ordered a kit.

If a petroleum based brake grease was used, it caused the slide pin bushings to swell up. Got to use a silicone grease or lithium soap based grease on rubber components. Happens all the time on Hondas/Acuras and Toyotas.

Additional discussion can be found in this earlier BITOG thread.

 

[The Critic]

If a petroleum based brake grease was used, it caused the slide pin bushings to swell up. Got to use a silicone grease or lithium soap based grease on rubber components. Happens all the time on Hondas/Acuras and Toyotas.

Additional discussion can be found in this earlier BITOG thread.

The bushings will eventually swell up, even if the correct grease was used. If it is a slide pin design where the the pins fit somewhat loosely, it isn't noticeable. But on designs where the pins fit very tightly in the bore, even a small amount of swelling will cause the pin to lock in place.

 

[Racer4]

I took my friend's 2012 Civic EX front brake components apart for inspection and cleaning. I bought this car a year ago; it is in great shape.
Pads had life, were worn pretty evenly, etc. But they were tight in the bracket; the springs had no effect.
Pulled slider pins to clean and lubricate; they were tight! The pin with the bushing was very tight and in the upper position. I thought the bushing was supposed to be in the bottom? Anyways the pin was almost stuck, there was no movement.

The bushing was swelled, I guess to the lube used? Dang thing slid right off. I've seen this too many times. Reassembled and ordered a kit.

Jeff, it is funny you are talking about tight guide pins. Just today I was flushing the brake fluid in my wife's Rav4 and decided to remove the front pads to check the wear, and the guide pins would not move freely. I had to use a wrench to twist them out, and when I replaced the pads, I cleaned and greased the pins. I used the grease that came with the pads. Not anymore, I used Slide grease with silicone this time. Live and learn!!

 

[Hall]

The pin with the bushing was very tight and in the upper position.

The bushing typically goes in the "leading" position (as the rotor turns (forward)) and by that, this depends on where the caliper is located. We have a '12 Civic EX (sedan) and my notes say it goes in the upper position on the fronts and lower position on the rears. I'm 99% certain I confirmed this from a Honda parts diagram too.

 

[JeffKeryk]

The bushing typically goes in the "leading" position (as the rotor turns (forward)) and by that, this depends on where the caliper is located. We have a '12 Civic EX (sedan) and my notes say it goes in the upper position on the fronts and lower position on the rears. I'm 99% certain I confirmed this from a Honda parts diagram too.

View attachment 334979

I think you are right... Thanks!

 

[The Critic]

The pin with the rubber bushing is normally in the lower position of the caliper bracket on Hondas as you assumed. Someone reassembled it incorrectly the last time it was serviced.

If a petroleum based brake grease was used, it caused the slide pin bushings to swell up. Got to use a silicone grease or lithium soap based grease on rubber components. Happens all the time on Hondas/Acuras and Toyotas.

Additional discussion can be found in this earlier BITOG thread.

Depends on the application. Honda shows the bushing being located on the lower pin for Caliper Type C, but Caliper Types A and B (Si, DX, LX M/T, HF) have the bushing on the top.

 

[JeffKeryk]

Depends on the application. Honda shows the bushing being located on the lower pin for Caliper Type C, but Caliper Types A and B (Si, DX, LX M/T, HF) have the bushing on the top.

Outstanding find. I got the new bushings and bellows(?) yesterday from Amazon. Can't wait to tear into that little Civic!

 

[Donald]

Jeff, it is funny you are talking about tight guide pins. Just today I was flushing the brake fluid in my wife's Rav4 and decided to remove the front pads to check the wear, and the guide pins would not move freely. I had to use a wrench to twist them out, and when I replaced the pads, I cleaned and greased the pins. I used the grease that came with the pads. Not anymore, I used Slide grease with silicone this time. Live and learn!!

What exact grease? Sil-glyde?

 

[Racer4]

Donald, the grease I used was Slide it was a free sample from a trade show. I have since purchased Sly-glyde silicone brake grease for future brake projects.

 

[chris719]

Personally, I would not use sil-glyde unless you can verify it is actually silicone. There are several SDS floating around and some versions are castor oil based and some are polypropylene glycol. I would stick to 3M or Mission silicone or CRC Silaramic which is silicone based and compatible with rubber as well.

 

[D1dad]

Outstanding find. I got the new bushings and bellows(?) yesterday from Amazon. Can't wait to tear into that little Civic!

I just ran into this on my wife’s 24 Altima. 22k, no issues but figured I’d grease the slide pins, which was good that I did. The rubber was swelled and tighter than tight on the rears, front was fine and still had some factory lube on both ends. Of course the only place I could find that stupid little piece of rubber was on Amazon as a whole beck arnley kit. 2c piece of rubber and it’s new again.

 

[GSCJR]

I've been using the Sil-glyde forever, it just works. My colleague decided to order some green Permatex stuff;

 

[Number_35]

Good discussion.

Based on discussions here on BITOG, I've given up on the several Permatex brake lubes (green and purple) I've used in the past, and am now using KLEEN-FLO EZE SLIDE, which I think is 100% silicone.

I've been pulling the slide pins as I do season tire-changeovers, and have found the Permeated products to be dried-up.

The slide pins shown are from the rear brakes on a 2009 Mazda5. I would have lubed them last December when I did the rear brakes.

 

[BrianF]

I've been using Kleen Flo exclusively for about 10 years. Why? I went looking for Sylglyde at Napa (recomended on this site) and this is what they had. Its works great and I have no intentions of changing. As well, it might be a Canadian company.

 

[D1dad]

I can’t sing the praise of mission enough. Every year when I did the rear pins on my rogue they were completely dry. Sil glyde, whatever, it didn’t matter. These are undersized calipers and dynamic braking, so they do get hot thus no lube left. I used mission last year and they were still like new. It’s hard to find at times but well worth the hunt.

 

[Trav]

Since using Mission years ago I have not had one rusted or tight pin. I used it one of my cars 4 years ago and they are still like new and got reused just recently when I did a brake job on it, that is saying something for a car that only sees rust belt winters. There are a couple of other low cost pure silicone ones if Mission is not available.

 

[ccs368]

Everyone has their favorite lubricant and every lubricant mentioned is great when used until it fails. Because the circumstances may be different even 100% silicone could fail if an unknown situation wasn’t detected. The best thing about this thread is everyone is finding tight pins before seizing because of routine inspection, cleaning and servicing. It’s a pain but when performing with tire rotations, that’s the sure way to keep the pins functioning.

 

[JeffKeryk]

I am a fan of cleaning and lubing brake components periodically. It ain't that hard, even a lowly programmer can do it.
And clean those caliper bores, dang it!

 

[D1dad]

Since using Mission years ago I have not had one rusted or tight pin. I used it one of my cars 4 years ago and they are still like new and got reused just recently when I did a brake job on it, that is saying something for a car that only sees rust belt winters. There are a couple of other low cost pure silicone ones if Mission is not available.

That says a lot considering the salt they use on the east coast. Every year my rogue rear pins were almost seized, no matter what I tried. I bought a bottle of mission last year and this was the 1st time they were just as lubed as when I installed them.