Post your favorite greases for a brake job
- Thread starter Donald
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Hmm just got a bottle of Permatex purple.. it's no good? I haven't had great luck with silglyde on pins, doesn't seem to last. Used it for years though.
I've heard the Permatex purple (ceramic solids grease) gets sticky on sliding pins but I only use it for the backs of pad shims and on the 'ears" of the pads meeting the hardware, works great for that!
also the red rubber grease from Toyota for Toyota's sliding pins, it's a lithium glycol soap grease, compatible with the rubber bushings/boots on Toyota's calipers. Nowhere does Toyota indicate silicone grease, tried that before and caused all the rubber bushings to swell, never again!
Found this out the hard way
I did. I did a complete tear-down and rebuild of the front brakes on my 2015 RX350 a year ago. I replaced the seals/boots on the calipers, completely cleaned the caliper pin sockets (like I always do) and tried to perfectly grease and put things back together like it came from the factory. Except I used that garbage from Permatex.
A year and 30k miles later, the pins on the calipers were LOCKED UP SOLID and I do not live/drive in the rust / salt belt. I had to spend 30+ minutes twisting the pins with a wrench and pliers pulling on them to get them out. What was on them? Hardened, gunky purple remnants of the Permatex garbage.
I replaced the rotors, which were purple on the inside surface. I re-used the pads, but they are more than 50% worn.
These 30k miles were 90% highway miles too....
The best thing you can ever do is throw it away today. Serious.
Permatex says that Ceramic Extreme (Purple) can be used on pins, but they're not the ones who make the stuff.
It's actually SLIPKOTE 598 from HUSKEY / Specialty Lubricants.
The datasheet says it was designed for "brake hardware and backing plates", omitting the "moving caliper hardware" usage that some of their related products specify.
So yeah, I'd probably avoid using it on pins.
It's actually SLIPKOTE 598 from HUSKEY / Specialty Lubricants.
The datasheet says it was designed for "brake hardware and backing plates", omitting the "moving caliper hardware" usage that some of their related products specify.
So yeah, I'd probably avoid using it on pins.
I had a lot of problems with the orange. It doesn't cover well and dries out quicker than expected. I was very disappointed in the performance of that lube and even had customers complain of squeaks months later. I went back to CRC black synthetic which is safe for rubber too.
AC Delco 10-4019 silicone anywhere that metal touches metal
The Toyota stuff I wager is similar to Sil-Glyde, both use glycol in their base, it’s just that one also includes castor oil and siloxane. Both I’ve had luck with slide pins.
The only thing with Permatex on it that will ever be allowed on my property again will be anti-seize.
I think that purple Permatex is swelling rubber components on a Honda application.
It will. I had that happen. I now only use brake lubes compatible with rubber.
I for one would rather not have to, I do enough of that sort of thing at work. Brakes are a safety critical item though, so it's important to get them right.
Ideally you would just look at the factory service manual and use what it says to use, but those products are often prohibitively expensive, if they are even available to purchase in reasonable quantities (or at all!)....
I never intended to go this far down the rabbit hole, I figured someone on the internet had probably already done it, I mean just look at the oil part of this site! But the more I looked the more confused I got, and the more annoyed that something that should be so simple was so confusing, and something with such great potential consequences if done incorrectly was so hard to do right.
So I decided that since I had already done so much research I might as well share it and try and save other people who probably don't have the time, and may not have the ability, the pain of having to do it themselves.
My study of Compounds, Greases, and Pastes for Lubricating Brakes on Japanese Automobiles
I've spent way, way, way, too much time (no, seriously, way too much!) researching this to not share it and hopefully save others the frustration, there's no shortage of bad info out there, including annoyingly from the OEM's themselves. This is primarily focused on brake part lubrication but...
bobistheoilguy.com
I'm (slowly) working on a new, expanded, more comprehensive, and easier to read version.
HUSKEY / Specialty Lubricants claims that SLIPKOTE 598 is compatible with most rubber, although they don't claim to meet JIS K 2228.
Permatex claims that it passes JIS K 2228 8.10, I'm not about to pay for the standard (perhaps I should?) but a translated Japanese copy I found shows that 9.10 is the test for rubber swelling (probably renumbered at some point).
The SLIPKOTE 598 datasheet says 8.0% max volume change for EPDM, which is well within the 16% allowed by JIS K 2228.
Now 598 is far from the only grease that will cause some swelling, I don't think any of the common brake greases are completely non-reactive with EPDM. You would think that the caliper manufacturers would take that into account, maybe they do and there's something else going on? I don't know, but I'd really like to find out.
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Dielectric Compound
really, the same grease you use for spark plug wires?
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I never used the purple, poster above says it junk, with nothing to back his statement up. Is the permatex purple a silicone base?
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