Rebuild Caliper assembly paste

[UNC171]

Hey all..

I am planning to rebuild one of my rear calipers on my Santa Fe and I came across this ATE Brake cylinder paste.. Apparently this is specific for rebuilding purposes.. You use this paste to coat the piston cylinder and lube the sealing o ring and coat the dust gasket for easier assemble..

But I can not determine what this ATE paste is mainly made from.. Not sure if it is silicon base, or what!... Its hard to find, as I am wanting to find something comparable...

 

[DCDG]

you can also use new fresh clean brake fluid unless specified by the manufacturer for a red rubber grease.

 

[JavierH19]

I've always used fresh brake fluid. If you wanna do a good job clean everything and wash your hands before you put it back together. No debris is important for long life. Put silicone grease or silicone oil where the boots sit in the piston unless it's not the rear twist type. If it's the push type then it doesn't matter much but it's still good to put a layer of silicone on the inside of the boot to keep it supple and do so on the folds on the outside so those don't split early.

 

[MBBW]

Hey all..

I am planning to rebuild one of my rear calipers on my Santa Fe and I came across this ATE Brake cylinder paste.. Apparently this is specific for rebuilding purposes.. You use this paste to coat the piston cylinder and lube the sealing o ring and coat the dust gasket for easier assemble..

But I can not determine what this ATE paste is mainly made from.. Not sure if it is silicon base, or what!... Its hard to find, as I am wanting to find something comparable...

View attachment 346848

I think these sorts of assembly pastes are meant for calipers that aren't going to be put into action right away. Use red rubber grease or if you don't want to overthink it, brake fluid.

 

[nthach]

Brake fluid works. Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Subaru all want a red rubber grease to be used, it’s not that expensive from a Toyota dealer.

I’ve heard silicone grease like Dow 111 could be used but I’m not sure if it mixes with brake fluid.

 

[rollins.]

ATE Bremszylinder-Paste has been around forever,the msds do not say much but it's probably made of some glycols.
https://www.ate-brakes.com/media/1595/03-9902-05xx-x-7000xx_sds_en-us_20221201_ate_cylinder_paste.pdf
https://www.ate.de/media/2317/technical_datasheet_brake_cylinder_paste.pdf

Similar product is Textar Hydra-Tec :
https://textar.com/usa/service-products/
https://sds.tmdfriction-iam.com/files/share/textar/Textar-Hydra-Tec-Sachets-1-1-GB-en.pdf

Neither of these should be used outside assembly work (they are NOT suitable for caliper pins etc).

P.S. Found some :

 

[wings&wheels]

Had a bit of a tough time finding the Conti/Teves/ATE product a while back and bought a tube of PBR Rubber Lube that has lasted for years. The PBR was easier to get. If you are rebuilding calipers, masters or slave cyls, use the rubber grease.

 

[Dave9]

I think these sorts of assembly pastes are meant for calipers that aren't going to be put into action right away. Use red rubber grease or if you don't want to overthink it, brake fluid.

This, except I also feel the same way about the red rubber grease, not needed unless the caliper is going to sit around for weeks, then you want something more viscous than brake fluid so it sticks around till you're ready to put the caliper into service.

 

[Kestas]

I coat the piston bore and mating surfaces with silicone grease. Any moisture that enters the braking system is through these sealing surfaces. Brake fluid and the ATE brake cylinder paste are alcohols, which absorb water. Silicone paste acts as a barrier to moisture, allows good brake function, and will not affect the brake fluid.

 

[MBBW]

This, except I also feel the same way about the red rubber grease, not needed unless the caliper is going to sit around for weeks, then you want something more viscous than brake fluid so it sticks around till you're ready to put the caliper into service.

Agreed. Though with Toyota/Lexus, it's in the service manual to just use their red rubber grease. Since it's already going on the rubber components, I don't have to switch back and forth between fluid and grease.

 

[KrisZ]

I coat the piston bore and mating surfaces with silicone grease. Any moisture that enters the braking system is through these sealing surfaces. Brake fluid and the ATE brake cylinder paste are alcohols, which absorb water. Silicone paste acts as a barrier to moisture, allows good brake function, and will not affect the brake fluid.

Yes that's what I do as well. The silicone grease will block moisture instead of absorbing it. I specifically coat the grooves the seals go into, to prevent corrosion in these areas, which will push the seals out and make the piston stick.

 

[MBBW]

I coat the piston bore and mating surfaces with silicone grease. Any moisture that enters the braking system is through these sealing surfaces. Brake fluid and the ATE brake cylinder paste are alcohols, which absorb water. Silicone paste acts as a barrier to moisture, allows good brake function, and will not affect the brake fluid.

Don't take this the wrong way but...

Brake fluid and ATE paste are glycol-ethers, not alcohols. Because glycol fluid and silicone grease do not mix, coating the internal piston bore can cause the silicone to congeal into a sludge. Moisture actually enters through the rubber hoses. It MIGHT be compatible with Dot 5 (silicone-based), but not 3,4 or 5.1.

Silicone grease is perfect for slider pins and external boots, but for the internal hydraulic bore and seals, stick to fresh brake fluid or a glycol-compatible assembly paste like ATE/Toyota Red Rubber Grease.

 

[KrisZ]

Don't take this the wrong way but...

Brake fluid and ATE paste are glycol-ethers, not alcohols. Because glycol fluid and silicone grease do not mix, coating the internal piston bore can cause the silicone to congeal into a sludge. You don't want that. Moisture actually enters through the rubber hoses. It MIGHT be compatible with Dot 5, but not 3,4 or 5.1.

Silicone grease is perfect for slider pins and external boots, but for the internal hydraulic bore and seals, stick to fresh brake fluid or a glycol-compatible assembly paste like ATE/Toyota Red Rubber Grease.

Don't take it the wrong way but...
You're talking "what might" not what works in real life that presents problems the OEM recommendations don't care about, like a seized piston down the road.

If you've ever done one of these rebuilds, you would know that the rubber seal pushes pretty much all of the grease out as you press in the piston. A minuscule amount remains on the brake fluid side.

 

[MBBW]

Haha I've done a few in my time.

Using a glycol-compatible paste is objectively the safer, correct professional method because it offers the same assembly lubrication without any chemical risk. Even if the seal scrapes most of it away, using a compatible paste removes the risk entirely

 

[KrisZ]

Haha I've done a few in my time.

Using a glycol-compatible paste is objectively the safer, correct professional method because it offers the same assembly lubrication without any chemical risk. Even if the seal scrapes most of it away, using a compatible paste removes the risk entirely

“Objectively” speaking, you shouldn’t work on your vehicle at all unless you’re a “licensed professional” because many scary things can happen if you do.

 

[MBBW]

“Objectively” speaking, you shouldn’t work on your vehicle at all unless you’re a “licensed professional” because many scary things can happen if you do.

Silicone and glycol don't mix, license or no license. If you're putting the silicone in the bore, it is now permanently trapped directly in the hydraulic fluid path until you go in and remove it.

 

[KrisZ]

Silicone and glycol don't mix, license or no license. If you're putting the silicone in the bore, it is now permanently trapped directly in the hydraulic fluid path until you go in and remove it.

Again, so what? You’re just arguing purely from a technical point of view, not practical.

In the amounts that are left in there I haven’t seen any negative effects at all. The used brake fluid comes out looking like any other used brake fluid with no gelling or even cloudiness to it.

it’s the same as the old anti seize on spark plugs arguments. There are those that will adhere to the OEM recommendations no matter what, will recite all of the potential problems antiseize may cause. And then there are those that saw problems and adjusted their practice to mitigate them.

I gave my reasons why I use silicone grease over brake fluid when rebuilding calipers and people can either use my experience or not. I don’t care who chooses what.

 

[scrllock]

Practically speaking, you take the safest approach possible when it comes to brakes. If I was paying someone for the work and they told me they used silicone grease in the bore, they're re-doing it or not getting paid. Sure, if you absolutely need to get the car on the road, I guess, but in that case just use brake fluid. There's no excuse for being lazy about proper assembly.

 

[rollins.]

In addition to the above opinions,
I've often wondered what (negative) effect some silicone greases (usually NLGI 2 and 3 and PTFE fortified) would have on the proper retractive function of the EPDM seal on the caliper piston(s) (there may be some papers on the topic) but have decided to not "experiment" with silicone greases for assembly tasks.

There is the warning by ATE :

"The brake cylinder paste is used for hydraulic brake
systems designed for operation with brake fluid based
on polyglycol ethers according to the standards FMVSS
116 (DOT 3, DOT 4, DOT 5.1), SAE J1703 and DIN ISO
4925. It is not planned for usage in brake systems with
a silicone or mineral oil based hydraulic fluid."

I guess the same is valid for the opposite scenarios.