Yearly caliper pin lube needed?

[mitch28]

My 2003 Explorer has 22k miles is this
something I should be doing?

From Quora:

They should be disassembled and the caliper pins and slides should be lubricated . By the time your brake pads wear out your calipers have seized up because of the caliper pins not being lubricated . Now if it's a high mileage vehicle and you're replacing the pads because they're wearing out once a year because it's a commercial vehicle or something then you're taking it apart anyways but your average family car , putting on an average of 12 to 15000 miles a year won't need brakes for upwards of four years or more if it's driven normally , and that's too long to wait to disassemble those things and lubricate them.

Thank you.
Mitch

 

[swshawaii]

Quora, Reddit, and so many other internet forums are NOT always reliable sources of info. That's what specialty forums such as EF are for.

Rubber caliper pin boots are designed to seal from outside contaminants. Unless damaged or torn they should keep lubricant clean.
If the caliper pins require cleaning and lubrication use specific high temp brake lube such as Sil-Glyde or Permatex Ultra.
Avoid getting brake cleaner on rubber because it causes swelling. Dawn dish soap and warm water is my favorite for cleaning grease. YMMV.

 

[J_C]

Yeah, don't follow advice on sites not dedicated to vehicles/maintenance/repair.

Some of the budget brake greases out there can separate and dry out over time, so they need redone sooner. When doing a brake job, I pull the pins to see if they need it. With no signs of abnormal wear, I never take it apart just to pull the pins to lube them before new pads are needed.

If someone else's vehicle I stick with the type of lube already used, usually petroleum or castor oil based grease, but on my own vehicles, I flush the old grease out (this is required, the old petroleum and castor oil based greases are not compatible) and use silicone grease instead, silicone based grease, not just a different base grease with Silicone in it. It lasts a lot longer, usually does not need reapplied with the next brake job if not two or more.

Unfortunately the price of silicone grease seems to have risen recently, I got an 8oz bottle for $18 a couple years ago, remember it being $14 the time before, and the same is now in the mid-$20's. Popular options include Permatex 80653, Raybestos DBL-2T, Mission Silicone Paste, 3M 08946.

These silicone based greases are also good for lubing polyurethane, like suspension bushings, lubing plastic parts including plastic-metal contact, and a very-thin layer as a dressing will help preserve rubber moldings (solid rubber not foam).

Beware of marketing. For example, this Amazon page below, and further marketing, would lead you to believe that Sil-Glyde is silicone based. It is not, is castor oil based. Castor oil has a substantially shorter lifespan, main virtue being compatibility with rubber formulations used decades ago, long before Explorers.
(edit: Somehow my amazon link below is no longer showing up, while it was right after posted)
Amazon product ASIN B000CIHTPE

https://www.msdsdigital.com/system/files/Sil-Glyde-Grease_English.pdf

 

[Fix4Dirt]

imo for general stuff, sure scan reddit, quora etc. but lots of misinformation there. i will say i have occasioanlly come across good info, but as with everything these days its scanning what youre reading and picking out what is fact and what is fiction. that said, for general stuff, i suppose one could use them as a starting point and then come to a dedicated site like EF with questions, but imo its meh. the EFers are those usually with hands on experience with these specific models, etc. imo just do em every brake job, though for mileage doubt thats very often this X sees 15k a year with froading etc, so usually every 2 years for this one

 

[drdoom]

That's not bad advice. But flushing out the brake fluid, that is sometimes neglected. Get some fresh in there, that does a lot of good.
Never anything wrong with cleaning up the brakes in my opinion. Scrape and brush the caliper brackets, clean and lube the abutment clips, de-glaze the rotors. It's all good. Just pull what you have and reinstall it to suit your purposes. You will develop your own protocol for these tasks.