I did some work on my disk brakes yesterday. Approx. 95,000 miles. The caliper pin boots looked grey and dry, and I was concerned, but when I soaked them with silicone, they came back like new. No kidding.

Use silicone on all the rubber on your car as regular maintenance. You'll be happy-happy.

 

I've watched a lot of YouTube videos on doing your brakes and I was amazed to see some of the people using ordinary (ie non-silicone) grease on brake rubber parts. Regular grease can destroy rubber and plastic parts and people just weren't aware of this.

 

@woof I drove myself nuts this month, woofy. I saw a YouTube that said the caliper grease I had used would swell the rubber bushings on the caliper pins, so I bought a silicone caliper lubricant product to use instead. When I examined the pins, the bushings didn't look swollen to me, and I disliked the silicone lubricant. It was too thick and goopy. I do not know what I will do next time.

 

I used Sil-Glyde last year and it was fine. It was widely recommended for brakes years ago but is not so common now, mostly I think because there are so many other choices on a crowded market now. Any grease that specifically states it can be used on brakes is fine although there may be differences in things like thickness consistency and temperature ratings and personal preferences.

 

@woof Thank you, woof. I was just looking at Sil-Glyde on the NAPA site. For about the millionth time. My only hesitation is that it says that it's rated for 500 degrees F. The goop I used is rated to 3,000 degrees F. Also, it doesn't specifically say "good for metal-to-rubber lubrication" like (570 degrees F).

That said, I am not disagreeing with you, and I'm sure that you are 100% right. I need to stop it with the YouTube videos. I'll probably redo my caliper lubrication job in a few months when the weather temperatures here cool a bit.

 

How hot do you get your brakes? I'm not sure it would be physically (or physics-ly) possible to get the brakes on a Fit to 2999 degrees F, but if you did I guess you could be happy knowing that your brake grease has survived while the rest of your car melted away (e.g., melting points: aluminum wheels - 1220F, windshield - 1800F, cast iron components - 2000-2200F, steel body panels - 2500-2800F).

 

Fair point.

I don't know the maximum temperature protection that I need. Is it 500 degrees F?

In the past, I've occasionally driven the car hard enough to have smoke coming off the rotors, but I don't usually drive like that anymore.


Some Boiling Points/Temp Ranges (from the Internet)
Water: 212 F
Coolant: 220 F
Motor Oil : 550 F
Brake Fluid: 446 F
Brake Rotors (typical passenger vehicle) : 200 F to 500 F

 

Sorry for late reply, IDK how I missed that
NAPA Sil-glyde is the lubricant for the caliper pins, and it is not reacting with original non petroleum grease
Fix-it Angel (from YouTube) uses the silicone compound, which looks too thick to me
I have been using Sil-Glyde for many brake jobs (traced to 2017) without any adverse issues.
Properly operating caliper slide pin should rebound when pushed in.
Some clients want to reuse old ones trying to save few bucks while changing pads
In this case I am using thick Never-Seize paste (regular grade, up to 1800 F)