Sliding Pin lubricant
 

Hey there!

I've owned my 2004 Rio Yellow for almost 1.5 years now and have been taking it to the track and doing religious maintenance on it but the tracks I go to are killer on brakes and ever since I switched to Carbotech XP10s (which have been outstanding so far), I've been building more and more heat in each session to the point where I limit myself to 6 or 7 laps and pull out for a cooldown.

That being said, my peak temperatures are probably cooking my sliding pin lube and I've noticed after a service visit every two track days, they are starting to get stuck.

Looking at options, I've only seen Permatex® Ceramic Extreme Brake Parts Lubricant (https://www.permatex.com/products/lu...s-lubricant-2/) which is good up to 3000 deg F (and given my pads are good up to ~1500 deg F this seems like a good match) but I've read some reviews that it tends to dry up and then things seize.

Any ideas?

If your brake grease gets much beyond 350 degrees, it would melt your boots.

At 3000 degrees, the pins themselves would be puddled on the floor. Steel melts at 2500F.

Almost any silicone or clay fortified brake lube will outperform the boots themselves.

Your slider pins aren't likely getting much beyond 350F.

While I have not had the permatex stuff start caking....its definitely not as slippery as silicone grease. So I would use silicone grease. Most silicone grease seems to be good to like 500 or 600F.

First, clean your pins and caliper bracket bore properly with brake cleaner. I use a battery terminal cleaner's female end to clean the pins....and I use the terminal cleaner's bottle brush looking thing to clean the caliper bracket bore.

Its normal for the pins to momentarily "stick". Grease has surface tension...and it tends to kind of coagulate until its moved around. Once you move them initially, they should move freely for a while.

What part of the brakes are you cooking after 6 or 7 laps? Which track? My carbotech XP10's have faded momentarily at fast track straightaways, but they cool off more than enough to work for the next corner.

The track I mainly go to is Mosport Driver Development Course (NOT the Grand Prix course) which is considerably more brake heavy - [media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SAgo9U6pw0&t=915s[/media]

I had one occurance of the XP10s fading on entrance into the straightaway but other than that, they've been good. When I say the sliding pins get stuck I mean well after the track event. I am going to start doing the maintenance on my own (I keep taking it to a well known shop locally but it's costing me a fortune and I'm more than capable of doing the work) and was wondering what to use.

I've also been advised to use the Honda OEM grease and that my troubles are likely elsewhere.

I like the Honda molykote m77 grease as it remains effective much longer than other grease I've used, I've never gotten the brakes anywhere near as hot as the OP though. Moly is a good additive to prevent metal to metal contact.

The grease also has to be compatible with whatever the boots are made from. Idk what type of polymer that is. I would say silicone...but I don't *believe* silicone does well with UV exposure.

Moly is definitely good for extreme pressure type applications for sliding metal parts.

I think for caliper pins, you're usually just looking for something with a good viscosity range and temp range that's compatible with the boots.

CRC silicone brake caliper lube seems to be available everywhere. Honda also makes a silicone caliper lube.

The difference between silicone lube and other, more heavy greases is pretty apparent when you handle it. The silicone lube is like a jelly.

I use the 3M Silicone lube on my daily driver and never had issues with it but looking at the temp ratings, it's only good up to 400 deg F so that's what prompted me to look at alternatives.

ATE Plastilube. It is designed to be used on caliper pistons and slides.

Melted boot crew checking in :hello:


I've always just used hitemp grease. Good to about 600F or so.

I used moly bearing grease for a while. The slide pins never froze, but on a track day my outside right rear pad went down to metal and all other pads were fine. I never confirmed the issue but everyone I spoke to said slide pins. So I switched to the high temp ceramic brake lube u mentioned on your first post. I did a track day this past Thursday and had no brake issues. I can't confirm the brake lube helped. I can say the stuff is thick and after assembly the pins do move slower than with moly grease. At high temp maybe they loosen up? Not sure. I need to disassemble the brakes to do a full inspection. However looking through the the wheel the wear looks good.