Brake calipers are very important when it comes to your car’s ability to stop and might be one of the most essential parts of your automobile’s brakes. Your car’s caliper sits over the brake rotor. Inside that caliper is a brake pad, which is a block of material that causes friction with a back metal plate behind it.
Should you grease brake caliper bolts? Before putting the caliper bolts back into their spot, they need to be lubricated properly. Brakes are one of the hottest places for your car, so you’re going to need high-temperature grease. This lubricant is synthetic and can withstand the high temperatures that your car’s brakes will reach. If you don’t use this type of grease, the lubricant you use won’t be able to handle the heat.
Today, we’ll be exploring the reasons behind greasing your brake caliper bolts as well as how you can do them. We
How Do You Grease Your Brake Caliper Bolts?
Once you have your brake caliper bolts out of the housing, you’ll want to thoroughly clean them. Make sure that any grease or excess dirt is cleaned off that could have been leftover from when they were in the caliper. Apply a layer of the high-temperature grease so that sliding them in will become easier.
After you feel that there is enough on there, you can re-insert the bolts and pins into the caliper housing. You shouldn’t have to push too much on them. They should just slide in if the bolts are properly lubricated. Once these are back in place, you can continue to complete any other brake work that is needed.
Why Brake Caliper Maintenance Is Important
Brake calipers can become faulty if the bolts lose the lubrication. They won’t slide along the calipers so well. If the brakes don’t rub against the rotor properly, the brake pads can wear out in a way they aren’t supposed to. This can cause heavy use on one side of the pad or the other.
The slide pins could also stay stuck to the rotor. This would cause the brake pad to always be touching the rotor. This causes a heat buildup that will seem harmless at first, but eventually build up heat in your brakes and wear down your brake pads to the point that they aren’t usable anymore.
The last reason you might want to look into brake caliper maintenance is that your brake could lose power and become weaker due to the pads not being able to hit the surface of the rotor fully. All of these reasons mean that you’ll be using more brake pads throughout the lifetime of your vehicle, hence costing you more money.
How Brake Calipers Really Work
To truly understand what caliper bolts are and why you should check on these annually, let’s talk about how these brake calipers actually work. In a disc-braking system, a car’s wheels are attached to rotors that look like metal disks. The brake caliper goes over the rotor like a clamp.
When you look inside a caliper, there are two metal plates with friction material. These are the brake pads that usually are being replaced. These are usually referred to as the outboard brake pads and inboard brake pads.
Once you press on the brake pedal, a fluid called brake fluid that comes from the master cylinder builds up pressure on the pistons in the brake caliper. These brake pads slow the rotor to allow your car to slow down or make the rotor stop to make your car stop. Because the rotor is attached to the wheel, this is what causes the wheel to stop.
If you have an older car, you might not have disc brakes and instead have drum brakes. The main difference is that the motion of the wheels slows down by the friction of a rotating drum instead of a rotor.
These drums are a lot harder to replace and are more susceptible to wear and tear from braking. Because of its shape, there is no ventilation within the drum, and heat builds up quite fast over the years of use with the drum brake. Modern-day vehicles have since switched to disc brakes but if you see this drum shape instead of a disc in your older vehicle this might be your issue.
The Two Types of Calipers And The Differences
The first type of caliper is known as the floating caliper. The floating caliper moves in and out and is relative to the rotor. It has one or two pistons on the inboard side of the rotor. These pistons push the caliper when the brakes are in use, creating the friction upon the brake pads.
A fixed caliper is the second type, and just like its name, this caliper doesn’t move. The pistons are arranged on both sides of the rotor. Usually, only performance style cars have fixed calipers as these are usually more expensive and perform better for more braking. These performance style cars usually have bigger or more pistons and the ability to contain less heat. Racing car brakes could be used a lot on a track and reach temperatures up to 1000 degrees Fahrenheit.
What Type of Grease Should I Use?
You want to make sure you’re using the right type of grease when checking your brake calipers. Just normal cars that are used for everyday commutes can still see their brakes reach up to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Because of this, the most important thing is to make sure that the grease you get can sustain temperatures like this. Greases that can’t handle these temperatures could either cause deformities in your bolts or allow them to just slide out. If you look up any kind of grease to use, just make sure that you check out the temperatures it can handle.
Many different experts recommend different products, but a one option is Permatex Brake Grease, which will work well. There are also places like Napa and O’Reilly Auto Parts that supply things like this. Some people even found that going to their dealership in the parts section and getting ones specific for their make of car.
Related Questions
What tool do I need to work on my brake calipers? Ironically, there is a special brake pad tool that helps with the calipers. It is actually just termed a “brake caliper tool.” This tool helps retract the pistons back into the caliper so that you can access the brake pads.
Should I clean out the slot where the bolts go if there’s dirt or grease in there? Yes. You want to keep these bolts clean for as long as possible. If there is any dirt, grease, or dust in these holes, just use a small cylindrical brush to get in there and clean it.
How often should I be cleaning my brake calipers? If you live in an area that experiences a lot of snow and you seem to be using your brakes more when driving, it might be a good idea to clean them every two years. If you live in a sunny place like Texas or Florida, your calipers should last you over five years.
What brake components need to be lubricated? Besides the bolts that we mentioned in this post, you must also lubricate the bits on both sides of the rotor pad, the metal back of the rotor pad that touches the piston, and the edges of the piston.