PSA: Cut the rubber sleeve off of the rear caliper slide-pin

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I had to do my rear brakes and did a deep dive on floating calipers and grease.

First and most importantly, to prevent binding and promote smooth operation for the life of the caliper, cut the rubber sleeve off of the slide-pin. Each side will have one normal pin and one with the sleeve. I noticed that the one with the sleeve is ever-so-slightly smaller in diameter than the normal pin so I bought a replacement (four actually, so they are all equally shiny, P/N 47715-60010). I don't think this is necessary (ran it for two weeks on "skinny" pins without issue) and none of the mechanics I found said to do this. More of a "warm-fuzzy" thing. Disagree? Ok. But please god don't say, "the engineers put it there for a reason and they know better." Click here for TLDR uTube video. After a few weeks like this I've heard no errant noises.

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Second, use only silicone grease because it's rubber safe. The most popular one is Sil-Glyde from Napa.

Third, use only a light coat of that grease on the slide-pins. If they are all gooped up the pin will not move freely. It has to be able to bottom out easily.

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Fourth, don't use any grease on the pad ears or anti-squeal shims. No purple stuff. No anti-seize. Nothing. The "warm-fuzzies" you get from slick operation at the beginning will not be worth the brake dust and road grime buildup after only a thousand miles. All it does is collect garbage. What you can do is remove the metal pad-ear guides and take a wire bristle brush to the caliper so there is no corrosion buildup or anything else. Click here for a good thread on this.

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Oh, and don't go on a weekend trip to Houston without squeal-shims edit: wear indicators (thanks 2001LC) on the pads, only to find out you're metal-to-metal once you arrive. I was going to replace the rotors anyway. I still won't put indicators on but I've added a spare pad, 14 mm wrench (caliper bolts) and large c-clamp (push piston back) to my roadside kit in case I'm away from home.

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I see you replaced the slide pin boots. Good going! It is, one of the most overlooked, easy and cheap ways to protect the mounting (torque) plate and slide pins from rusting in.

I assume you meant "wear indicators" which unlike front pads, dose not come with the pads. But comes with shim kit (anti squeal kit). I like my wear indicator on inner pad upper side.

Factory setup, Inner shim & wear indicator.jpg

I do use grease between shim and pad and on rabbit ears where the contact the fitting kit.
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The second most neglected part of the job, when rotor replace. Is, few actual deglaze the wheel hub, much less runout the hub & rotor.
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We runout the rotor at all 5 position (turn to each lug). Then set rotor on hub at best runout and mark its position.
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Tighten, then back off 8 clicks. To adjust e-brake shoes.

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If rotor disk runout, out of spec. OR parallelism out. I use my OTV bake lathe.


Personally I use new OEM pins when they're worn or damaged, and place the one with rubber bushing on bottom.

I also replace older caliper bolts and use a threads sealer (lblue).

When work on brake caliper/pads. I like to, flush brake fluid first. Using only Toyota brake fluid.. Then open bleed as I press caliper piston in, to get out all the fluid I can as I make remove for new pads. Then re-bleed. I do not compress pistons of calipers in, without opening it's bleeder.

Over the last 10 years. I've change some of how I do brake jobs. For the most part. I do them by the book.
 
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