brake grease

Here's an excerpt from the Repair Manual, for install of front brake pads, applicable to rears as well:


(I've attached the the full brake section excerpt, in pdf format)

For "disc brake grease" I've used Permatex Anti-Seize, for decades:



My method for applying is to lightly coat the inside face of each shim before installing. I also put a light coat on the caliper "fingers", and very sparingly on the rim of the piston:




For the rubber boots, bleed screw caps and caliper pins, I use Sil-Glyde Brake Lubricant:



Any time I have the pads off, I clean everything and re-apply the lubricant. This should be 30K miles or tri-yearly, according to Toyota USA (ditto for Canada). Toyota Canada (Toyota USA still silent on the subject??) also recommends brake fluid change, tri-yearly or 48K kms (30K miles). @NutzAboutBolts has an excellent video on the brake fluid change, pinned in the maintenance sub-forum. I'll attach the Repair Manual excerpt on that as well.

 

Always. Rain and extreme cold will shorten grease life. Brake pad seize can cause uneven brake pad wear, warp rotor, screeching, sqeaking, and the worse one is when you brake hard and your car pulls to the direction of where the caliper is seize causing you to drift to other lane. From experience

 

Sorry, you wanted feedback, say whether or not to use lube on the above? I guess go with their recommendation, no lube on pad contact points. But still clean/relube caliper pins, for sure.

 

I don't think lube on the back of pads is that critical. The first time I took ours apart for a look, there was just a slight dab of something, that looked kind of like Sil-Glyde, just in the middle between shims. Caliper lube is maybe more critical?

My heritage is Honda, and everytime I'd get the car back after a dealership brake job, there'd be a little squeeze-out of anti-seize, all the way around the perimeter of the pads. It was reassuring.

But yeah, my head space is always, to first clean everything (pads, shims, caliper contact points), then put a pad face down on a clean newspaper, thinly butter the inner face of inner shim, and install, thinly butter innner face of outer shim, and install. Then thinly butter the caliper "fingers" (that grip the pad back, opposite side to the piston), and a very sparing amount on the rim of the caliper piston, taking care not to spread it onto the piston boot.