Specially engineered and formulated ceramic brake parts lubricant has become an essential part of brake servicing, avoiding wear on several mechanisms which scientists categorise as adhesive, abrasive, fretting and erosion.
In a brake caliper, the brake pads move in their abutment slides not only when the brakes are applied but also when vibrations are transmitted from the road surface and drivetrain.
According to leading Brake manufacturer Bendix, some wear is closely associated with corrosion where oxygen from the air reacts with metal to form oxides. This results in oxidisation forming and this is much harder than metal. When this is present the sliding interfaces can be abrasive causing rapid acceleration of the mechanical wear rate.
This can be microscopic in the early stages creating roughness on the sliding surfaces, becoming worse over time with wear on the slides increasing until the pads can no longer move freely. Pads that jam in the caliper can lead to a raft of brake problems including shudder, drag, rapid pad wear, noise levels and overheating.
Bendix also advises that the noise behaviour of a brake system is a complex interaction between all parts of the braking system i.e. the pads, caliper, rotor and often the suspension components. When several components in the system go into resonant vibration together it can lead into brake noise and a strategy to avoid this is to isolate the pads from the caliper.
To overcome these many problems Bendix engineers have developed a specially formulated ceramic high performance synthetic lubricant called Ceramasil Brake Parts Lubricant which is available in a handy 255 gram tube with an extended nozzle, ideal for workshops working on a brake job.
Whilst any grease will do the job in the short term, this specially formulated lubricant is designed to last the life of the brake job. It is designed to work in a range of temperatures from the coldest winter’s morning to searing temperatures generated under hard working braking conditions and not melt. Tested and proven under the worst undercar conditions where it is exposed to continuous jets of water, clouds of dust and road grime Bendix Ceramasil remains as a constant lubricant.
Application of Bendix Ceramasil between the back plate of the pad and the piston and fingers of the caliper is an effective way to isolate the pads and decouple a system resonance.
Guide pins of a sliding caliper require lubrication to operate correctly, allowing the caliper to centre over the rotor and adjust to accommodate wear on the pad. Bendix recommends that with each brake service Ceramasil be applied to the caliper slide pins, the abutment slides of the caliper, between the back plate and the caliper fingers and the caliper bolt.