Was going to service my brakes then realised I've only got copper grease.

 

I've heard not to use copper grease on the pins is that correct.

 

And would silicone grease be ok or do I actually need special brake/caliper pin grease.

The main issue is with the use of copper grease on items in contact with rubber, as in the guide pin dampers, so yes, use silicone grease there.

 

There is a special lubricant that is available for use on brake parts, well on their mechanical parts, but I still use copper grease when there is no rubber nearby, and saved my special lubricant for smearing sparingly on the alloy wheel/hub faces!

Edited 18 January, 201412 yr by rum4mo

jc - be carefull with the front caliper allen headed bolts. The threads on the plate strip very easily . The firm that fitted a helicoil to mine say they see a lot of VAG cars with similar type of front unit. Possibly down to the construction .

jc - be carefull with the front caliper allen headed bolts. The threads on the plate strip very easily . The firm that fitted a helicoil to mine say they see a lot of VAG cars with similar type of front unit. Possibly down to the construction .

 

Yes a good point, hum, I just wonder which country manufactures the hub assembly - CZ? I'd guess so for all these cars of this generic platform - enough said. Along with that, this type of calliper fixing is as old as the moon (??) and while, 20/30 years ago cars lasted 10 years, they tend to last quite a bit longer nowadays - so more chance of accidental damage/wear/corrosion occurring. Though, if it is only happening to the "lower" models where the guide pins fix directly to the hubs, then I'd think that indeed it is down to crappy Skoda sourced parts. I had a Passat for 13.5 years with no problems with these bolts, still have a 9N Polo that is 11+ years old, a "lower" model so with same fixing, but so far no problems. Really you also need to be wise about how often you take these guide pins out and what torque you apply to them as they are just parallel partially threaded pins and they get screwed in up to the end of the thread, not like a bolt where the load is taken up by the head of the fixing. If they are only getting removed every 4/5/6 years then there will be a lot of hard rusty crap on the back of the threads and forcing this out through the soft crappy hub material could end up with a bit of trouble, especially if you have not wire brushed the exposed inner end of these guide pins - if over torqueing has been done then nothing can reverse that stupidity. Be smart and stay luck and you will not experience any of these problems hopefully, plus always make sure the guide pins are spotlessly clean before refitting them.

Cool cheers for advice do you know the torque setting for the pins

Cool cheers for advice do you know the torque setting for the pins

 

For FS11 and FS111, Haynes gives a torque of 28Nm or 21lbf ft.  If you can get access to the rear of these pins clean them off a bit and apply a drop of release fluid - note:- WD40 is not a release fluid!

 

Edit:- if you can't reach the rear of these pins, ease them out/in as you remove them to try to encourage any curd to drop off and not get dragged back through the threaded hole in the hub.

Edited 19 January, 201412 yr by rum4mo