The service manual is vague about maintaining the slide pins for the brake calipers on my 2000 Accord. The calipers are held to the brackets and slide pins with short bolts that screw on to the pins, so the pins stay in the brackets and boots. I just replaced the rear pads for the first time and all four pins seemed to move in and out okay. Judging by the exploded diagram in the manual, it looks like the boots hold the pins to the bracket with a lip of rubber. Should I have removed these and regreased them? The whole thing seems sealed very well, and they seemed to have good action, but the inner pads had about 1/3 left while the outer pads had completely worn down. Normal?
That is what defines a correct brake job and a half-assed brake job.
Anytime the brakes are serviced, all the hardware is inspected. This includes the slide pins. If the pins are in good condition they’re cleaned, relubricated with brake hardware grease and reinstalled. If any of the hardware is corroded or pitted it’s replaced with new hardware kits.
The most common cause for brake noise and/or uneven brake wear is failing to inspect the brake hardware.
Tester
the answer you are looking for is… Yes the pins should be cleaned and re greased each time.
having 1/3 left on one side, and down to the steel on the other is ok, NOT perfect, but it does indicate that the slides need to be cleaned up and obviously need to slide freely.
as tester mentioned if the pins are taken apart and you notice rust pits and rough pins you have to get new ones. but, you must totally take them apart to inspect them. you saw how easy it was to get them out and look at them, it takes NO more effort (really) to clean inspect and regrease. if you tak ecare of them, and regrease them each brake job they last a long time. also making sure the rubber boot is sealed onto the bolt hub is key, so it stays sealed from both sides.
Thanks for the replies. Actually, I could not really see how easy it was to remove the pins. The manual I have just shows the exploded parts diagram; it doesn’t outline the procedure for repacking slides. Maybe this is because it’s just too easy. Maybe it’s because it’s a terse manual. Do I just pull on the slides until they pop out and replace the boots if they tear? How about the piston–does it require any preventative maintenance too?