After re-lubing the caliper slide pins on my rear disc brakes last week, I did the same with the front calipers last night.

One of the slide pins on each side has a rubber washer or bushing on the end of it. The rears did not have this piece of rubber. Anyone here happen to know the purpose of this?

 

Not sure on purpose but I do know the orientation needs to be maintained.

What did you lube with?

 

5W-20 motor oil

 

Just kidding. This stuff.

 

I don't remember why they added that rubber tube on the end of the front slide pins. I always buy the Raybestos Pro disc brake hardware kits when I do brakes. The kit for the front has new rubber pieces for the slide pins.(along with boots, anti rattle clips and springs) They do get hard and can get torn over time.

 

Yeah, when I pulled the pins with the rubber bushings, they did NOT want to come out. I can definitely see how a worn out piece of rubber on there would certainly cause a caliper to seize and overheat.

I was tempted to leave that piece of rubber out when I re-assembled. I wonder what the ramifications would be. Again, since all of the other pins are rubber-free, I'm having a difficult time envisioning exactly what purpose they're providing.

 

IIRC the rubber pieces up front were supposed to keep water away from the slide pins--------or so I was told.

 

You mean like in the following pictures? The ones in my '01 don't have that, and I never realized they offered those. Probably an anti-squeal thing. Can't think of any other reason for it. Except to make more problems

 

Yessir, exactly like that small rubber piece in your picture. If I continue to struggle with seized caliper pins on the front, I'm going back in and taking them out.

 

Trust me, it won't matter. My '01 does it every year or two, and I have to go back in and relube them.

Truth be told, they should just have a grease fitting on them

 

I believe the rubber style is the upgraded version like listed http://http://www.guzzle7pt3.com/cu.php . I did it while changing pads

 

My passenger front caliper still seems to be hanging up from time to time. I'm going back in to remove the rubber washer/bushing. I'll report back in a few days.

 

Well, it's been about 3 days now since I completely removed the little rubber washers/bushings from my front caliper slide pins. And I've had zero issues with the caliper hanging up and overheating. The lack of rubber washer hasn't had negative impact as far as I can tell. No screeching, squealing or anything like that. I still have the washers in the event that they ever need to go back in. But they're staying out for now.