1999.5 F-250. Just going to throw this out there. Why can't a guy drill and tap the outer side of the brake brackets and install a grease fitting so as the grease the guide pins and keep them from freezing up? I would use anything but the caliper grease, but I think this would be nice. I'm going to have to replace the rotors pads and one of the brackets and a grease fitting may have prevented this if the guide pin had not froze up. Any thoughts?

 

I would Not use anything but caliper grease.

 

A guy can drill and tap the caliper brackets if he wants too.
Things I'd be concerned about are weakening the bracket causing a failure and possibly an unplanned metal redesign, over lubing the guide pins and causing premature brake wear and failure.
I would probably go one of two alternate routes.
1. Pop the guide pins out every other rotation and clean and relive both the pins and the slots using the correct lube.
2. Upgrade to performance brake calipers. (I.e. Brembo, wilwood, ssbc)

Just my two pennies

 

Brakes have been my weak point in working on my truck but paying someone else to do a job is the best incentive I've ever had to learn it my self. I have warp new rotors on the front of my truck, not knowing to clean or replace the guide pins. Time is always an issue too. But I like your suggestions and these days $2 may not be worth 2 cents, but two pennies could save $200+.

 

From my past experience, if you use the correct guide pin lube and enough of it they generally last through a set of brake pads.

 

Well, at 281,000+ miles, I guess it's time to change out the original guide pins. I had a wheel hub assembly on the driver's side go out last year and it damaged the caliper bracket before knew what was going on. I have a new one to replace it and might do it this weekend. What about the caliper pistons? Do they need cleaning as well? I'm in an area where we do not use hardly any salt, so I think they are still in good shape. I like the fuel pedal, but I like smooth even braking just as much.

 

Other than spraying the calipers down with brake clean, the only time I've ever cleaned caliper pistons was during a caliper rebuild. Which I don't normally recommend, better to replace calipers with new or reman units when needed rather than rebuild.

 

My truck has 105k miles. I've had to replace both rear calipers, on separate occasions. When one goes I just have both replaced. Still has the factory calipers up front. Just cleaned and lubed them when I replaced the pads.