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First off, I know this was a dump move. A few months back I was servicing my wife’s brakes on her 04 toyota corolla. I found a torn boot on the front driver’s side caliper piston. I ordered the boot and the install was painless. I never had to replace a piston boot before, so I figured I could just use the all purpose grease I had laying around. I used an all purpose coastal grease commonly found at auto parts stores. I knew I had to use something safe for the rubber, but I was lazy and used this stuff. Right now there is nothing wrong with the car, however I was reading an article about brakes lately and it said that since I have done this, I would need to flush the brake system and replace all the major hydraulic components. Do I really need to do this? When I replaced the boot, I did not take the caliper apart. I just filled the inside of the boot with grease and slid it back over the piston. Did I screw myself into having to overhaul her brake system or can I get away with just rebuilding the single caliper?
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Hi, I wouldn’t be too concerned at this point. I find it pretty unlikely that the grease could travel past the piston seals. At worst, the grease could run out (if it gets hot enough) and contaminate the pads and cause reduced braking as well as uneven pad & rotor wear on the affected side. I reckon your best bet would be to whip it apart, clean it and reassemble, perhaps with just a smear (don’t fill the boot) of rubber grease. For absolute piece of mind, you could bleed the caliper and check the fluid for contamination, although I reckon as long as the fluid in the reservoir is nice and clean, the fluid bled out will be too.
Egber
Stayin’ dirty down underThank you for the suggestions. I will pull the boot back off, clean the grease off the piston and install a new boot. I ordered some silicone paste to do the job correctly this time. @egber: when you say whip it apart, do you mean disconnect it from the brake line and completely dismantle the caliper and clean all its parts ,or do you mean leave it in tacked and only clean the grease off the piston? I have no problem doing either method, one just requires more time than the other.
[quote=”coderasm” post=85336]Thank you for the suggestions. I will pull the boot back off, clean the grease off the piston and install a new boot. I ordered some silicone paste to do the job correctly this time. @egber: when you say whip it apart, do you mean disconnect it from the brake line and completely dismantle the caliper and clean all its parts ,or do you mean leave it in tacked and only clean the grease off the piston? I have no problem doing either method, one just requires more time than the other.[/quote]
I would leave it intact.
Just clean all the stuff you put on there and start fresh with silicone paste and you should be fine.
Good luck and keep us posted if you run into trouble.
Sorry, I meant remove the wheel and caliper when is said whip it apart, leave the caliper intact and the hose connected.
The boot is just a dust seal to protect the real seal inside. Most likely it should not be a problem, like Eric stated just clean the old stuff off the best you can. And sparingly apply the silicone paste and you should be good to go.
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