Is routine brake maintenance beneficial?

[Sioux]

By “maintenance” I’m specifically referring to cleaning and lubrication. I have almost 25k miles on my Toyota Tacoma. About to do the 25k maintenance. As part of the tire rotation, my intention was to also inspect, clean and lube the brakes every 5k miles. Reason I ask is because my brakes work very well right now, (better than any vehicle I’ve owned). I’d like to keep them working as well as they do, as long as I can. I’m just wondering if most people bother with the cleaning/lube or if they just check the pad and rotor thickness and call it a day?

Topic

[Rob]

[quote=”Sioux” post=174004]By “maintenance” I’m specifically referring to cleaning and lubrication. I have almost 25k miles on my Toyota Tacoma. About to do the 25k maintenance. As part of the tire rotation, my intention was to also inspect, clean and lube the brakes every 5k miles. Reason I ask is because my brakes work very well right now, (better than any vehicle I’ve owned). I’d like to keep them working as well as they do, as long as I can. I’m just wondering if most people bother with the cleaning/lube or if they just check the pad and rotor thickness and call it a day?[/quote]

cleaping it doesnt really help the brakes mostly it will keep the tires clean if your useing metalic brakes….. if your refuring as cleaning as spraying brake cleaner on your brake parts and rotor…. as for lubing your brakes…. lubing the pins would keep them lasting longer… personally I just lube them everytime I do my brakes… but its up to you… over lubing could cuase the boots to crack… because each time you take them off your pulling the apart… and could start a tare…. but even if your tare them they are cheap like a few dollors for a set… now if you have drums you should ajust them every so oftem 5k should be good… but you should inspect the brakes every time you do an oil change by checking the thinkness of the pads and feeling the rotors for pitting… and check your brake fuild, but you should do the more then of 5k miles probly more like every 500-1000 miles you should check the brake level keeping an eye out for a leak starting same with all your fluid levels… alot of ppl dont bother to check their levles and wunder why there engine locked up becuase they have a gasket leaking and have no oil in the engine

[Shaun Flichel]

It’s a good idea to clean and relube the pins with silicone paste. Regular maintenance will prevent the slide pins from sticking.

[Sioux]

Yes Rob, that’s what I’m referring to. Spraying everything down with Brakleen and lubing the caliper pins. I’ve heard many people with these trucks going 60+k before replacing pads so waiting until a change to lube might be a long wait. As for fluids, I check them all at least once a month. Rear on this truck are drums.

Thanks for the feedback!

[Richard Kirshy]

Cleaning is fine.. not going to hurt anything by doing it.
Cleaning the slide pins and reapplying silicone paste is one of two important maintenance items to address.
The second is to check for rust jacking under the brake guide hardware to ensure smooth movement of the brake pads

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[Rob]

[quote=”Sioux” post=174020]Yes Rob, that’s what I’m referring to. Spraying everything down with Brakleen and lubing the caliper pins. I’ve heard many people with these trucks going 60+k before replacing pads so waiting until a change to lube might be a long wait. As for fluids, I check them all at least once a month. Rear on this truck are drums.

Thanks for the feedback![/quote]

what I would do is like every 15k lube them, clean them when ever I feel like it or when ever I take the tires off… probly should clean them more often but I uselly dont bother.because my rims are dirty… but I inspect them when ever I do a oil change, I check my fuilds like 2-4 times a month just basic check…. many because I have a 2001 and it has some minor gasket leaks not that much to take time to fix it… leaks like 1/6 qt of oil every 5k miles… but like every time you do a oil change you should adjust your screw on your drums a lot of ppl dont do that

[Rob]

[quote=”nightflyr” post=174024]Cleaning is fine.. not going to hurt anything by doing it.
Cleaning the slide pins and reapplying silicone paste is one of two important maintenance items to address.
The second is to check for rust jacking under the brake guide hardware to ensure smooth movement of the brake pads
[/quote]

ya that looks like your caliper/pins/or wobbly pads… you can see groves in the rotors… thats something to check…. I cant tell so much about the pitting but looks like the pitting is very bad…. just an FYI to who ever needs it

[Author]

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