Pro tip: check your caliper guide pins every 6 months

2020 TRD sport, 45k miles, decided to change the brake pads cause why not, and the guide pins were completely seized/rusted, refused to budge. An entire can of PB blaster and about 500 whacks of a hammer/punch per pin later (+ trip to autozone to place the pins), all good. Guess northern winters, salted roads, and lack of a garage are to blame, but wondering if spraying them down with brake cleaner every 6 months would help. Turned a 1 hour job into a 3-4 hour job. No fun.

 

An after winter hardware cleanup would be sufficient. Just spraying brake cleaner on stuff won't deal with taking off the corrosion.

 

I've seen similar in youtube videos. After seeing that drama, I put a very thin coat of high temp anti-seize on mine (and the clips, and wheel hub, and inside the rotor top hat). I check mine annually since I don't drive it much, and with the anti-seize they pop right out.

If your slide pins are that bad, be prepared for your rotors to need some help to get them off the hub; rear drums too.

 

There should be a separate maintenance schedule for vehicles that operate in regions where the roads get salted. In other parts of the country many owners forget about their brakes till they need new pads with no ill effects. That issue is regional and outside the norm for many of us.

 

This is good advice. Now that I'm thinking about it, this may be the reason I have uneven brake pad wear I recently noticed during a wheel rotation but didn't have the time to address it.

 

I recently decided to pull the pads on my '96 to inspect and measure the disks. The calipers had not been touched for over 15 years (which for this truck is about 25,000 miles). All pins came out easily though there was quite a bit of rust on the calipers and pins. I cleaned them up and put a tiny coating of grease on them.

 

Don't need to do it every 6 months. Clean and lubricate the calipers and pads every 2 years is enough.

The Taco doesn't have floating calipers, those aren't slide pins. They're just retaining pins to prevent the pads from flying outward and hitting the wheel rim. Some caliper grease or antiseize is enough.

 

Simply checking the pins during rotation is good enough.

Adjusting shoes is also critical.

I'd say full caliper service every 20,000 miles but if you enjoy it, 10,000 miles.

 

What do you think would cause uneven brake pad wear. I replaced at 50K. They looked fine. All OEM parts. New shims, pads, rotors.

I had uneven pad wear one my 3rd gen 4runner from rust forming on the piston edges where the dust boots are, but this is a lot newer. (75K now)

What is involved in a full caliper service?

 

This is good to know thanks. Coming up on 20k on my 2021 I'll ask the shop dudes to give 'em a whirl about.

 

If I waited two years, my pins would be locked in solid like the OP's. I have to take mine out at least twice a year. I clean the rust off with a wire wheel on a bench grinder and coat them with synthetic caliper grease. I also got some small wire bottle brushes at Harbor Freight that I use to clean out the holes.

 

^The retaining pins have zinc nickel plating on them. They're disposable like abutment clips on sliding calipers. If you see rust on them just spend the extra dollar and replace the pins with new ones: https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=3059253&cc=1431544&pt=10281&jsn=428&optionchoice=0-0-8-1

You can also replace the retaining pins with large cotter pins like on Wilwood racing calipers, but fitting the W-shaped anti-rattle clips may be tricky.

 

You can get rust on the "ears" of the pads where they fit into the calipers. Also rust can form under the shims on the calipers. Both of these will prevent the pads from moving freely. Rusty rotors (more common on the inner face of the rotors in my experience) will chew through brake pads in no time.

This file is designed to clean the rust off of the calipers where the pads sit:

$37 Mueller-Kueps 460 200 Brake Caliper File

https://www.amazon.com/Mueller-Kuep...7584&sprefix=brake+caliper+file,aps,98&sr=8-3

South Main Auto on You Tube has some good videos of brake jobs in the rust belt. You can learn about "rust jacking" where rust forms between the pad and the backing plate.

 

My truck gets washed at least weekly in the winter months. I have very little problem with rust.