If you’re looking at applying grease to your brake pads, then it pays to know which type of grease is most effective. If you use the incorrect type of grease for your brake pads, then you run the risk of damaging the pads or at the very least, making them inefficient. Fortunately, all of the types of grease that are commonly used for brake pads are easily accessible and you shouldn’t have any difficult getting hold of them.
The majority of people agree that using a small amount of copper grease on your brake pads can help reduce the squeaky sound they make significantly. Of course, it’s important that you apply the brake grease in the correct fashion to get the best results.
Many people will tell you that you should never put grease anywhere near your brake pads because ‘the factory doesn’t’. This is entirely up to you whether you decide to do this, but in my experience I’ve never had an issue applying grease to my brake pads in many years of doing so.
It really doesn’t matter that type of brake pads that you’re using – whether they’re ceramic or otherwise, it won’t make a difference. It’s really important to grease the brake pads properly to avoid squeaking and other noisies coming from your brake pads.
Where do you apply grease to the brake pads?
If you don’t know where to apply the grease to your brake pads, it isn’t that difficult to work it out. You want to apply the grease to the back of the brake pads. Ensure that you don’t cake the brake pads in grease however – you only need a little bit. Use some rubber gloves to lightly apply some copper grease onto the back of your brake pads and you should notice the difference in the squeaking your brakes make instantly.
Why do I need to use grease for the brake pads?
You don’t need to use grease for your brake pads. They’re definitely not going to affect the functionality of your brake pads, so if you think that you have to do this to avoid damaging your brakes then you don’t need to worry.
You can consider using copper grease like this one by Permatex for your brake pads whenever you hear that they’re starting to squeak and get a little annoying. But don’t worry about it effecting your cars brakes or anything like that.
How often should I apply grease?
The correct answer for this is; as often as needs be! The main reason that people use grease for their brake pads is to help reduce the squealing sounds that you hear from the brake pads. This means that it is really down to you to decide whether you’re going to use grease regularly or irregularly.
In an ideal world, you’ll very rarely need to grease your brake pads. A rule of thumb is that the higher quality of your brake pads, the less likely that you’re going to have to grease them.
Every time that you feel like the noise is becoming unbearable for you, you should consider using some copper grease on your brake pads.
But, someone said I need to grease my brakes for maintenance?
If someone has told you that you need to grease your brakes, then the likelihood is that they mean something entirely different.
The likelihood is that the person contacting you about greasing your breaks is actually referring to your slider pins. You can easily test your brake caliper slider pins to check whether they need some lubrication. The best grease for using with your slider pins is actually silicone grease – it undoubtedly seems to work best to help lubricate the slider pins. My favorite silicone grease to use for slider pins is probably Sil Glyde, which I can use for a variety of different things too. You can check out Sil Glyde on Amazon right here.
Conclusion
Overall, you don’t necessarily need to keep the back of your brake pads greased. This is only a good choice for you if you can’t stand the squeaking of your brake pads any longer, in which you’ll want to use a good copper grease to deal with the sound. Remember to just add a little smear of brake pad grease to the back of your brake pad and not to overdo it, otherwise you may effect the effectiveness of your brakes. Be sure to check out my article on brake grease versus anti-seize as well.
