Elsewhere on this site we have mentioned ceramic brake grease but we’re going to look at this again here following a number of questions from our readers.
Firstly what is ‘ceramic’? In very simple terms it’s a type of clay. Clay is made up minerals like silicates which when heated to about 600 degrees melt and hence it’s use in pottery. Porcelain – a particular type of white clay – is used extensively where heat resitance and low electrical conductivity are needed such as in suspending high voltage cables.
Clay is also used in making high performance brake discs and ceramic brakes have the advantage of not deforming at high temperatures.
Ceramic grease suggests a high operating temperature due to the addition of clay. But would the addition of small gritty particles of soil make for a good lubricant? Even if the particles were very fine particles of aluminium oxide – used in toothpaste – they are not going to make for a low friction grease.
In fact ‘ceramic grease’ is a marketing term rather like ‘organic shampoo’ – trying to exploit a term to imply a product has those qualities. In fact ceramic grease is just general petroleum based grease and as such has not place in lubricating brakes much less caliper pins.
In fact very high performance calipers used in racing and rallying don’t use lubricants – they use a no-lubrication system to grip the discs