I'm well aware of where the heat is created but consider what is creating the heat... and the effects of radiant heat.
I've never had a set of boots perish. I've run nolathane bushes and had them collapse before I've had braking problems. The biggest problem is with pitting and undersized pins caused by insufficient service in the first place.

Okay that may have been it then. I couldn't remember if it was one or both that was bad.

In any case, the PBR stuff that I used is castor oil based. I haven't checked the calipers since I did them 6 months ago (will be checking again in a week when I'm doing the new rotors and braided lines), but I haven't come across any issues so far. It's about halfway down the page http://www.pbr.com.au/products/replacement/ancillary.shtml.

There's one of ya problems...Nolathane bushes are crap....crap design, and crap materials.
I use SuperPro....had them near on 10 years now.....been in 2 cars ( swapped them from one car to the other)....and they still haven't failed yet....or got noisy.

When they are installed properly and you don't get a bad batch they go for ages...not that I would buy them again.
This thread is about brakes though, and I don't drive the car anymore so not a problem at all

A warning to those using mineral-based greases on brakes.. your rubbers will perish!
I've been experimenting over 10+ years with brake lubes on brake systems that get pushed to the max and learnt some lessons the hard way..

Use only castor-oil or synthetic greases on slide pins and in rubber boots, or in a few years time the rubber will turn to jelly on the inside and be brittle on the outside. Boots will crack, and the slide-pin guides will lose their insides letting the slide pins slop around.

Even with synthetics, don't use clay-based greases like wheel-bearing grease (or std HTB) - it goes hard for some reason.

Sta-Lube is very good, Super-Lube is okay so long as it's not a hi-performance scenario.. if you have to run slotted/drilled and/or hi-temp pads, then you're over the Super-Lube temp limit.

cheers

If one is racing the car on a circiut, then inspection of the brakes, pins and slides, would be getting looked at quite a bit anyway.
Super Lube works quite well on NON " Boy Racer " cars anyway.

We always use and recommend the Bendix lube for brake slides.

Yeah Bendix is castor-based I'm 99% sure.

cjh:
I use Superlube quite a bit on different areas, it's especially good with plastic bearing surfaces.
It does tend to thin out under heat so it's not the ideal choice for hot areas. IIRC ~250*c was the max service temp for it, I found it to liquefy and leak out at a lot less than that. I'd be concerned that a hot day with some heavy city traffic could cook the lube or at least make it leak out (imagine if it got on the pads).

You'd be surprised at how durable the right lube is under track/hard street conditions, I used to do a bit of "boy racing" a while back (hehe I was still a boy then!) and the brakes got a lot of attention.
After a few punishing sessions (track, hillclimbs; glowing-red-rotor type punishment) I'd have to overhaul the slide pins, anti-rattle adhesive, sometimes re-lube the bearings, and renew the brake fluid when I did the pads. You could hear the pads rubbing the rotots because of gummed up slide pins.
Once I found the right things (rotor(DBA4000)/pad (Bendix Ultimate) combo, synthetic DOT4, Sta-Lube, PBR Squeal, Synthetic molyy/lithium bearing grease) I found I didn't have to worry anywhere near as much - pads lasted ages, and all the lubes were good as new after 5-odd pad changes.

Anyway just thought I'd share some of the experiences, something people don't pay much attention to.. I reckon it's funny that I've spent 100 times longer on brake/wheel lubing than I have worrying about engine oil

You just have to be careful with older stock bendix ultimate pads as they were manufactured too hard back in the 2000-2003 period. They ground out my discs in nothing flat and grooved them to the point the discs were useless. They are a lot better now though. Avoid the boy racer look of drilled discs as they will crack-grooved or dimpled and grooved will see you well.

Hooroo

Hmm righto, I didn't switch to Ultimates till prrobably 2005. I find they do chew rotors more, especially unless they're running at their designed optemp.. they're certainly not designed for sedate driving.
I swapped to slotted/drilled and bigger rims, and the rotors chewed out in 10,000km because of the extra cooling (this was during a "non-race" period).

They're stiff and rough until they warm up too, then they're sweet all the way to boiling point. I've had them at well over 700* and while they were faded, they'd still pull the car up. Just not great pads for sunday drivers.

Hehe yep I bought DBA gold slotted/drilled years ago.. they developed cracks on most holes after ~8,000km even though they were looked after with warm-up and cool-down cycles.
I called it quits when one rotor cracked eight through one side.

The rotors I use now are the newer DBA slotted/drilled, and they've been fine. I actually went to drilled rotors in an attempt to reduce the peak temps of the discs, pads, calipers etc. The heat was killing the fluids/lubes, and after the discs have "overcooked" a few times the iron goes soft and they chew out. The kiddie racer discs did help quite a bit believe it or not, certainly noticed less fade on the track.

Though the car is more of a daily driver nowadays so next set I'll swap to slotteds.

slotted and/or drilled rotors aren't for race cars either... they use ceramic discs for a reason.

It's all horses for courses.

For sure.. for that matter99% of slot/drilled rotors aren't even two-piece. I see them as a bit of a band-aid for OEM brake setups that are being pushed beyond their design limits. Instead of forking for an upgrade, you can run slot/drilled to push the factory limits, maybe another 10-20%.

As I've still got plenty of meat on these slotter/drilleds, I'm thinking actually of ditching the Ultimate pads and running the Ultra Premium - because I've found for current daily-driving, the extra cooling from the slots/holes means the Ultimates don't get up to op temp. UltraPrems are cheaper, they don't chew rotors, and they don't cake rims with awful sticky black crap.

I've only got 16"'s so the "boy racer" appearance factor certainly didn't influence my purchase, you can barely see the rotors

If you're due for rotors, and can pick up a set of DBA or RDA slotted/drilled, I'd recommend it if you drive a bit harder than the average bloke - you can run a cooler pad, and you'll get less fade if you're on a drive say up some twisty stuff and decide to give it a squirt.

But I wouldn't splash out on retail piced DBA's, the 4000XS are good but not at RRP $500 a set..

I had a bf fairy that stopped like a train on mud and the standard rotors were rooted before 70,000kms with fairly normal driving, unavoidable with the standard chewing gum material ford makes rotors from.

A cheap set of drilled and slotted rotors with good pads cleared up all the problems. I just didn't expect it to stop like a race car. It done over 40,000kms on those 'cheap schitt' rotors with more stopping power than OEM, all because I knew their limits and drove within them, with the odd few emergency stops. To this day with another owner they are still going as far as I know. No cracks etc and compared to OEM are obviously a better option, if not by quality, just by the fact you could buy four odd pairs for the same price.

You can only expect so much out of the parts you buy, and the price usually dictates that, though not always. Basically what I said earlier: Horses for courses.