My mpg in 2005 base was kind of low after tune up, so I checked the front brakes. I cleaned the pads and used some synthetic brake grease on the top and bottom tabs where the pads contact the clips in the calipers. They were dry and had a slight bit of rust in the area. The slider pins looked good and their grease was good. After this, I notice an mpg gain of 5 or 6 mpg...not bad for $1.79 in brake grease.
That’s the problem with hybrids, the brakes don’t wear out they just get old and immobile from lack of exercise. Law of unintended consequences.
Also, it looked like the brake pads were installed with no grease on the tabs previously. At least the slider pins have dust boots to keep the dirt out, some designs have the pins in the open to rust.
2nd gen Repair Manual brake excerpt attached, showing recommended lube points. I use Sil-Glyde Brake Lubricant where "lithium soap base glycol group" is spec'd, and Permatex Anti-Seize (silver) for "disc brake grease". Used the same combo on Honda's for decades. If by "tabs" you mean these points: There is no indication in the Repair Manual to apply grease. Toyota recommends to put various dime-sized blobs of the disc brake grease between pad back and inner shim. I take that with a grain of salt, typically apply a thin, even coat of anti-seize to the shims (for both inner and outer pads): Plus on the points of contact between caliper and shim. A little hard to show:
Yes, those are the "tabs". I am going by knowledge gained from working on other cars and technical training in automotive technology. The amount of grease I put on there is very small, and I did see signs that these are friction points judging by the parts that were polished shiny from movement. Whatever the case, it freed up the brakes.
