What are the main requirements for an aluminium anti-seize lubricant?
Such a lubricant is called a separating lubricant and its main purpose is to ensure reliable separation of parts that are in contact with one another under high forces, at high temperatures and under the action of aggressive media, for example road chemicals. At the same time the relative movement of the parts themselves may be very small (brake pad and caliper) or absent altogether (wheel studs and nuts). The requirements follow from this purpose.
First: the lubricant must work reliably at high temperatures and must not thin out when heated and run out of the contact area of the parts. Cheap imitations are guilty of this, where aluminium powder is mixed, for example, with Litol and passed off as a genuine lubricant. When heated, Litol runs out, washing the powder away with it, and such a “lubricant” stops working. In a quality lubricant the base does not flow at any heating right up to burn-off, and even when it starts to burn off it leaves all the aluminium in the contact area, and the aluminium continues to act as a separating lubricant.
Second: high adhesion to metal is required. Adhesion can be checked with a fairly simple test. Apply the lubricant to a smooth, clean metal surface and wait 15-20 minutes for the solvent to evaporate. Then try to rub the lubricant off with your finger. If the lubricant is rubbed away down to the metal, it is no good; if the finger slides over the lubricant but does not remove it from the surface, everything is fine.
Third: since the lubricant is constantly exposed to atmospheric influences, it must not be washed off by water.
Does the surface need to be prepared before the lubricant is applied?
Since one of the requirements for an aluminium lubricant is high adhesion to the surface, the lubricant has to be applied to a clean, degreased surface. AXIOM® brake and clutch parts cleaner or AXIOM® quick cleaner can be used for this before application.
Can the quality of the lubricant be judged from the appearance of the applied layer?
The appearance of the applied lubricant makes it possible to assess its quality in part. A good lubricant should lie on the surface like paint, creating an even silver-coloured layer on it with no visible separation into fractions. If the lubricant lies unevenly and starts to run even in a thin layer, this indicates its low quality.
How does aluminium lubricant differ from copper grease?
There are no fundamental differences between them – both aluminium and copper lubricants are intended to prevent parts from “seizing” to one another, and in most cases they are interchangeable. The exception is cases where copper may cause electrochemical corrosion of the lubricated parts – aluminium lubricant then has to be used. Aluminium lubricant is also sometimes preferred to copper for aesthetic reasons, for example if the brake calipers are silver-coloured and one does not want to “dirty” them with copper.