Girling Grease Mystery

[Todd16]

The Mystery began with the rebuild of my Clutch Slave Cylinder. In the instructions Girling has you apply grease provided by them to the area behind the dust cover. I did exactly what they asked. After roughly a month or so the clutch started to not disengage properly. I took this as air in the lines. After removing the slave and inspecting it I came to find the grease had turned hard and sticky. Not what you’d expect. I disassembled and cleaned everything and reassembled the unit. After this the cylinder seemed to slide fine and would hold air pressure when I covered the fluid inlet with my thumb. From this I’m assuming it should work fine now that the sludge has been removed. Has anyone experienced this before?

 

[chris roop]

No, but that explains all the semi-hard garbage that I find in parts car slave cylinders.

 

[Pete Haburt]

I have noticed in the past that petroleum based grease will dry out and become pretty hard in applications where it is exposed to some heat.
I have been using a thin coat of silicone tuneup grease in these applications, with much better results.I think it is used more as a moisture barrier than a lubricant in these applications.

 

[w. scott brunkhurst]

Todd,

Are you using silicone brake fluid?

Scott

 

[Todd16]

Nope, Castrol LMA as recomended.

 

[tony barnhill]

Could there be a brake fluid leak that's contaminating the grease?

 

[Todd16]

It's possible, but why whould they give you a grease which reacts like that to break fluid?