Caliper Rebuild - Track guys Heads up

[CMM3]

last year I sent my front calipers to Goldline for a rebuild. They came back looking great, freshly painted with new seals and guide bushings.
I ran several days at the track and it was time to replace my pads so I decided to rebuild my rear calipers. I got new pistions from Bimmerworld and the seals and bushings from Pelican Parts. High temp POR bright silver paint and some time in the bead blast cabinet and they came out great. (picutres below) did the brackets as well.

Cured the paint by baking on my grill 400 degrees for about 20 minutes cool then serve :-)

Now the interesting part. I decided to clean up the fronts, check them over and add a little decorative paint work like the rears. The fronts obviously had gotten pretty hot at the track because the paint was discolored. However I was real surprised to find that the dust seals had pretty much melted to the point where they were fallling apart in a number of places. Not good.
So I'm now going to rebuild the fronts with new seals and will be installing titanium heat shields from Hard Brakes to try and prevent this from reoccuring.

A heads up for those who track your cars, check your front brake calipers closely - mine were freshly rebuilt and after only one season of track use the dust seals were toast.

Here are a few pics of how the rebuild came out.

[Bear Grylls]

Awesome work

How much did getting the fronts rebuilt cost you if you don't mind me asking

[CMM3]

Awesome work


How much did getting the fronts rebuilt cost you if you don't mind me asking

I had the front calipers rebuilt along with the front carrier brackets done with the Polymer coating and it was expensive over $200
at the time I didn't think it was all that bad, now I know it's mostly all labor cost the rebuild kits and bushings cost about $40 for a pair and they re-used the pistons. When I did my rears over I got stainless steel pistons from bimmerworld for $75/pair as mine were pitted pretty bad.

Going forward I'm going to rebuild the fronts annually, now that they are cleaned up it will be a real easy job to replace the inner seal, dust boot and slide bushings once a year.

[PbFut]

There is no rubber or even silicon able to stand up to track heat. Either change out often or find a claiper without. Pitting on the piston is a result of water in the fluid. More frequent brake fluid changes will cure. A pitted piston is not a issue unless it's leaking.

[mpire]

Anyone want to rebuild some 911 calipers for me?

I keep wanting to get them done but I don't know where to send them.

[tommy1394]

Mpire it is super easy to do your self, you can order seals and dust caps online

[CMM3]

There is no rubber or even silicon able to stand up to track heat. Either change out often or find a claiper without. Pitting on the piston is a result of water in the fluid. More frequent brake fluid changes will cure. A pitted piston is not a issue unless it's leaking.

Unfortunately I bought my car with 100K + miles on it and brake fluid changes were not done too often from the looks of things.
As a practice I change my brake fluid 3x year at the begining of the season - doing now and then again 2x during the season.

My understanding is that if a piston is pitted enough to catch your fingernail it will eventually chew up the inner seal causing it to leak.

The cost of new pistons was an easy decision.

Brakes are the last thing I want to worry about on the track. I've had a brake failure occur once on the track and it was a very scary experience. Lucky for me there is an escape route / bail out at the end of the brake zone on the back straight at NHMS otherwise I would have meet a tire wall at 80+ mph head-on

I hoping the Hard Brakes heat shields will help some http://hardbrakes.com/

seems to make sense they will.

[JoshS]

I will tell you that back when I was racing the Subaru STI, which had fancy 4-piston Brembos but was REALLY REALLY REALLY hard on brakes, we tried everything within the rules to lower the brake temperature ... but those titanium backing plates made absolutely ZERO difference. None.

The only thing that helped was ducting.

Otherwise, you just have to find the right pad material, use a high-temperature fluid and change it regularly, and replace the rubber parts before they totally disintegrate.

The good news is that the BMW calipers can stand up to a lot of heat compared with those Brembos, which needed replacing (not rebuilding) every 4 weekends because they literally bent.

[CMM3]

Anyone want to rebuild some 911 calipers for me?

I keep wanting to get them done but I don't know where to send them.

second the easy to do..there are some videos that show the process which is easy to duplicate. here is one [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRUOChic7bc[/ame]
basic process:
remove your calipers
use compressed air to push the pistons out completely ..keep fingers clear put a piece of wood to catch it, comes out like a rifle shot.
remove the outer dust seal from either the piston or the caliper depending on what it stays attached to.
remove the inner seal with a pick, looks like a square o-ring.
clean everything
lubricate the piston, seal and dust boot with brake fluid
put the dust boot on the piston
put the inner seal in the caliper - inner ring
put the piston in place and what I did was to use a long socket that just fit into the piston and a rubber mallet and tapped it in about 1/2 way.
work the dust boot into place starting with the harder more inaccessable side first then work all around.
Once in place push the piston all the way in and double check to make sure the dust boot is correctly seated. and reassemble.


I used a plastic tool to press the dust seal back into place so I would punch a hole in it with a screwdriver and I'm not sure I'd use oil to lubricate everything as they did in the video it could contaminate the brake fluid, brake fluid is very slippery and works fine.

I will tell you that back when I was racing the Subaru STI, which had fancy 4-piston Brembos but was REALLY REALLY REALLY hard on brakes, we tried everything within the rules to lower the brake temperature ... but those titanium backing plates made absolutely ZERO difference. None.

The only thing that helped was ducting.

Otherwise, you just have to find the right pad material, use a high-temperature fluid and change it regularly, and replace the rubber parts before they totally disintegrate.

The good news is that the BMW calipers can stand up to a lot of heat compared with those Brembos, which needed replacing (not rebuilding) every 4 weekends because they literally bent.

I've always used PF 97 pads with great results and ATE race fluid. looks like I may need to add some improved ducting,

[JoshS]

looks like I may need to add some improved ducting,

If you have heat issues, that's the only answer. I used a carbon-fiber version of these on the BMW. Appears that neither Turner nor Bimmerworld sells the CF version anymore.

http://store.bimmerworld.com/brake-c...parts-p45.aspx

[workhurts]

Silly question but why rebuild? Stock core exchanged pistons are less than $100. I did mine when they got stock a few years ago. At the time I was thinking of rebuilding but the cost was within 20 bucks.

Have things changed over the years?

[fmcfad01]

I didn't read all the comments here, but you can rebuild calipers very cheaply. Centric makes new pistons for pretty much every car on earth. I got new Centric pistons for my e39 M5 through Zeckheusen, the corresponding seals, new guide pins and bushings, and the lube you're supposed to use for very cheap. The most expensive parts were the new pistons and they were about $18 each.

I also found that RockAuto seems to offer rebuilt centric calipers. You send yours in and get back rebuilt ones and I think they are about $60 each after core deposit. Not a bad option to look into.

[CMM3]

I didn't read all the comments here, but you can rebuild calipers very cheaply. Centric makes new pistons for pretty much every car on earth. I got new Centric pistons for my e39 M5 through Zeckheusen, the corresponding seals, new guide pins and bushings, and the lube you're supposed to use for very cheap. The most expensive parts were the new pistons and they were about $18 each.

I also found that RockAuto seems to offer rebuilt centric calipers. You send yours in and get back rebuilt ones and I think they are about $60 each after core deposit. Not a bad option to look into.

For some reason pistons for ATE calipers are no longer availble anywhere.
Tried all the named sources and NLA. Since I now know that I'm going to rebuilding the fronts annually due to track abuse I wanted to go beyond a standard rebuild which is just seals and also get a good coating on them to keep them clean.

[fmcfad01]

Centric maintains part numbers for them. It's possible an individual could contact them with interest or go through a distributor like Zeckheusen.

http://centric.cataloglookup.com/Inq...01&m=31&mm=214

[CMM3]

Centric maintains part numbers for them. It's possible an individual could contact them with interest or go through a distributor like Zeckheusen.

http://centric.cataloglookup.com/Inq...01&m=31&mm=214

Part numbers yes easy to locate, actual pistons for ATE calipers not being sold by anyone in the US.
I tried everywhere before buying the SS versions from Bimmerworld

[BMWBergy]

Date of Information: August 2013

Pelican Parts, VAC, and Turner Motorsport all offer rebuilt (re-manufactured) calipers, as does bimmerparts.com.

Pelican units rebuilt by Nugeon
bimmerparts units are rebuilt by either World Brake Resources (WBR) or Cardone.

VAC and Turner do not specify on their site who their rebuilders are, and neither vendor had any in stock when I needed to order, so...

...I ordered three calipers (WBR) from bimmerparts ($45 each after core refund), but did not like how one of the dust boots was kinked, so I sent that one unit back and ordered a Nugeon replacement from Pelican. That replacement was just fine. Aside from that kink, there was no distinguishable difference in quality between Nugeon and WBR.

All units came with new (re-man) pad carrier brackets, anti-rattle clips, guide pins, boots, caps.

[Bear Grylls]

Date of Information: August 2013

Pelican Parts, VAC, and Turner Motorsport all offer rebuilt (re-manufactured) calipers, as does bimmerparts.com.

Pelican units rebuilt by Nugeon
bimmerparts units are rebuilt by either World Brake Resources (WBR) or Cardone.

VAC and Turner do not specify on their site who their rebuilders are, and neither vendor had any in stock when I needed to order, so...

...I ordered three calipers (WBR) from bimmerparts ($45 each after core refund), but did not like how one of the dust boots was kinked, so I sent that one unit back and ordered a Nugeon replacement from Pelican. That replacement was just fine. Aside from that kink, there was no distinguishable difference in quality between Nugeon and WBR.

All units came with new (re-man) pad carrier brackets, anti-rattle clips, guide pins, boots, caps.

seems like a good deal will have to put that in my parts queue for next year

[fmcfad01]

I noticed Rock Auto offers a similar deal for a very very reasonable price +core. If I were to do it again, I would not rebuild them myself. The cost was low enough that it was more of a pain in the ass to do it yourself and find the time to do it than it would have been to just pay for.

[BMWBergy]

I noticed Rock Auto offers a similar deal for a very very reasonable price +core. If I were to do it again, I would not rebuild them myself. The cost was low enough that it was more of a pain in the ass to do it yourself and find the time to do it than it would have been to just pay for.

EXACTLY. I rebuilt the calipers shortly after purchasing the coupe back in '07. $20 per rebuild kit, and I replaced the front pistons with Bimmerworld units. $160 for all that, AND I had to exactingly rebuild the calipers. For about the same money, I bought three reman calipers that were 'plug and play.'

Time is MONEY. This was so much easier.

[fmcfad01]

Fully agree.

[mz3onturn7]

Hi guys. For those of you who rebuilt your calipers, how did you clean them / prep them for new parts? I am just starting my brake job and I will be rebuilding and powder coating all 4 calipers. After disassembling one caliper I saw that the area where the square seal sits was corroded. Is it safe to blast this area with glass beads or should I avoid blasting this particular area? If so, how did you guys clean the seal area?

Any tips or direction for rebuilding these calipers would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.