"Saving Brembo"
 

I layed my car up for the winter, December 2011. I have a Boxter S 3.2L 2002. Earlier in that year when I did the service on the car I had in mind to do the brake fluid change. Well, only one of the front caliper bleed screws would move, with much force by the way. I realized I was in trouble here, so I decided to leave the brake until the layup over winter. This meant that I had 6 months to have a look at the brakes. When I took the wheels off and had a good look around I decided to refurb the brakes at the four corners. I started with the fronts by clamping the lines off and removing the calipers. Have a look at the photo below and you will see why I couldn't bleed the brakes in the first place.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1341606068.jpg

As you can see this bleed screw and the threads in the caliper have had it. This one came out with a lot of force but 2 of them I had to drill out. So we have a big expensive problem, or do we? I will do another post of the next stage, as I tried to post all in one and it didn't happen the other night.

"Saving Brembo"
 

I thought about a new set of calipers, but thats as far as it went, so wondered about a second hand set, not to happy about that either. So I stripped them bare, seals and dust boots out. The pistons looked like new (82,000 miles). In the end I thought how about an insert which incorporates a bleed screw. It didn't take long to find some Stainless Steel ones on ebay. They were 12mm with an 8mm bleed screw, so I drilled and tapped out the original bleed screw hole to suit and put them in with thread lock. As you can see they look ok and work fine, plus I wont need to worry too much about the UK weather and salty roads anymore. The calipers had a complete new set of piston seals and dust boots, by the way if you build your calipers its a lot easier with rubber grease. They were stripped of all loose paint, rubbed down, painted and lacquered. Have a look at the photo below. http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1341607942.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1341608011.jpg
I will tell you the rest in the next post.

"Saving Brembo"
 

While I had the calipers off I had a look at the dics (Rotors) they were shot too, so I replaced them all round. Along with the new discs I got a full set of pads. Also replaced the flexi hoses with Stainless Steel braided ones. The small pipe that joins the hose to the caliper was replaced also with brass pipe fittings this time. The rear brakes by the way were no were near as bad, just had to clean the threads up on the caliper body and bleed screw. Next winter though I will put the inserts in the rears as well. When I came to bleed the system up this time, O how easy it was, and especially with the pressure bleeder. I used Blue brake fluid. I hope this has been helpfull to anyone who suffers the same fate, probably not in California though. Yes we managed to Save Brembo. See photos below.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1341608975.jpg

Thanks for the post. Good info.

Wow good info indeed. I will have to link to this from the tech articles section somehow.

-Wayne

"Saving Brembo"
 

Here are a few more photos and comments on "Saving Brembo" you may find them helpful. This first one shows the caliper bleed screw hole opened out for the re thread, be careful don't go too deep.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1341749730.jpg
The next photo shows me tapping the hole. Just a point on this, I used a number three tap and ground it down even more so as to have cut threads right at the bottom of the hole. See photos below.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1341750024.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1341750086.jpg
I will do another post with more photos and comments.

"Saving Brembo"
 

When I took the pistons out of the calipers I found that the anti squeal plate piston was stuck inside the caliper piston. They were well rusted in. The caliper pistons are very light and seem to have a coating on them so great care is needed when handling them. I took the machine screw out of the piston. Even if you have to drill it out thats OK. If it comes out without drilling you can screw another machine screw in only a much longer one. The aim is to screw right through the piston and hit the bottom of the caliper piston, and gently screw in to force the Squeal piston out.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1341750924.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1341750970.jpg
Before you do all this it is good to soak the pistons in some sort of penetrating fluid overnight if you have time. I needed a little bit of heat on one of them. Notice too I have the piston clamped in my wood jaw vice DO NOT CLAMP THEM IN STEEL JAWS. If you have a set of soft jaws for your metal vice thats fine, make sure there are no embedded metal bits in the jaws first. I will put some more on the next post.

"Saving Brembo"
 

When it came to taking the pistons out I tooK Wayne's advice and used an air line. Be very careful though, there is much power in compressed air. See photos below.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1341768851.jpg
I found the Dremel a handy tool on the caliper clean up before painting. You can get into all the awkward areas with the right tip on. See photo below.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1341769046.jpg
Once I had everything cleaned up I put the pistons back in the calipers, there was no scratches on them at all, the seals looked OK too but I replaced them as well as the dust boots. I used rubber grease to reinstall the new seals and pistons, it made the job very easy I must say. See photos below.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1341769459.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1341769502.jpg
Regarding the dust boots, only lightly grease for the groove in the piston. Do not use any grease for the boot to caliper, this needs to be done dry. I have a few more photos and comments on the next post I put on.

"Saving Brembo"
 

This is the final part of Saving Brembo. I mentioned earlier that I replaced the flexi hoses with Stainless Steel braided ones. Have a look at the photo below, you will see I had to cut the original hose free as it was well rusted up. Being a hands on sports car enthusiast I think about the next time I may have to take it apart, whatever I am working on. So I purchased new flexi hoses and made up a new section of brake pipe for the connection to the caliper. One of the things I found hard to get was the spring clip that goes between the pipe and the hose at the bracket position. Had a look on ebay and found some VW ones that looked almost the same as the Porsche ones. So I took the risk and bought them. They were spot on. 3 or 4 of the original ones had rusted away, and you cant really leave them off.
This is the short peice of pipe I had to remake on all 4 corners. Fortunatly I was able to get the pipe off the caliper with a set of mole grips. I then cleaned the threads in the caliper body. See below.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1341871249.jpg
Here we have the flexi pipe. You can see I had to cut it off to get it off. See below.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1341870326.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1341870382.jpg
This is the clip I mentioned, it fits great, and the short peice of pipe. See below.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1341871185.jpg

Great job. Wish I had your skills