Rebuild Calipers - DIY? or Buy Rebuilt?

[jass]

I did all mine a few years back and mode the bonehead move of reinstalling two of the calipers on the wrong side with bleeder screws upside down and for the life of me could not get the air out of the system. So make sure you get the caliper installed on the correct wheel with the bleeder screw up.

[Swoboda]

Thanks to Eric for his help in this thread and for the taking the time to field a couple calls to him with some pretty basic questions.

I ordered the front set from his today and will send the cores to him in a few days. I'm looking forward to getting the front back together.

(Eric, thanks too for helping me with the bleeders on the new calipers; the extra help to make this an out-of-the-box-and-on-the-car project is a huge help--I'm still trying to learn.)

[rokemester]

Echo thanks to Eric for his expert advice, graciously offered in this forum and on the phone. He's a great source for services and specialty parts!

[Dooodahman]

I just got my calipers back from PMB. Think they did a nice job?

Before/After:

[Craig_D]

Looks awesome!! He did just as good a job on mine. Eric is THE MAN when it comes to refurbishing and rebuilding brakes.

[DG624]

The PMB process seems complete but how often are the pistons rusted or the chambers? I can get a local metal finisher to do the zinc plating for only $70. Do they have a special way of plating?

[Reiver]

Originally Posted by DG624

The PMB process seems complete but how often are the pistons rusted or the chambers? I can get a local metal finisher to do the zinc plating for only $70. Do they have a special way of plating?

Not very often, only in cars that have been sitting for years or an extremely wet/humid climate. Water will sit at the lowest point in your system (the piston bottom)...but if you have periodically bled the system or changed fluid not a real issue. It is only a problem if serious pitting develops (barn find/extended sitting).
Normally you will find some discoloration, a green pad hand polishing will fix that on both the piston and the piston well in the body.
I just did that on my 30 year old SC...polished the pistons and wells, new seals, pads, flex lines, rotors and go...I could care less about the 'finish' to the exterior. Great brakes.
The 'bling' does not do a damn thing to stop your car. Do what you want to there but that has nothing to do with efficiency.

[Eric_Shea]

How often? Almost 100% of the time. It (rust and old fluid along the piston edge and along the bore seal) is what causes calipers to stick. Plain and simple. If you don't plate them it will come back and they will stick again in a couple years.

If you can get them plated for $70.00 do it... I encourage DIY projects. We plate the calipers for customers for $60.00. We've even talked a number of customers through the process and helped with elusive caliper 1/2 seals etc. Ask around. Perhaps Tom Viers can weigh in or Warren Olds who did an "amazing" job building his calipers

There's nothing special here... it's not like we're making a killing at it and ripping people off. Add it up:

Plating = $70.00
Kits = $50.00
Plating Fasteners = $16.00
Caliper 1/2 Seals = $4-8.00
Coating for piston tops = $10.00
Proper Ribe Bit Set so you don't screw up the NLA fasteners = $30.00
That's $180.00 in materials alone...

*Time and labor to disassemble, remove insanely stuck pistons (that most people can't do without ruining them with ViseGrips), not strip the fasteners = $??.??

*Time and labor to assemble, torque and pack warranted calipers = $??.??

*Cost of tape, boxes and packing material = $??.??

Bottom line:

Some people are DIYer's and we applaud that (that's how this business got started). Call anytime for tips and advice. We even have caliper 1/2 seals and obscure Ribe bits to help you on your path.

Some people see the value of their own time and rather not mess with them. A lot of people actually.

BTW: You can order PMB calipers here from your favorite and ever so handsome host now.

[DG624]

My 86 Carrera was sitting for 4-5 years waiting to be fixed or being fixed. The brakes were very worn and I am now replacing the rotors and maybe calipers. I have not checked. Ohio is humid in the summer. The brakes work but not as good as when I bought it. I lack experience in determining when to replace.

[Eric_Shea]

Just rebuild them but do it right... like you said, it's not rocket science. Be careful what you read online. You don't want to simply "Scotchbrite" your bores and pistons. Especially if you have a local plater that will do it for $70.00

Two calipers on the bench in front of you. One has all of the zinc plating worn off and you've Scotchbrited the bores and pistons. The other has a fresh coat of ATE factory yellow zinc protecting the outside and the bores where the steel pistons meet the walls of the caliper...

Which one would you use? OK... so now we've determined you "want" to do it right but, most don't (as we've just seen). Would you skimp on engine parts in a $10,000 911 engine build? These are brake calipers. I'd argue that they're more important than anything on the car.

I see hundreds of calipers per week. I have never seen a stuck piston or a sticking caliper that "wasn't" caused by rust. The previous poster is simply wrong (sorry). When your brakes begin to fail it is almost 100% a rust and grunge issue.

ATE used zinc over cad because it's a better rust protectant.

So... get some kits on order from our host and check in here for info on how to disassemble your Carrera Calipers.

The most difficult part will be the fasteners... THEY SUCK. Big M9 fasteners with a very small and inadequate Ribe R6 head. Make sure you use the proper bit to "HOLD" the fastener, do not attempt to "TURN" the fastener with that bit, use LOTS of heat and a 14mm deep well on a long breaker bar (not an air wrench) so you can feel what you're doing. If you ruin them, there are no replacements. If you'd like to waste a couple of days, search the Interweb thingy for 65 and 70mm M9 fasteners. Report back.

Happy to help.

E.

[Reiver]

Shea is right if you wait until brakes 'fail' catastrophically ...if you do a rebuild periodically then it's not an issue.
I've been rebuilding/refurbing brakes for 40 years and never sent a set off to a second party and have never had a set 'fail'. Like in most things in life it depends upon timing.
If they haven't 'failed' catastrophically ...and I've rebuilt after minor leaks, then try them yourself. Like he said, it isn't rocket science. Triumph, Jaguar, Porsche, Mercedes whatever, about the same.

[James Brown]

As a DIYer, brake rebuilding is a nice project but i can never restore to original as Shea can, also, the PITA factor is way down! well worth the price to send them in, thanks Eric for having this service

[RD911T]

I rebuilt my rears with freshly plated caliper halves from Eric. He took the time to talke me thru the details of the process over the phone. Even shared the tricks of the trade on how to remove those stuck pistons. Couldn't be happier!

Tom Viers

[abrokenframe]

Question: Can you zinc plate your calipers without splitting them? If so, are there any major disadvantages?

Thanks,

Ryan

[RD911T]

Splitting them is not a big deal. There are rubber O rings between the halves. I wouldn't plate them without splitting them.

[Eric_Shea]

In theory, yes.

Problems? There is acid involved in the plating process. It won't hurt the seals but, if the calipers don't drain properly, the acid can make things nasty.

As Tom mentioned, the seals are readily available. Also as Tom mentioned, we'll be happy to talk you through it.

I would simply split them. It makes things a lot cleaner and easier.

[911euro]

Quick embarrassing question: the rear caliper has 2 19'' bolts to the hub, my question is: there is very little space to put in big wrench to remove it. Is there a trick or a special wrench to remove this lower bolt? I just rebuilt the fronts and now I need to rebuild the rears because after releasing the hand brakes, the brake light on the dashboard is still lid up and it makes squeaky noise. I took a peek at the pistons earlier, they look to be rusted on the exposed portion.
Thx

[frankc]

Try a deep offset box wrench on the rear caliper bolts.

The hand brake operates a separate drum brake mechanism inside the "hat" of the rear rotor, it does not use the calipers - but it sounds like the calipers need to be rebuilt anyway.

[911euro]

Thanks franc. I will go out and buy a set tomorrow at HBF and try it out.

I think it's time to rebuild the rear calipers too. I will adjust the hand brake also.

Many thanks again.

[Tidybuoy]

I posted on this thread at the very beginning and stated that I had rebuilt my own but would go the PMB the next time around. That's exactly what I did and they look great. Bit to mention that the price is pretty reasonable and a lot less than I was expecting.

The most noticeable thing on my car was that after I installed my new PMB brakes, not only did the braking change dramatically, but I also noticed that the car would not hold still at a red light (meaning that if the street had the very slightest incline, the car would roll without the brakes on). This is because the new brakes had zero percent drag. I never thought my original brakes dragged but the new setup proved that they were dragging a little bit. This also made it much easier to manually push the car from the driveway to the garage with no effort (i.e., no brakes dragging).

That said, here are my brakes from PMB: