N2B8TOR

I recently picked up a 2013 991S with PCCB. It's been pretty much a garage queen with only 10k miles. I did notice the brakes making some weird scratching or crunching noise coming to a stop from about 20mph. This is not your typical squeak or squeal that are typical of some brakes. It's like a sanding sound and very noticeable and always reproducible hot or cold. Anyways I took it to the dealer who told me all 4 pads are cracked and need to be replaced. And even though the car is CPO, the pads are not covered under warranty so I'm looking at $2200 for the repair. I have not seen the pads in person to see what the cracks looks like but I do know that the pads are still pretty thick. And I use this car as a street car no tracking at all.

Now I've seen regular pads cracked when it's worn down to the back metal plates. But I've never seen full thickness pads cracking. Is that even possible? My advisor said maybe the car was tracked pretty hard. Even if that were the case (I highly doubt it), weren't these pads made to withstand such use? I can understand if they tell me that your pads were worn down so you'll have to replace them. But to crack when it's not worn down seems to be a manufacture defect no?

Anyways I am glad that they found out why my PCCB were making such horrible noises. Man that drove me insane. So if your PCCB make some weird noise (other than squeaking or squealing) check to make sure the pads are not cracked.

911-TOUR

Factory PCCB pads are about $360 front/rear from suncoast, so $720 total. Is it really $1480 labor to swap them? I've done pads on other centerlock cars (and even 5 bolt cars using the proper wheel mounting bolts so as not to damage the calipers) in 1hr. That seems really high.

N2B8TOR

Labor is about $650. They were using dealer MSRP for the parts so that's why it's closer to $1500 with tax. The parts included pads, some bolts, wear sensors, springs, grease etc. I know I can get the same parts online for about $950 and yes the pads are about $350 per axle. So at most it should only cost me about $1600. And yes I agree with you it's not that hard to replace the pads.

I'm just still perplexed at how PCCB pads can crack with so little mileage. And we're not talking about some Chinese pads here. We're talking about Porsche race performance pads.

Hurricane

991carreradriver

OP, your car has less than 10k miles on it. How many miles did you place on it since CPO purchase? Here is my point, many states require dealers to inspect and are prohibited from selling cars with faulty brakes. If you have the CPO checklist that the dealer signed off on, then you have recourse as this car was delivered with faulty brakes. With a little prodding, they may repair/replace as it should not have been delivered to you in this condition.

drcollie

Cracked pads are not unsafe, they still function fine and are safe - they are just a bit noisy. Almost every car I have tracked hard over the past 20 years has had hairline-cracked pads and it would cost a small fortune to replace them after each track day.

Normal rotor/pad schedule when worn out unless that scratchy noise makes you feel its worthwhile to do it.

No need to repair / replace sensors, they are swappable. Springs don't need to be replaced. There is no grease. $ 650 to put in pads is humorously outrageous. Once the car is on the lift and wheels off, its less than one hour to do all four pots. If its not a job you want to do go to an independent who will do it for far less - you don't need to use a dealer for this.

STG

PCCB pads and rotors will last life of the car with street use.

These pads, if tracked hard can definitely be toast pretty quickly.

Thy should have been checked under CPO inspection which they probably missed. The condition they are in would have qualified as having to be REPLACED under CPO guideline later before selling.

When did you buy the car and how many miles have been put on??

What car did you buy? Pics? VIN? Wondering if we've seen it before.

eagle1960

I don't believe that pads are removed and inspected as part of CPO. They are just measured on the car. I would think it unlikely that cracks would be noticeable.

N2B8TOR

Thanks for the comments gentlemen. For some reason I thought PCCB pads are invincible lol.

I've put 2k miles on the car since purchase. My car was CPO three years ago by the previous owner's dealer. So unfortunately nothing I can do with that at this point. My dealer is inquiring PNA to see if this can be covered under warranty but they said don't hold my breaths.

Today they also said the front pads are back ordered and are waiting to hear from Porsche Germany about availability. I just called Pelican Parts and apparently Textar Brake make replacement pads for the PCCB at $180 per axle which is not bad at all. Anyone have experience with Textar pads?

So at this point if it's not covered by warranty I'm considering taking the car back and just replace the pads myself.

1analguy

Only Porsche would have the nerve to charge $8000 for an "upgrade" brake system and then admit to your face that it's not up to track use. What would it cost to retrofit the iron brake setup? At least that is up to track use...

911-TOUR

OEM pads in my 993 were Textar - they were excellent.

mdrums

N2B8TOR

I got my car back since the pads are back ordered 2-3 weeks. I'm going to purchase the Porsche OEM pads and change them myself. From the experience of other RL, Textar might make oem brake pads, the composition might not be the same as the Porsche OEM pads. This might lead to brake noise and I really don't want that.

So four PCCB pad sets are $700 and the 8 caliper bolts that I'll need is another $65. Thanks for the suggestions I will be reusing the springs. With regard to the sensors if I break them I'll just tie them off. I don't run my pads down that low anyways. I'll keep you guys updated.

drcollie

I personally don't think you need to replace the caliper screws, just torque then correctly and you should be fine. I know it says "in the manual" to do that, but I used to track my car twice a month, every month. Each Friday night I would swap brake rotors and pads (matched set) and put on R-Comps, then trailer to the track. Reverse it all on Sunday night. Back then I had a lift in the garage and got to where I could do all four wheels, rotors and pads in 50 minutes.

I bet I did about fifty swaps a season and never once bought new caliper screws - who could afford to do that? Never an issue....the guys that did have issues were the ones that over-torqued them, however. YMMV

N2B8TOR