crw

First, I want to give credit to Andy and his valuable blog for much useful information and tips.

For the 1st time ever in all the time I owned the car, the brakes started to make a loud annoying noise, once warm, and usually when coming to a stop - it was LOUD.

I tried several different recommendations 1st:

1. re bedding the the brakes:at various speeds - didn't work, but triggered my vertigo
2. cleaning the holes in the cross drilled discs - didn't work
3. I pulled the front and rear pads and cleaned out much of the brake dust - didn't work, but I did learn to separate the spiders from the pads, straight forward, but a PIA

None of this got rid of the noise. I did get rid of the wear sensors since the brakes are so easy to inspect. Just cut them and twist the wires together. The sensors can be costly $50 each depending where you buy them and depending on your level of comfort, are an easy delete.

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My next approach was to replace the rear rotors and pads.Both my front and rear rotors are lipped, both rear ones had a lot of grooves and the rear pads were not wearing evenly.

Don't buy Porsche Genuine parts here. You are paying a lot of money for the box and theses parts are made from a variety of vendors such as Zimmerman, Sebro, Bembro, and Textar etc.The Porsche rotors were $270 each (4S model) and often with a 6week delay to get them. The pads were Textar, priced $225 in their box. I was fortunate to get a set of new rotors from a RL member for $300.I made the mistake of buying Porsche pads for $200 from a P dealer, they were Textar. Several times, I was sent the wrong pads until I finally got the right ones. Inspect what comes in a box, before you start your project.

The spiders now range in price from $5 to $20 depending on size and where you buy them from. They are easy to reuse after separating them. Clean the adhesive with goo gone and use 3M transfer tape. A set of spiders now costs > $120 and up depending where you buy them.

The noise continued

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I removed the front and rear calipers, pads, and rotors. Very easy to get the pads out with the spiders intact, once the caliper is off. No need to remove the brake lines. Just pull about 75cc of brake fluid out of the the MC and replace when done. You just need to hang the calipers with a zip ties or a heavy string.

Removing the front rotors require some tapping with a rubber hammer.

This time my cleaning went way beyond the air gun and Brake Kleen. What I noticed is that the spray brake cleaner doesn't really remove all of the built up hardened brake dust on the metal pieces that hold the brake pads within the caliper itself. To get them clean I had to use pieces of scotch brite green pads, soaked in brake cleaner. Easy to get them looking new with a lot of tedious effort and elbow grease. Any built up dust on the other inner components of the caliper just wipe away. You don't want to get the cleaner on the rubber piston seals.

I lubricated the pad edges that make contact with the carrier with this:





A local indy Porsche mechanic can gave me a can of a Wurth product that is sprayed on the rotors and pads:



I put in all together, took a long ride - finally no noise,.I have quiet brakes.

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For the DIY crowd out there, you might want to:

- avoid paying more for Porsche Genuine brake parts - Porsche doesn't make all of these components at all
- re-use your spiders, if you choose to use them at all
- make sure what you get in your parts order is what you ordered
- shop around for prices, they are all over the place for the same part
- wear good latex gloves, brake dust and cleaners are not good for you skin
- invest the time to get your calipers really clean, I think most mechanics just give a few shot of brake cleaner and that's it

When researching brake noise, it's amazing how many people complain of brake noise.

Many of these people are buyers of the newer Porsche models. A pretty common occurrence in the Porsche service department is for the customer to be told - "they are supposed to be noisy, that's normal.

Twilightblue28A

What is a spider?

Edward

It's the little springy-metal thing that sits behind the brake pad. Its purpose is to eliminate whatever vibrations that occur in the pad as you apply the brakes, and it is that vibration that produces that squeal (assuming we are talking about a single "note" that we're hearing.

I've used Liquimoly (used to be LubriMoly) Copper Paste for coming on 20 years now. Put a small dab behind the pads (where it will meet the cylinders) and very light coating on the pins that hold the brake pads. No spiders and no squeals ever as the paste quellls the vibration, and also makes for easier/quicker pad replacement since you don't have to futz with the dopey spiders. Whether it's the LiquiMoly or other brands be certain that it is a high-temp formula as this is, after all, your brakes!

Oh, and pad choice is a biggie!. I've used Textars and Jurids in the past which are purportedly OEM ...hate em! Use the Porsche brand in the Porsche box from a Porsche dealer. A bit more dust than the others, but this pad and the copper paste will leave you with dead-quiet brakes.

Edward

crw

The spiders are best bought from Rock Auto if desired, 50% cheaper than most other place. They are made by FCP Euro, but if you buy them from FCP Euro directly, they cost twice as much.

I bought my Genuine Porsche Brand brake pads directly from a Porsche dealer parts department.

The first set came in a Porsche box, sealed - they were Textar pads

The second set came in a sealed box also - Textar

The dealership has their parts shipped to them from the regional Porsche Parts warehouse.

I called the Porsche dealership that was local to me - they guy in the parts department opened the box for me, the pads were Textar with a 993 number on the back. I didn't purchase them locally because they wanted $300 for them. After the fact, I could have bought the pads from a non Porsche seller for $146

When I replace my front discs next year, I'll give that copper past a try and skip the spiders - I am always willing to try something new.

P-daddy

I ditched them spiders and don’t miss them one bit- no squealing. BTW, did you reuse the caliper bolts or installed new ones?

crw

I used new caliper bolts.

The front ones were round and accepted a stared allen type fitting.

The rear bolts were a bit different.

The replacement bolts had a 6 sided hex head - that confused me a bit, because the ones on the car had a round cylinder head, with a hollow inner center that accepted a 10mm allen fitting.

Somewhere along the line,I suspect those were put on to used a kinematic tool for alignment purposes.