pp000830

1. I did not unmount the calipers from the wheel carriers to change the pads.

2. The silencer spiders slice off easily with a putty knife releasing the old pads from the piston cups for removal. In hind sight I see no reason why they cannot be reused with a little EMP compound as replacement adhesive.

3. When installing new silencer spiders leave the paper backing on them when you place them in the caliper then peel the backing off just before you slide the friction pad in. This way the adhesive on them does not get contaminated. Some of the spiders may want to pop out before you get the pads in all the way. I bent some of the spiders’ legs outward and it seemed to help keep them in.

4. Before sliding the pads in file a slight bevel on the concave side of the friction material and file a bevel on the concave edge of the pads thin backing shim. By doing these two things the top of the pads can be tilted slightly away from the rotors when initially slipping them in avoiding the pads’ backing shims’ from hanging up on the silencer spiders’ edge and dislodging the spiders.

5. I cut off and spliced the wear sensors’ leads. I soldered the wires together, tucked them inside the existing leads insulating sheaths, folded the end of the sheaths over and sealed them closed with exterior grade Tie-Wraps.

6. As I did each wheel I bled the system. I used ATL Blue fluid so it was easy to tell when the bleeding was complete as the fluid changed from gold to blue.

7. It seems that there is no need to bleed the back half of each caliper as when I did this after bleeding the front only fresh brake fluid came out of the back bleeder.

On a 1 to 10 I give this job a 4 for difficulty

Andy :-)
PS:Here is some additonal info:
With 45K on the Textar pads the fronts were only 1/2 of new thickness the rears had 1/3. The reason I changed them was that my daughter told me that they were beginning to squeal and if I was going to sort out the noise I might as well replace the pads. Teenage ears hear everything!

WBYonder

When I rebuilt my brakes, I left the spiders off and haven't missed them. I used rotors from Sunset and reinstalled the Porsche pads (OE textars) that still had significant life on them.

WBYonder

Andy,

When you connected the sensor leads together, did you get the sensor light on for a while before it went out? Mine did, and I wasn't sure if it took the system a finite amount of time to reset, or if maybe a plug wasn't getting a good connection at first. I haven't had the pad sensor light stay on since then.

osugasman

Andy;

Thanks for posting!!!

--Brian

Jeff96-993

Something wasn't connected right, but it looks like it fixed itself. If it was right from the start, you wouldn't have gotten a sensor light.

Ed Hughes

I'd always bleed both sides of a caliper. I'd also bleed once I completed replacing pads in all 4 wheels, not one at a time. Bleeding is so straight forward and logical to not do it properly.

luckyJ

Hi there...my mechanic says I should replace the rotors everytime I replace my brake pads...is this necessary and is it specific to Porsches?

thanks

P-daddy

I dont use those spider thingies either. No noise or squealing here.

RudyP

Good tips. I had very squeaky non-OEM pads in the 993 when I first got it and did a bunch of pad changes getting rid of the problem so pretty familiar with the procedure. I have two questions for you:
1) Why did you prefer to not take the caliper off? It seems easier if you have to deal with the spiders. Your steps #2 and #4 would not have been necessary. I too reuse the spiders and find it a lot easier to work with the caliper off the rotor.
2) Are you sure about the bleed valves? I have always heard that you don't need to bleed much from the second bleed valve but a there is still some fluid on that side of the caliper and it is good to get it out. So loooong bleed on the inner valve and then short bleed on the outer valve.

On a side note - it is much easier to do pad changes on the 997 than the 993.

Ed Hughes

I'd never remove calipers to change pads. Why deal with the bleeding, or possibly screwing up a brake line? And yes, I've installed the spiders in a caliper that is mounted. I dont recall any issue.

RudyP

Ed - no need to bleed or screw up a brake line. What I do is get a coat hanger, bend it into a big C shape then hook it to the top of the suspension, unbolt the caliper, hang the caliper on the coat hanger so that it isnt pulling on the brake line and go to work. Very simple and safe. Pads pop in and out very easily even with spiders.

If you don't have the spiders, I agree, no reason not to pull the pads from the top of the caliper. This is what I do with the 997 and I probably do it 10-15 times a year since I swap track and street pads frequently. In fact, I'm going to do it later today.

But whatever works for you - I'm not trying to change your mind or pick a fight. That's just what works for me so I thought I would share for others' benefit.

Falcondrivr

Pad change is a 10 minute job. No need to unbolt the caliper. Spiders go right back in. I've tie wrapped my sensors out of the way without cutting any wires. I bleed the system after all the pads are changed so i don't mix fliud compressing the calipers on the last wheels.

SOS

This. Except I don't use the spiders and I only bleed when I swap to race pads. No bleed going back to street pads...lazy.

No additional noise without the spiders for me.

Ed Hughes

I'm having trouble understanding then. Other than having the rotor in the middle, I think you probably have a better point to work with having the rotor bolted in place.

Ed Hughes

I'm having trouble understanding then. Other than having the rotor in the middle, I think you probably have a better point to work with having the rotor bolted in place.