Hi gang,
I put my car on the lift today and started the brake work I was going to do to refinish my Big Reds. I got them off (man they were filthy), buggered two of the brass hard line fittings (sigh, oh parts department?), but they are all off and ready to be bead blasted and primed.

While I had them apart, I noticed a couple things. First, the pads are all pretty evenly worn, all the way around. They seem to have about 12-13mm of thickness all around. Second, I have very small stress cracks on each of my rotors. I would venture they're about 1 to 2 mm each.

I'm thinking that while I have it all apart that I should go ahead and do a brake job. However, I'm soliciting other opinions.

Is there a pretty standard upgrade that most folks do on these cars, or is it just replacing with stock? I think the stocks work great, just wondering.

Thanks,
Scott

 

For ordinary use, stock works quite good. Keep them neat and clean and they shouldn't disappoint you.

Regarding the cracks, if they don't go hole-to-hole or hole-to-edge on the disc, I wouldn't worry too much.
Thickness of pads is a bit about what type of pad you have, but 12-13mm can easily be worn out quick. It's those last mm that usually wear out quicker than one expect. Suggest you get a spare setup, so you can swap when those old pads give away.

 

I'm 99% sure they're original equipment pads. I've tried to find what the thickness of those pads are new, but I can't seem to find them.

It seems that it's about $1k to replace all four rotors and pads with OEM, does that sound about right?

 

$500 for pads from suset all around, not sure what the rotors go for
you will find dozens of opinions on what pads and disks to use, very personal depending on use and driving style.
let's see some photos
how are the hats?
I need to do mine. good luck. what brake fluid are you going to use? do you have a pressure bleeder? I got one this summer and love it.

 

For street, make sure you get the Mintex stock pads, the PAgd OEs will squeak constantly, or at least they did on mine.

I think rotors are about 900 to a grand for all 4 (again, go genuine Porsche on these) and pads should be under 500 for the set from Sunset.

Are you going to send the calipers out to be powder coated? I'd like to do mine, but would like to rebuild them at the same time if I'm going to that trouble.

 

Well, I took the calipers off and cleaned them really well...you'd be surprised how nasty they get after 34k miles. Not to mention, they had factory undercoating all over them.

Here's a pic of one of the fronts right before going into the blast cabinet. You can see where it's been peeling:



Then a pic of the first one taped up and in the cabinet ready to get stripped:



And the finished product after about 45 minutes in the cabinet:



I still think the factory coating is paint, but it is not easy to get off of the calipers. It's either quite thick, or it is some coating other than plain ol' paint.

 

Here's a pic of my rotors as well. The hats are nasty, so I'm either going to bead blast and paint the hats, or replace them. I need to measure them first, but my digital calipers are out of batteries

Front:



Rear:



Again, just gotta find minimum thickness and see if these are worth refinishing. (Yes, I'm that **** )

 

And finally, here's a pic of the remaining meat left on the pads. I think I'm right on the borderline for just doing them. Since I've never had the pads off of a 993 Turbo before, can anyone else tell me if they think I should reuse these for a while or just buy new?

Front (they're all similar):



Rear (again, they're all even):

 

Looks like plenty of pad left
Do you use the brake pad wire?

I'd check those discs however. How much of an edge do you have on them?

The brakes are painted in special heat resistant paint. Don't know from the top of my head, but I think a simple forum search will reveal the answer.

 

Yep, I have wires on all of them, so that should tell me when I'm getting to the danger zone, I reckon. The dealer who did the PPI said that the brakes were "fine" which is pretty meaningless until you start looking at them

I felt around for an edge or lip (you can see my smudgy fingerprints), and really don't feel one.

 

Guess they are "fine" then

 

I'd save the money for the next thing that comes up.

 

I can't even see the cracks on your rotors in that pic. The pads and disks look fine to me, even for a track-day.

 

Yeah, thanks Scott and Q, I just didn't have a good frame of reference to know how much more I really had left. I'll put it all back together after I get the calipers refinished.

 

While surfing, came across this site:
http://www.goldlinebrakes.com/Porsche_911_Carrera.htm