silver996

Thanks to everyone for your input so i guess i should 1) change (and upgrade) the brake fluid and 2) change all my brake pads since i will need to remove all four wheels to bleed the brakes. As Sean suggested, it probably makes sense to do the clutch as well while I'm under there...

So it looks like I will need to buy the Motive bleeder; any recommendations as to brake pads? I use the car for commuting five days a week, so I am not sure I need to spend $275 per set of Pagid "S" pads. Is there a particularly good place to buy the pads?

Thanks again to everyone.

raffi

sunset porsche had the lowest price for all the parts, all oem porsche parts for cost plus 15% S&H I believe. You may want to check the front rotors too. Also you may not have to switch out the rears since the fronts wear out earlier. just email them what you need and they ship it to you within a week. I picked up the power bleeder and super blue ATE on sale from performance products in the valley not sure if they have the 20%discount any more though.

chris walrod

No air will get into the system by moving the pistons outwards. With ABS' internal super fine filters, its a bad idea to back-flush the ABS control unit with 'dark' brake fluid. This dark brake fluid has contaminants in it, that has been reported in the past (on other makes of cars) to messing-up (technical term) the ABS controller unit.

I usually bleed the brakes first (make sure the fluid level in the b/f reservoir is low enough to accomodate fluid from pushing in the pistons), torque the bleeders to 110 in/lbs, then r&r the pads..

raffi

that is interesting, so do you just use the ATE gold all the time, or did I misunderstand your statement about "dark brake fluid". I am assuming that you are referring to the blue fluid as having contaminants. TIA

chris walrod

raffi, yeah by dark I mean cloudy, yucky fluid... Even with ATE blue, when I bleed the brakes, I can still see cloudiness in the fluid...

Changing colors for a complete flush is really a neat way to do it...

raffi

thanks for clearing that up I figured that was what you meant when I reread the post. For some reason I didnt notice any cloudy yucky fluid or air bubbles when I flushed my brake system. I know it had been at least 2 years since last fluid change. Ive never tracked the car, I wonder if that could be the reason. Also since it was my first time doing it I guess I didnt know what to expect. Thanks again for the info Chris.

silver996

OK, so I changed my rear brake pads last night. I didn't find the process as straighforward as some may have suggested. I had two main issues:
1. Pulling the pads: after setting the pads as far back as I could with a pad spreader, the pads were loose, but would not come out. It took some muscle to force them out, I had to force separate them from the vibration dampers. Is there a better trick to get thsi done?

2: the DIY instructions for the rear pads say in #6 to place the 28mm dampers on the lower pistons. I understood the lower pistons to be the ones that sit on the lower part of the caliper. I spent 45 minutes trying to figure this out, and i finally installed them the other way around, where they fit perfectly. Loren, is this correct?

Anyways, after spending a couple of hours struggling with the first wheel, the second one was done in less than a half hour. I also flushed the brake fluid, but couldn't locate the clutch bleeder valve. I couldn't really get under the car, as I was using the standard emergency jack. Is it pretty well hidden?

ebaker

When finished don't forget to pump up the brakes before you drive off.