johnnyz

Help,
I took my 01 996 into the shop to get new front brake pads and rotors, and they just called me up to come over and have a look at the car. All the caliper bolts are stripped on both brakes, I was there as they took them out. Has anyone EVER have this happen to them? I am looking at a huge repair bill now.
John
PS, the heads aren't stripped. They are actually stripped where they go into the mounts on the car.

Robin 993DX

One word...

Snapon tools!!!!

I believe the Porsche shop manual requires the caliper bolts to be replaced everytime they are removed.

The shop manual didn't state the reason, I personally believe (1). Because of the heavy torque applied to these bolts, it is prevent them from stripping. (2). Metal fatique, heat cycle would weaken the metal, Porsche probably figured when you need to replace your rotors, it is time to replace those bolts.

All of the years I have worked on Porsches I have never stripped a caliper bolts, they are quit hard to strip, unless you are using subpar tools with terrible tolerance.

johnnyz

Ooops, I didn't make myself clear. The Heads aren't stripped, they are stripped where they go into the mounts, and are almost impossible to remove.

Robin 993DX

Well, so you are saying that the bolt head stripped off? WOW! That's would definitely be the first I have ever seen. What's the history on the car, heavily tracked? When was the last time the caliper bolts were removed?

johnnyz

The bolt head didn't strip off. The tech has to heat up the area where the bolt goes into the car mount, and slowly and agonizingly turn the bolt out. When it comes out, it is all cross threaded/ bright silver metal. all 8 bolts are like this, and the piece on the car is cross threaded and needs to be replaced, or some sort of helicoil repair.
Ever hear of that?

Robin 993DX

Never, those bolts are almost impossible to cross shread like that. I am almost for sure that someone who worked on the car prior did that on purposely as a sabatage.

I would not recommend helicoil repair for caliper bolts, safety issue!

johnnyz

Ok,
I just bought the car from a great friend who owned it for 3 years. His cousin is a service advisor here in Seattle at Barrier motors, and he had all the service work done there. The car is a cabriolet, and has never seen a track.
What do i do now? As far as my friend remembers, he never had the calipers removed, and I have all the receipts for all the work done in Seattle anyways, and it doesn't look like they were ever removed. I don't have any previous info on the car.
Any ideas on where to go from here?
Johnny

springgeyser

Crossthread bolt and the caliper was never removed? I find that hard to believe.

johnnyz

I only have three years info....

springgeyser

Well it really depends on how much thread is crossthreaded. Hopefully you can clean it up with a tap and get new bolts to install.

johnnyz

Thats the second idea that the shop gave me. The first idea was to replace the parts that were crossthreaded, at a cost of close to 1700.00 or more, that parts list was quite long, and its to both sides of the car. I'm really mad about this. How do all 8 bolts get crossthreaded??

springgeyser

Using impact tools without first hand threading the bolts. I would go ask some dismantlers if they have spares lying around for 'cheap'.

GL

perryinva

exactly..that part is never cross threaded...get some form the Porsche specialty "junkyards"..they should be 25% of that..

Tippy

Easy, just have them install heli-coil inserts. Cheap fix.

waynesworld

It might be possible for this to happen if the bolts were over torqued when last installed. This will stretch the bolt and then gall the aluminum threads on removal. The fact that these bolts are relatively long and fully threaded combined with the aluminum bracket makes galling from this cause a good probability IMO.

-Wayne