mooty

for those of you working on your own brakes, i got this question:

when you pull out the front pads, there are total of 6 pistons in the caliper. each piston has a white/yellowish kind of like plastic/ceramic donut shaped cap on the piston. well, i broke mine. dealer told me i need to buy a new CALIPER, as the cap is not sold separately. i find that strange as the cap is pretty fragile and we subject them to extreme heat on track and the constant pad changes will often crack those caps. there must be somewhere we can buy the cap rather then the whole caliper.... ideas?

jh

DanH

So you've broken the ceramic disk thingy right?

Think you get these with the calliper rebuild kit?

http://www.renntech.org/forums/index...liper+rebuild\

Your dealer sounds rubbish!

NJ-GT

Your dealer don't have all the information.

Those ceramic caps (plastic would melt, you know that) are available as pairs. They are isolators to avoid excessive heat transfer to the calipers.

Here are the part# (for cars with red calipers)

Front:

928 351 917 00 (44mm caps) (2)
951 351 917 00 (36mm caps) (2)

There 6 caps per calipers at the front

Rear:

You know you did not break the rear ones, so I won't give you part numbers.

Rceron

I just got some new ceramic caps as well, but they came with the full rebuilt kit (piston and rubber seals). I think I got them from Farnbacherloles.

Austin

Yeah the rebuild kits are available, they're around $300 per front caliper. Rears are also available when the time comes. They're motorsport parts. They come with piston seals but not with the dust boots, you'll have to get those boots via Wrightwood or RaceTechnologies.

If you need the individual button / piston, they're available via most race teams 2nd hand. Knowing you John, might be time for caliper rebuild.

mooty

thank you all, what a great community.

Carefree

Now that that question has been answered.
When I replaced my front rotors and pads (away from stock) my Porsche dealer told me to replace the caliper bolts (2 per side and fairly cheap) every time the caliper is removed?
I was buying a new bolt due to a thread that looked questionable. I chased the bolt hole and replaced all 4 bolts.
When I asked Motorsports International if they do the same, they said, no, only when required.
Any thoughts?

mooty

per manual and per dealer, those are "stretch" bolts and needs to be replace everytime those are removed.

for 3 years, i didn't know that and i use the same bolt for that long. but once i found that they should be replaced (so i was told) i bought 40 bolts and use them only once. they aren't $$$ and i dont like to gamble on brake components.

btw, the front and rear bolts are the SAME. they used to have different part numbers, but the new stuff are the same. also the bolt head is different. not sure what to call them. it's not allen, looks like a star.

Carefree

Mooty, thanks for confirming that. I thought they were being "overly cautious" but apparently not.
Thanks again.

JMeager

It's called Torx, far better than allen as they generally don't round off.

I've just eyeballed my bolts in the cupboard. Black ones that are to be used on the front are Torx type, around 5mm longer than the rear bolts that are red, which are allen bolts. I'd suggest that Porsche have just decided to supply the same bolt for all occasions as 5mm in length wouldn't be an issue and it's far simpler!


Cheers,
Jeff

DanH

I don't believe the calliper bolts are stretch bolts. Its just they have this coating on the thread which is like using allumslip (forgotten the correct name for this) to protect the thread from corrosion etc. Well that's what my local shop said. I'm running alcons which require different longer bolts anyway and the same shop said they don't need replacing either as they are made from higher grade steel. Just alumslip each time. I guess you could just reuse the OEM ones with some of that too.

Is it possible to get callipers repainted + logo'd up as new? Can brembo do that?

RJFabCab

I have changed the rear caliper bolts one time, and the rear bolts (old style) were about 5 mm shorter than the front caliper bolts.

I tried to order some more rear caliper bolts (PN 999 067 042-09) awhile back and the part number came up the same as the front caliper bolts (999 067 047-09).

Has anyone experienced problems with using the 5 mm longer bolts in the rear calipers? Do the heads stick out since the bolts are longer? They probably fit just fine since Porsche changed the part number.

NJcroc

The manual is for cars that see the dealer for brakes every few years and it makes good sense to replace when you do that. If you track alot and go through a few a year you can change them evey few times and be ok. they definately dont last that long as the treads you can see the wear after 3-5 times

mooty

thank you. as you can see, i can barely tell one end of a hammer from the other.

mooty

correct again, but let me add a few words.
the bolt that came with the car or if you ordered the bolt before mid 2007, the rear bolts are shorter than front bolts. the current bolts (not counting NOS) should be same length and will work front and rear. i know b/c i got it on my car.

also, when you ask the dealer about the bolts, have them go through PET to find it. do not describe them in color, i have the torx bolt in champagne as well as in black. the rear OLD bolts, i had them in red, blue, black, silver and champaign.

furthermore to add to the confusion, you got to make sure they look at the PET CAREFULLY, b/c somewhere it says the old bolt is superceeded by the new bolt.

sorry, i threw away my bag so i no longer have the part number. suffice to say that i spent an entire afternoon at the parts department sorting the bolts out.

those who run 997GT3's. the front bolt is same as 996gt3, the rear bolt is UNIQUE to 7GTs.