Marv

My calipers' clear coat has been peeling and discoloring over time. These brakes have not been run really hot, so it is not heat abuse.

Is this normal?

element

Even without abuse brakes generate a lot of heat.. so its just the heat cycles.. which car is it on? If it's your older ones its age + heat cycles. Normal wear item, but at least you have nice painted calipers.. non painted don't peel

phil.

enthusiast

Sounds abnormal. What kind of chemicals (salt, deicer) and cleaners, etc. have they been exposed to?

Marv

These are on my 2004 GT3.

They have never been raced, cleaned mostly with soap and water and occasionally McQuire's wheel cleaner, but soap and water 95% of the time.

enthusiast

Just the front calipers or the rears as well?

Marv

All four.

pezza

Quick way to check to see if the calipers have ever got "too" hot is to see if the white porsche lettering has turned yellow. The clear coat can peel off over time particularly if it has been slightly damaged during a pad swap, also pressure washers have a habit of finding any chips in the clear coat and then the water gets under it and makes it worse.

I had a few areas that needed fixing on my old 993 turbo big reds, just flatted them off with wet and dry and gave them a coat of high temp clear coat.

gt3'er

Have you had the car since new, and therefore know the calipers have never been re-painted? Stock paint should hold up quite well, especially with no tracking.

Maybe not the problem, but I stay away from wheel cleaner solutions. Since the wheels are painted, only use same soap as used on car finish.

Marv

Had 5,500 miles when I got the car, so repainting is not likely.

PORSCHE lettering is still white.

I guess it may be caustic agents and we do live about 8 miles from the beach.

etchhead

Bought my turbo from an elderly couple who went to the dealer for everything including tire swaps. The calipers are similar shape. Not sure why, but a strip/respray would be nice but not worth the money.

KOAN

I heat the sh@t out of mine at the track, and my car has 33k miles on it. I wash them with soap and water, but also brake cleaner. No peeling.

theporscheguy

I had this problem on my 996TT and I have seen it on many other Porsche's of various age and miles. There are a few threads on how to reapply the clear coat to your calipers.

993GT

50k km and 'undetailed', no issues at all, strongly believe it comes down to the cleaner used on wheels(and calipers) IMO