ZSA Motorsport

put some new tires onthe GT3. whomped thru a set of shoes in under 1000 miles, was the last 2 days at the track that did those stockers in . threshold braking on a 997.2 GT3 takes on new meaning. amazing machine.

so two questions:

1. im getting a grumbling, howling kind of noise when applying the brakes now that i didnt get before the last 2 days of tracking. someone suggeste dit might be pad materials in there, and it will go away, or thats the new norm, the noise you might get on that kind of brake setup after several hard days. or maybe there is a stone in there?

2. but when we took off the wheels to put on tires, unlike my boxster S racer, i couldnt exactly tell how to pull the pads. my other calipers have the backs open, you pull two pins and you can pull the pads out the backside. on the 997.2 GT3 , looks you have to take the caliper off to pull the pads because the rotors have them boxed in...is that right? am i missing something simple here?
we didnt waste a lot of time since we were fried from the sun all day.

any thoughts on the noise, or help with the pads is much appreciated..

rmag

Rears you have to pull the calipers, fronts you dont

Apex GT

Unbelievable! This is a pain. Is this so they can charge more at the dealer for labour rates?

ZSA Motorsport

mind boggling. i guess a quick pad change is out of the picture.

TrackDays247.com

FWIW 997.2 cars ahve been getting some OEM pad transfer, a bit odd considering how soft those pads are.

tshih

aside from removing the 2 mounting 10 mm allen head bolts, the calipers don't exactly slide off the rotors. There are 4- 10 spline bolts holding the guide rods for each pad in the rear caliper setup of the 997.2 GT3 which seems to require a special socket to remove before the caliper can clear the rotors which then allows pad replacement. Anyone know or can post a part # for that spline socket tool necessary to do the pad swaps here and a source? Thanks in advance.

Tom

TRAKCAR

I put studs in all around.
It's only a matter of time before you cross thread the aluminum uprights with stretch bolts.

tshih

Trakcar, you still have to remove the OEM bolts before replacing them with studs. Do you have an answer to my question?

Asquared

Here is Mikymu's excellent DYI w/ pics for the rears calipers (pics are PCCB, but the process is identical for steels).

Here is a very informative thread on the rear caliper bolt issue.

tshih

Thanks Allen,

Mikymu's excellent writeup is a great help solving my problem. Turns out you don't need to remove those 10 spline bolts. Just have to unhook the brake line support to be able to move caliper off the rotors. Just have to pry off the sensor wires before hand.

TRAKCAR

tshih, if you do not have studs, you do not have to unhook the brake line support either, but it might make it easier.

I have the studs, like the CUP cars, but the uprights are different as well as the studs.

Maybe you also want to tape togather and zip tie the sensor wires out of the way as well. they are useless and will fry to a crisp with enough track use.

tshih

Peter,

Just changed the rear pads. I don't have studs and everything is new so rust was not an issue. I was even able to push the pistons back into the caliper by hand. One thing for sure it would help to have a third hand as getting the sensors off and on required 2 hands while someone else has to hold the caliper up. I solved the need by tying the caliper to the coilover spring with a rope when it is resting on top of a horizontal suspension strut. Next time I will just tie the sensors to the side.

So I got 12 track days wear out of the first set of pads in the rear. There were about 4-5 mm pad lining left from 10-11 mm when new. My tires were also only about 1/3 worn from new after 4500 miles (1000-1500 on track). The front pads are about 1/3 worn. Awesome PCCBs, I'm glad the car came with them and won't be switching to steels anytime soon.

Tom