A quick question; I just purchased a set of Girodisc brake rotors and they came with new brake caliper bolts. Is it practice to replace the caliper bolts each time they come off on the GT3?
I have done many brake pad replacements in my life and never replaced the caliper bolts if they were in good condition.
Jim

 

Some say yes, I don't.

 

The factory says yes. They're thinking in terms of schedule maintenance -- the bolt technically stretch and fatigue -- replacing the used bolt after a year or two of heat cycles means it's not to factory new spec and it will both damage the wheel carrier and potentially it will not hold the torque uniformly across thread surfaces. The variation between turns in the threads can lead to a failure. Bolts aren't that expensive, but if you're going to be pulling the rear calipers for pad work every 2x the fronts (normal for 997) then I think it's excessive.

 

The reason they replace the bolts is for easy maintanence, the bolts are coated with a locking compound, they are not stretch bolts. Using a little loctite has the same effect using used bolts.

 

I am replacing my bolts with studs..Otherwise eventually you'll strip the uprights.

 

Thank you !

 

I was wondering about the number of turns on the stud into the wheel carrier and the height of the nut (in terms of the number of turns of thread.) It seems the nut will have fewer turns than the original bolt into the wheel carrier. Is the stud something that Porsche offers (say, through their Motorsports division)? I imagine race teams do this, but I'm wondering about street car implications.

 

Cup cars have studs, but due to different uprights, they are different length.
Not sure where my shop gets them, but oi know the oem design does not work.

 

Correct, eventually no matter if you use the stock torque specs for those bolts, the uprights will strip (not the bolts), expensive repair.

Best thing is convert to studs (like the Cup car), and swap to PCCB for street/autoX, and steel for track days, or just keep replacing worn out steel discs.