Nate Tempest

Just finished my first DIY brake job on the Turbo, and ran across one little hangup that I didn't see mentioned anywhere. (Plus a bunch that I did fortunately find help with—how remove wheel stuck to hub? How remove stuck rotor screws? How remove stuck rotor? etc. :P )

Anyway, the one I struggled with was how to get out the pin holding the pad retention spring clip. In other 996 and 997 DIY brake videos I've seen, this is a straight pin with a cotter pin holding it in place. In the Turbo though, it's a larger thing with a taper in the middle and a bolt screwed into the back of the pin. I think the taper is what makes it more of a challenge to get out, as it tends to get stuck on the spring, and binds in the hole where it slides out of the caliper. Anyway, after struggling with it for a bit I came up with a couple techniques that made it easier on the second wheel. Maybe there's some specialized tool to push the spring out of the way to make this easy, but assuming you don't have that, this might help. (Getting over a cold by the way—I don't normally sound quite so croaky. :P )

Edit: one other thing I saw after making this video was someone took a short length of 2x4 and pressed it up against the spring, then used his leg to push on that while using two hands to tap pin out from behind. I could see that potentially working, so might give it a try next time!

Skyhawk172

Thanks Nate
I was thinking of diy my brakes also, I'm pretty handy but a little out of the loop as i have been letting other people service my vehicle's, did you just jack up one side then other or put it on stands?

Kayaknfly

Thanks,
nice new rotors!
ps. I use your search tempest all the time looking for stuff! Cool to actually see that you created it.

Nate Tempest

I put the front on stands. Wouldn't want to do it on just a jack, as you have to do a lot of smacking and tugging to get the rotors off and on. (Plus jack stands are just more stable and safer in general.)

Went for the Zimmerman coat-z. From what I've read the quality is very good—comparable to OEM—and the coating should prevent rust. Also going to be trying out Hawk ceramic pads.

And thanks! Always fun to run into people who use SearchTempest or AutoTempest!

Skyhawk172

Nate
Where did you purchase your parts if i may ask?

This what I found at Peilcan Parts

welder.mark

Nate Tempest

I'm in Canada, so I got the rotors from AutoPartsWay.ca and it was a bit cheaper. I often order from Pelican though. If you wanted to save some money you could drop the hardware kit with the springs and pins since those can be re-used, but it's fairly cheap and will look nicer new. In theory you're supposed to replace the caliper mounting bolts, so you could add those, but they're pretty beefy bolts so I highly doubt it's necessary (and I read on other threads that many dealerships even don't bother). Just put some blue loctite on the threads and torque to the recommended 80N-M and it should be fine.

You may want to order replacement wear sensors though. The Porsche ones are expensive, but Pelican has a couple aftermarket ones that are pretty cheap. They can be re-used, but one of mine fell apart when I removed it, so it might be handy to have at least a couple replacements on hand, if not all four. Although since you're in the US I guess you can always just get replacements from Pelican quickly if you need them.

Skyhawk172

Luminator

For what its worth , I just did the fronts on my 997.1TT before trading

Those pins and clips had me scratching my head for a while too. I got a neighbor to push on the clip while I pushed the pins in.

Often use Gaudin Porsche in Vegas and got wholesale pricing since I am in CA . Great prices and nice guys on the phone -even available on Sat til noon who are knowledgeable and friendly .

For the extra $100 or so , I would personally replace all the hardware and sensors as Porsche recommends. I thought it was overkill , but its a $130K car too. Almost felt like I owed the car that for the way she stopped .

Here's what I paid for all OEM stuff :

Rotor: $ 250.13 x 2
Rotor screws : $0.35 x 4
Caliper mount bolts : $4.70 x 4
Mount kit: $ 51.67 x 1
Set of front pads: $190.10 x 1
Sensors : $33.41 x 2
Shipping : $48
Tax : 0
Total Parts : $877

Lou

Skyhawk172

Well I have my work cut out for me tomorrow



New Brakes

First time doing a Brake job on one of my Porsches
have a tutor in my building complex who tears apart McLaren's and such so i feel I'm in good hands

lorenzep

Thanks for this. I found it helpful. I did rotors and pads all the way around this past weekend. Slotted Sebro fronts from autohauz.com for $140 each and too cheap centric slotted rear rotors from buybrakes.com for ~$40 each -I'll keep an eye on these. I've used centric in the past, so I'm hoping this was just a great deal. I wanted to use pelican, but the fronts were $20 more per and shipping was crazy. I went with slotted because I'm going to the track soon. Chose pfc08, pricey, $910, but have had good experience with them on my e46m3. First, I'm getting to old for this.
REAR: Rear caliper removal was easy. I needed an impact screwdriver to remove the rotor screws. I had to drill one out -always fun. Getting the rotor off the parking brake would have been a lot easier if I had known to line up that hole and spin the adjuster to adjust the parking brake. Even loose, it was very hard to get the new rotor back on. If I was doing it wrong, I repeated my error on the other side. I managed to get the brake pad sensors off without severing the wire, but the plastic is toast. I'm just going to tie them the hard line to keep them out of the way, so that's okay. Pad removal was easy, sliding a thin screwdriver between the pad and that shield that looked to be screwed onto the slide coming out of the center of the piston. Never seen that before. If someone can explain those, that would be great.
FRONT: I removed the pads while the caliber was still attached and that retention bold was tricky. I used a screwdriver through the brake pad sensor hole and again through the vents in the rotor to apply pressure. I was surprised that the line out of the caliper was a hard line. I'm not sure if there is a trick, but I undid where the line is attached to the inside of the strut to give me enough play to move the caliper out of the way. Needed the impact screwdriver for the rotor screws again. It took lots of wood-block hammering to get each front rotor off. Car is new to me and has 50k. I think the rotors are original and have a lip that is easily felt. I was surprised it passed MD inspection. These rotors weigh a ton. Broke both front pad sensors, severed the wires unfortunately, so I've got the brake warning. New ones are here soon. Pissed that the wires broke cause these will be tied too.
Got it all together and bedded the pads. Interesting that Porsche doesn't let you 'ride' the brake while stepping on the gas. It's an alternate to the 70 to 10 or 50 to 10 stops to bed. The m3 allowed it. My wife's gx460 also doesn't allow it. I still have to adjust the parking brake and put in the new sensors. These brakes are monsters compared to those on the m3. I think this car is about 100lbs heavier than the m3, but I'm guessing I could see 150 or so at the end of the straight instead of 130. Looking forward to it. Cautiously.

Peter
Kensington, MD

Johnny DB

I bought the traq junk tool for the spring:

http://pkvista.com/TraqJunk/Index.html

Nate Tempest

Oh, wow, wish I'd had one of those!

TBarrow

I just went to teh website and it states. "As of September 20, 2014 we have closed TraqJunk operations."

texas_maverick

How can I get one of those TraqJunk spreaders? That's incredible. I can't get that damn caliper retaining pin out by myself.