Joseph O'Reilly

did a quick forum search on this topic but no luck- a friend is thinking of going from a 04 v6 with 1001 problems to a 08 gts with everything on it and a brand new engine. the porsch dealer wants 30k on top of his tradein, which over here seems borderline reasonable costwise. the engine is new because the one prev owner drove it once without enough oil. so here is the question...in theory the ceramic brakes should last as long as he owns the car, but if one or more need replacement, (eg a stone shatters a disk), cost could be comparable to residual value when it would happen. in such a situation, could he avoid the high ceramic replacement cost on an otherwise driveable but (when the brake fix would happen) old gts by "downgrading" to steel brakes for less money? i assume yes, but not sure how many ancillary parts would also need replacement and how practically a downgrade could be accomplished. cheers

XR4Tim

I didn't think PCCBs were available until '09 on Cayennes.

Joseph O'Reilly

it is a 2010, not an 08. sorry, good catch. it was first registered in sept 09.

Dennis C

I know that some of the GT3 and GT2 guys who track their cars frequently have made this swap. I think it can be done and then the PCCB parts could be sold to recoup some of the cost.

gnat

If you track your car why on earth would you want to ditch PCCBs? That's where the things should really be coming into their own from what I know about them (no fade and a serious weight reduction are the big ones).

As far as the swap, I don't know the details but at a minimum you'd have to get calipers, pads, and rotors so look at what that would cost for all 4 points against what one PCCB rotor would cost. I know they are serious money, but I suspect that just the basics will cost more than a single rotor.

Joseph O'Reilly

this is good, this is why i ask. his mechanic claims you only would need to swap the rotors- the rest of the pccb set up would be fine for the steel rotors. the idea to sell the rotors to recoup costs of the swap also sounds good. if it were me, i would stick with the ceramics, but i thought it was an interesting question.

user 83838290

http://www.o-brake.com/bremsscheiben_ceramic.php
yup, you can only swap the rotors. I think they can make a custom set of discs. it will cost a lot, but it's still gonna be waaaay less than ceramics.

or, in case your friend is interested, I can sell him my set of 06 Turbo S brakes - I'm swapping them out for larger BREMBO ones. 380mm front and 350mm back.

gnat

I'd be shocked if all you had to do was change the rotors and pad, but that would certainly make it cheaper.

Edit: That's what I get for getting distracted and not reloading before finally posting. Opps

endless_corners

How much are the ceramic rotors?

Joseph O'Reilly

this may be way off, but another friend who has them on his 997 turbo was told 5000 euro should one get damaged and need replacement. sounds too high to me when you can buy the full set of ceramics for the cayenne from porsche techquipment for 15k euro. i am sure someone on this forum knows exactly what they cost!

XR4Tim

I believe the front PCCB calipers are the same as '08 Turbo calipers (just painted yellow). So he should be able to swap on '08 Turbo rotors and pads. I'm not sure about the rears.
Retail price on the PCCB front rotors are $4,114.74 each. Rears are $3,611.00 each.

steve_Cayenne

4 disks for the same low price of a nice new Kia!

orthojoe

Do a little search on the GT3 forums and you'll see why nobody who seriously tracks their cars runs PCCBs. We ALL remove them and run iron rotors instead.

Reasons
1) they cost $17k to replace
2) they only last 6-10 track days before needing to be replaced
3) you can't run track compound pads which give better bite, stop better, and last longer than running PCCB rotors with OEM pads
4) unsprung weight is over-rated. I couldn't feel the difference after switching to iron, and my lap times dropped because I could brake harder and later with track compound pads

user 83838290

complete frot brake job at a delaer of my friends' 997 TTS cost 14K euros about a year ago. he almost had a heart attack when they told him how much it was... anyways, he switched to the o-brakes from Schmidt motorsport and he's really happy now. a disc costs somewhere around 600 euros now.

gnat

Thanks. I believe you, its just surprising. I thought (other than replacement cost) they were supposed to be better than metal for all the reasons you listed against them. Guess like so many things the marketing doesn't match the reality.