Caliper plate lift

sawood12 · Jun 24, 2006

Just attempted to replace my rear pads this morning but couldn't get the pads out due to the dreaded caliper plate lift. The pads don't appear to be binding on the disks yet as there was plenty of room for the pads to slide on and off the disk but the plates seem to have lifted at the outer edge tapering them so I cannot slide the pads out of the caliper. The pads still have some life left on them so I just put them back in place. I am considering using the Promax refurb exchange service which costs about £157 per caliper inc vat and fitting which seems good value to me. Anyone got any other suggestions of sources for refurbed calipers. 2nd hand calipers don't seem a good idea as you don't know the extent of the corrosion under the plate and rebuilding them myself doesn't seem a sensible option either given the time and the cost involved.

I am toying with the idea of replacement with Boxter rear calipers as they don't have caliper plates and I can get them quite cheaply from a breakers (who seems to have alot of Boxter bits - seems like there are a fair few of them being wrapped around lamposts these days) hoping that a caliper adapter is all i'd need but i'm not sure how to find out if the pad depth is compatable with the 944 rear disk.

Fen · Jun 24, 2006

New calipers and sell your old ones on eBay? You might only get £100 the pair, add that to your £157 a side and you have £400+ toward the cost new ones. You might get more than £100 for the old ones of course.

morris944s2john · Jun 26, 2006

Its not that bad to re-build your calipers, if no pistons are siezed then you don't need to remove them and can just deal with the corrosion (the cause of the plate lift) and straighten and re-fit the plates (or new ones) with new bolts.

sawood12 · Jun 26, 2006

If it's a simple case of unscrewing the caliper plates, removing the corrosion and screwing on new caliper plates then that doesn't sound too bad. I have no reason to replace or refurb the pistons as they appear to be operating fine and free of leaks. Admittedly i've not had a good read of them yet but there seems to be alot of faffing around with Oxy Acetylene torches with the 'how to' guides i've read. At the moment i'll leave them be until my pads need replacing then decide what to do. With a baby due in a months time i've enough on my plate in the short term!

morris944s2john · Jun 27, 2006

I didn;t use an oxy acetylene torch. I think its a ploy by some specialists to frighten off the hopeful DIYer and secure their business.

I'm writing a sensible how to guide on re-doing your callipers. My car passed the MOT with good figures on the brakes and I just drove it to Scotland and back- no problems so far.

Indi9xx · Jun 28, 2006

Who uses oxy acetylene?? If its a specialist, they need educating.

At the same time, if the screws come out without the use of heat, then the last people to have the screws out didnt fit them properly.

Most specialists charge about £100 per calliper, including removal, refitting, replacement sliders, replacement screws (brake bleed extra @£35 to £55)...

Also in this price, the compacted dust, loose powdercoating and aluminium oxide is removed from behind the plates and the area coated with a matching high temp coating on any bare areas that were oxidised.

Which I dont think is unreasonable, especially when you consider that the entire time this is going on, the car is occupying a lift or bay of an expensive workshop, its probably a job that the specialist is making a loss at, compared with getting another car in for less involved work.

Last of all, a decent specialist, that takes on this job, will complete the job without then turning around and saying that a calliper is now scrap because they broke a screw or two, even if something did go wrong... where as if you do the job yourself and something goes wrong, you can only blame yourself.

You pays your money (or not) and makes your choice.

You may find "specialists" trying to charge up to £250 per calliper to do this job, plus removal and refitting, which is a bit steep... But then again, specialists like this are the same ones quite often that I have sort out there mess once they are finished (just take the S2 outside my workshop as one example).

morris944s2john · Jun 28, 2006

The article in Porsche and 911 world shows someone using oxyacetylene. It was partly the steep prices charged that drove me to do the job myself, plus satisfaction from doing it myself.[

]

What mess is the 944S2 in?

Indi9xx · Jun 28, 2006

"The article in Porsche and 911 world shows someone using oxyacetylene."

Doing it that way is a really bad idea, a bit like setting fire to your house to cook your dinner!

The S2 visited another specialist to have a missfire diagnosed.

So the other specialist decided it was a good idea to remove the cylinder head, look at the engine internals, throw everything into the boot and give up.

Then the owner sent the car to us... Instantly we could see that the distributor cap was shot, the rotor arm was shot and the DME was full of water!

All pretty damn obvious causes of missfires, which should have been attacked well before taking the engine apart looking for some random failure else where.

Stuff like this gets me really angry.

944psi · Jun 28, 2006

Hi Jon,

Do you offer a postal service for the calipers? I've got a pair that could do with refurbing and this sort of arrangement would suit me better.

Thanks, Phil

Indi9xx · Jul 1, 2006

We do indeed, we even do it for other specialists.

Drop me a line

sawood12 · Jul 2, 2006

Gave the OPC at Exeter a ring the other day looking into the price of new calipers after Fens suggestion higher up in the thread. I was shocked to learn that the catalogue price of big blacks are only £30 more than the turbo/S2 calipers and at the moment they have a stock of calipers from one side going for a paltry £200 it makes the big blacks cheaper for the pair. However I still think when you take into account the cost of the disks, pads and caliper brackets you'd still be looking at a hefty bill (although still a good £200 - £300 cheaper than the upgrade kits available) so refurbishment still seems the cheaper way to go. Anyway i'll decide whether to go for the upgrade for the front and put my front calipers on the rear in about 6 months time when I think my rear disks will want replacing.

By the way, with Big Blacks needing 17" rims what do you do with your spare wheel as it makes it useless? I've got a full size spare (not the collapsable tyre spare) which is a 16" rim. Do the collapsable spare wheels have a 17" rim??

ross255 · Jul 2, 2006

To whoever, originaly posted.

This weekend i have taken out my pads, taken off the calipers.

Then take out the four bolts holding down the plates, scrape clean, add grease and rebolt the plates down.

Easy, and i have never done it before, so i would say have a go before spending cash, as it costs peanuts if you DIY.

Indi9xx · Jul 3, 2006

Have a go by all means. But if the screws come out without heating or pre heating the callipers, they were not installed correctly in the first place. Make sure you use a suitable thread locking compound when re-fitting the screws... if they come loose they can catch the disk and in some cases if this happens at speed it could be dangerous, could cause damage to the disk/calliper or you.

os951 · Jul 4, 2006

Caliper rebuild is not that bad to do by yourself.Only those slideplate screws can sometimes cause a little broblem, but with the correct tools you can usually unscrew them easily. At least here in Finland caliper rebuild kit is quite expensive.It include all necessary parts, but usually you just need new gaskets.Some of newer monoblock gaskets fit also to "old" design calipers and can be bought separetly.
If you would like to have more trouble free calipers those new design monoblocks are way to go.For example i am currently haveing GT2 front and GT3 rear calipers (and disks) under my 951. With adapters this swap is quite easy to do, the only negative thing is the cost of this conversion.