Replacing Brakes

[Alexw]

Morning All!

Ive been advised i need to replace all 4 of my discs and was thinking of doing it myself. Ive rung Porsche and got quoted £654 for new discs and pads all round but the Berlyn site quoted £405 and im not sure why theres a £200 price difference. Is it just Porsche pricing or is there a difference? Also is there any point getting the cross drilled discs? It would be about £100 more. Mostly weekend use with the odd trackday here and there. Also, how hard is it to do the brakes yourself? Ive heard its a pretty easy job?

 

[Riverside]

Cross drilled look pretty & give better ventilation but can be prone to cracking & imo the extra cooling isn't worth the risk of having to replace your disks early on a road car. The standard brakes are easily up to the job if they're in good nick.

Doing the disks & pads is straightforward mechanically but one sheared bolt & you might wish you'd taken it to a garage []

 

[sawood12]

Alex, out of all the jobs you can do on your car yourself replacing discs and pads is amongst the easiest. As long as you are confident about jacking the car up and using a spanner there is no tricky parts to it at all. Your first corner will probably take you an hour or so to replace as you feel your way through the job, then you'll probably do other three corners in the same time.

 

[pauljmcnulty]

Berlyn are often cheaper than a Porsche Centre because he doesn't have the overheads. Or, probably, the profit margin. Not sure about that, though, because apparently Bert's boat is rivalled only be Abramovitch's. []

The good thing with Berlyn is that he will be happy to talk you through the best options, and help if there are any problems fitting.

 

[Paul Fraser]

I think that Bert will be supplying Sebro or Zimmerman discs in Sebro or Zimmerman packaging hence the price difference. All that Porsch do is put the same type of discs in their own packaging and hike the price. Might be worth asking Bert to see what make they are and then ask on here to see if they are OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) -- if that sort of thing bothers you.
What type of 944 have you got: 2.5 lux, 2.7 lux, turbo, S or S2?

 

[edh]

Replacing discs is OK - unless they are stuck on! - be prepared for some effort in separating discs & hubs if they have been there a while. When I did my fronts, they were a very tight fit. When you've got the old discs up, give the hubs a good clean up & maybe use a bit of copper grease before sticking the new ones on. AS ever, clarks garage is a good place to start for a guide.

There's a hole in the discs that you can wind a bolt into - supposed to push the discs away from the hub. I guess you could also end up with half a disc still attached to your hub []

 

[morris944s2john]

There are two holes to wind a bolt into to drive the disc off. Do each one up a turn at a time keeping them even, or the disc can become stuck and even crack. On an S2/turbo, the cast iron discs are likely to have corroded onto the ali hubs and the pads may be hard to remove from the callper if plate lift is occurring in which case you are better off re-furbing the callipers as well.

 

[morris944s2john]

In my case it took considerably longer than 1 hr per corner, as I also rectified plate lift, and with the discs off, it seemed a great shame to put painted callipers and new discs back onto rusty parts, so I cleaned up and painted the struts (grinder wire brush, rust remover, zinc primer then chassis black) before fitting the dics and callpers and pads back on.

 

[andy watson]

Alex, Bert supplied mine advised against cross drilled as prone to cracking an as I only use mine for road there was no need. (after all they are Porsche designed)

Same price difference as you have been quoted, and for the reasons as posted earlier.

Took me most of one Satuarday just to do the fronts, the caliper bolts were a pig and in the end I had to gently apply some heat, but whilst they were off it was nice to wire brush off and clean and generally pander, the garage won't do that will they?

Must stop driving at the weekends and do the rears soon!

 

[sawood12]

My experience of Zimmerman disks is that they are of far inferior quality than OEM ones. I've never had Sebro ones so can't comment, but i'd be surprised if they are exactly the same item as OEM even if Sebro is the manufacturer for Porsche.

As for drilled they look nicer but that is just about it. The jury is still out as to them performing better than solid discs and they have the potential to cause you more problems with cracking and holes blocking up with brake dust. The hard core tracking GT3 boys are all swapping out their drilled disks in favour of solid vented ones and reckon they are better in all departments. If you want the looks then go for the drilled, other than that I wouldn't bother.

On race cars where you are hammering the brakes much more over a longer period of time and are replacing them more regularly they might have benefits.

 

[Alexw]

Excellent, i might try this over easter weekend then if i get the bits in time. Its a S2 yes (sorry i didnt put this in before). Im pretty happy with jacking up as ive had all the wheels off the clean inside the arches and wheels. What is the proper axle stand point for the rear? Theres a all cylindrical bit sticking out of the inner wing area just infront of the rear axle, that looked nice and strong but i wasnt sure.

 

[sawood12]

I use the square bit that sticks down but usually take the weight on the jack and lower just so the axel stand is touching the underside of the car so if the jack fails the car wont drop. The only reason I do this is because i'm never 100% confident about where to put the axel stand so bear the weight of the car on the jack.

Just a couple of tips:-
I used a rubber mallet to get the front disc off the hub as the disc was pretty tight on there. I then cleaned up all the mating surfaces and coated in Copperslip to make the job easier next time round.

I've not bothered with the adhesive anti squeal shims - I just use copperslip on the back of the pad and the edge where it slides agains the caliper plate - making sure not to get any on the disk and pad face.

Remember that on the rear the handbrake mechanism is inside the rear disk. You need to slacken off the handbrake shoes to allow you to remove the rear disk.

 

[Dico]

May be a good time to change the brake fluid. Get a competent friend to help you.
I need to do mine!

 

[Paul Fraser]

ORIGINAL: sawood12
My experience of Zimmerman disks is that they are of far inferior quality than OEM ones.  I've never had Sebro ones so can't comment, but i'd be surprised if they are exactly the same item as OEM even if Sebro is the manufacturer for Porsche.

Well, the difference on the Textar pads I got for my Boxster instead of the Porsche ones that were about 50% more expensive was the fact that the Porsche ones had "Brembo" painted on them. Literally that was the only difference, as they both had the same Textar part number on them. Look at the bottom left hand side of the Porsche (Brembo) pads at the top and the Textar ones at the bottom, they have the same serial/part number. There is a more extensive thread about paying a lot more for a box with "Porsche" on it on Renntech.

 

[Paul Fraser]

PS Just put Sebro front discs on the 996 and they were identical to Porsche, same painted hat etc. Maybe Bert will chip in as he supplies at lot of this stuff and might know which stuff Porsche is rebranding as their own.

 

[mik_ok]

ORIGINAL: sawood12
My experience of Zimmerman disks is that they are of far inferior quality than OEM ones. I've never had Sebro ones so can't comment, but i'd be surprised if they are exactly the same item as OEM even if Sebro is the manufacturer for Porsche.

I had two sets of front "Zimms" warp on me within 18months. First set replaced under warranty, the second set replaced for a pair of Sebros under warranty.

As I understand it Zimmerman are not OEM, but the Sebros are. And theres little difference in the price.