[jonnogtv]

Hey guys,

My brakes haven't been very good since I bought my car a year ago. I originally thought about going for the 330mm upgrade but after seeing the price of them (new and second hand) and reading a thread about them in the GTA section I decided to give my own one last chance.

After reading chris_c2000's guide (and getting some helpful advice from him, cheers mate) I thought I'd document my own experiences in case anyone else wants to give it a go. I do have experience with hydraulics but this is my first time doing this so feel free to chip in.

First thing I did was to buy a caliper redress kit http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/310340999309?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
and some decals http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/380367274603?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

You will need

Jack
Axle Stands
10mm Spanner
11mm Spanner
17mm Spanner
19mm Spanner
Small punch
10mm Allen Key
Small flat bladed screwdriver
Torque screwdriver (will edit size tomorrow)
A few cans of beer (optional)

So I started with -

Wheel off, caliper exposed. As always a good dose of WD40 on everything to be removed a few hours in advance never does any harm. Then loosen all your bleed nuts, bolts etc. Do not completely remove at this point just break and lightly tighten. I had to cut off the metal line that comes out of the back of the caliper and the manifold that connects both sides together so I could get a closed spanner over the end. Some motor factors will make these up for you or you can buy a kit to do it yourself, luckily I bought one not too long ago.

Next you need to remove the brake pads, I completely removed the caliper first but it would probably have been easier knocking out the pins that hold the pads in place then take off the caliper and the pads should fall out

Unfortunately I found out the hard way but if you screw the caliper back on hand tight at this point you can pump out the pistons and they will stop on the disc.

 

[jonnogtv]

Now take the caliper completely off, the pistons can either be removed by pumping air into the caliper (foot pump / garage pump etc.) using two screwdrivers to pull it out evenly or (at your own risk) use a set of vice grips / water pump pliers - if you aree oing this grip the very top of the piston, above the rubber do not touch anywhere on the piston below the rubber seal as this is the sealing face of the piston and may damage beyond repair!!!!!

Remove the bleed nipples, manifold that joins both side of the calliper (mine wouldn’t come off without a fight so I cut the line to get a closed spanner over the fitting), 4 Allen head bolts holding everything together. Once the calliper is split in two remove the 2 brake pad guides on either side. Take off the outer seal, this should pull off with your fingers then take out the (inner) piston seals. I used one of the brake hose retaining clips for this but you could just as easily use a flat bladed screwdriver. Be careful here not to scratch the seat of the piston.

Once apart inspect all parts, especially the sealing faces on the pistons and cylinders, they should all be smooth and free from corrosion, pitting or any other damage. My N/S pistons felt very rough, I think from brake dust over the years.

Now the fun bit........get scrubbing!! Then sand all the bits ready for painting.
When it’s done you should be left with something like this.

 

[jonnogtv]

Oops, and this!!

I won’t go into the in’s and out’s of the painting as I can easily be found elsewhere but if there are any questions feel free to ask. The paints I used were:
Primer – Plasticote Primer
Topcoat – Hycote calliper paint
Lacqeur – Hycote High temp clear
Put it all back together. It’s not rocket science so I won’t insult your intelligence.

So here is the caliper after primer

Then topcoat......just a quick one on that, leave the topcoat overnight before attempting to put the decals on and don’t be an eager beaver like me putting them on after about 30 mins as it ended up setting me back a good few hours!!

The colour looks a bit orange because of the poor light but it's actually a really nice, bright red. I'll get some pics tomorrow in daylight.

Just waiting for my decals to turn up now, hopefully they will be here tomorrow and I'll be done by tomorrow night

 

[Julianf77]

Who's cleaning the block paving ?

 

[jonnogtv]

lol already done....just blasted it with the hose when i was done

 

[jonnogtv]

Having an absolute nightmare with the second caliper trying to get the pad guide screws out (after a lot of messing about I finally got them out by using a hacksaw, cutting a straight line through the screw and using a large flat headed screwdriver on it)

On the up side the decals came this morning and the first one is finished

Going to leave it for a few hours to let the lacqeur cure then I'll put the orings and pistons back in

 

[J2 GTV]

Looks like a great job.

 

[jonnogtv]

Cheers mate, it's getting there. Still not got those screws out of the second one yet. Hopefully I will have the first one fully rebuilt tonight and the second one primed ready for painting tomorrow

 

[Alfa_Holic]

Very impressive!

 

[pendragonfalls]

:thumbs: Do mine now...:lol:

 

[jonnogtv]

Very impressive!

Cheers mate, had a think after you messaged me and decided the price of the 330's were still too high. If I do decide to go for them in the future I could always sell these and the pads (DS2500's) You still on the look out for another GTV??

:thumbs: Do mine now...:lol:

Mate if you were closer I'd def give you a hand, don't know about doing them tho.....talk about time consuming!!! lol

I can see why it's about £250 to get it done professionally!!

 

[Baacow]

Twin pot Brembo's eh? I guess they're standard on the V6. will they bolt straight onto a 2.0TS axle strut?
or would the rotor and pipe work need changing? (and would the front< > back brake balance be negatively affected?) anyone tried fitting them on a TS?

 

[Chris_C2000]

Damn your quicker at this than me! I've been working on mine on and off for 3 weeks now

Look great tho. I'm thinking I should have gone for spraying instead of painting on.

 

[J2 GTV]

Twin pot Brembo's eh? I guess they're standard on the V6. will they bolt straight onto a 2.0TS axle strut?
or would the rotor and pipe work need changing? (and would the front< > back brake balance be negatively affected?) anyone tried fitting them on a TS?

They're 4 pot.

No they will not fit straight on to a TS. People have fitted them IIRC but it takes much faffing around. May as well trade your car in for a V6.

 

[Mitch916]

They're 4 pot.

No they will not fit straight on to a TS. People have fitted them IIRC but it takes much faffing around. May as well trade your car in for a V6.

:lol: It's not that bad!!

Do a search, lots of threads.

 

[Pud237]

:lol: It's not that bad!!

Do a search, lots of threads.

From memory you need a pair of V6 hub carriers, a new set of TS wheel bearings, the old set of TS hub flanges from the old hubs, 3.0 shock absorbers, the old 2.0 springs to go on the 3.0 shocks, the old 2.0 top mounts and new brake lines making up, to get the 3.0 V6 Brembos are 305mm discs to fit. Not an epic job but its a fair old bit of work for getting better brakes. The only question mark for me is whether you can fit the 2.0 TS hub flanges into a 3.0 carrier, and if so whether you need new 2.0 bearings or 3.0 bearings. I know the splines on the inside of the hub flange is different from 2.0 to 3.0 so you can't just bolt the hubs on.

 

[jonnogtv]

Cheers for the comments guys, think I'd better get this finished up now.

Unfortunately I had a few hiccups over the weekend

After 'finishing' the first caliper and leaving it for a while, I decided the paint was still too soft to start putting in the pistons so I put it in the over for a while to help the curing process. Last time I painted my calipers I did this and it totally ruined the job as I thoik I put it too high too soon and it melted the lacqeur. This time I had it on 50 degrees for about an hour and a bit then went up to 100 degrees for about another hour. Again it didn't work

As you can see from the pic, the paint ran on to the decals. What you can't see is that the edges of the decals turned up slightly too.

As the pistons still weren't in at this point I decided to fit them before try to fix the paint. Unfortunately I was eager to get finished so didn't get many pics.

On each side of the caliper there are obviously 2 pistons but they are slightly different sizes so I set the new seal kit out in the order it goes in.

I put the inner o-rings in first using a bit of brake fluid as lubricant. If I got any brake fluid on the paint I soaked it up with a bit of kitchen roll / loo roll and cleaned the spot with panel wipe (the same stuff in halfords paint preparation wipes)

Before refitting the pistons I gave all the sealing faces a light sanding with wetted 1200 grade wet and dry, as I mentioned before the pistons felt quite rough and this could have been a possible cause for the brakes not being great (I hope!)

I fitted the outer (weather) seal before fitting the pistons as I thought it would have been a nightmare once they were pushed in.

With the caliper lying on its side I smeared a good bit of brake fluid around the inside of the caliper and a light smear around the piston itself. I then offered the piston into the hole (remember there are different sizes) and rolled it between my fingers as it slid down and caught on the inner seal. I then got my large screwdriver, placd it across the face of the piston and pushed my weight down on top of it. If it doesnt go in straight away roll the screwdriver back and forward a little bit and it should drop down. Then all that was needed was to push the outer seal into place. I just used the handle of a fork to do this. Be careful what you use here this would not be a good point to split the seal!!

Last but not least refit the pad guides. I bought some new stainless M6 screws just to tidy everything up. I am also tempted to fit new bleed nipples but the shop is miles away so might just fit the old ones.

In the end I sandedd back the decals, resprayed, fitted new ones and lacqeur. Both calipers were finished this morning and I intend leaving them for at least 24 hours before fitting them to the car.

When fitting to car - High temp paint takes a long time to fully harden and is supposed to be cured. After my preivious problems with the oven I have decided not to cure them again but to bed in my new pads they will get a lot of heat round them anyway so I'll jut have to see how it goes??

Lessons learned - I think the only thing I might have done differently would be to fit the pistons before putting the calipers back together. It is very easy to damage the paint while you are fitting the pistons as it is so soft. My original thinking was if I painted it first I wouldn't get any overspray on to the outer weather seal but if you pushed the pistons in while the caliper was still split you could take your time and mask round it

 

[jonnogtv]

Just went out to see how they were doing and take one final pic.

For some reason the decals on one of them has red on it so maybe it wasn't the oven?? Ah well, don't know what caused it but I'm just going to have to live with it cos I'm outta decals...

 

[Chris_C2000]

Oh I had a nightmare last night trying to get the piston's and dust shoes in and getting brake fluid on the paint and it starting to bubble. It's never simple is it!!

 

[jonnogtv]

Wouldn't be any fun if it was easy would it :lol: