Track forum general chit chat.

[dparm]

How often are people rebuilding/servicing calipers? What are the warning signs, if any?

My front dust seals are gone from ~20 hours of track use over the last 16 months and the shop is saying that could also indicate that the pressure seals have hardened. The service would be "several hours" at $150/hour, plus the cost of parts from Brembo, plus the labor to remove and reinstall the calipers. My brake guy, Dave Zeckhausen, agrees with the rebuild for the same reasons.

Shockingly, I can get an entire caliper replacements from GM for $450 each.

[M3MPH1S]

Originally Posted by dparm

How often are people rebuilding/servicing calipers? What are the warning signs, if any?

My front dust seals are gone from ~20 hours of track use over the last 16 months and the shop is saying that could also indicate that the pressure seals have hardened. The service would be "several hours" at $150/hour, plus the cost of parts from Brembo, plus the labor to remove and reinstall the calipers. My brake guy, Dave Zeckhausen, agrees with the rebuild for the same reasons.

Shockingly, I can get an entire caliper replacements from GM for $425 each.

Actually I was just researching my options for this today. I'm still on OEM brakes, but I'm getting very soft pedal feel until about 1/3 the way down then everything is normal. No visual damage that I can see, but as I'm approaching 150k miles soon, I feel like they are probably in need of some love.

Edit: Forgot to include, pedal feel in unchanged even after fresh flush/bleeding.

[kyoo]

Originally Posted by ayao

I have used the same Joe's Racing gauge forever. $25. Works fine, reliable, correlates with other gauges I have: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Amazon has a Longacre on sale (?) right now for $26. I'm tempted to buy it to increase the clutter in my garage. https://www.amazon.com/Longacre-5041...longacre+gauge

i've found every joe's i've used to read really high. I actually think I have that same red longacre gauge

Originally Posted by dparm

How often are people rebuilding/servicing calipers? What are the warning signs, if any?

My front dust seals are gone from ~20 hours of track use over the last 16 months and the shop is saying that could also indicate that the pressure seals have hardened. The service would be "several hours" at $150/hour, plus the cost of parts from Brembo, plus the labor to remove and reinstall the calipers. My brake guy, Dave Zeckhausen, agrees with the rebuild for the same reasons.

Shockingly, I can get an entire caliper replacements from GM for $450 each.

way, way too many times (on my evo). I went to Racing Brake to get vented stainless steel pistons and high temp dust boots/seals for my Evo's brembos, don't know which calipers you have.

[dparm]

Originally Posted by kyoo

way, way too many times (on my evo). I went to Racing Brake to get vented stainless steel pistons and high temp dust boots/seals for my Evo's brembos, don't know which calipers you have.

My OEM pistons are vented. I will probably run titanium shims to try and extend the life of the dust seals, but my shop has said these are going to vaporize from use all over again. It's just the cost of doing business on a street car's braking system, even one that's designed by Brembo.

[kyoo]

Originally Posted by dparm

My OEM pistons are vented. I will probably run titanium shims to try and extend the life of the dust seals, but my shop has said these are going to vaporize from use all over again. It's just the cost of doing business on a street car's braking system, even one that's designed by Brembo.

pretty much i run ti shims also, just do what i can to help the fluid & seals last. I should really just install ducting honestly.

[ayao]

Originally Posted by dparm

How often are people rebuilding/servicing calipers? What are the warning signs, if any?

My front dust seals are gone from ~20 hours of track use over the last 16 months and the shop is saying that could also indicate that the pressure seals have hardened. The service would be "several hours" at $150/hour, plus the cost of parts from Brembo, plus the labor to remove and reinstall the calipers. My brake guy, Dave Zeckhausen, agrees with the rebuild for the same reasons.

Shockingly, I can get an entire caliper replacements from GM for $450 each.

Based on the above, BBK costs start to look somewhat justifiable depending on how often you track ...

[scotty_miller]

Originally Posted by dparm

How often are people rebuilding/servicing calipers? What are the warning signs, if any?

My front dust seals are gone from ~20 hours of track use over the last 16 months and the shop is saying that could also indicate that the pressure seals have hardened. The service would be "several hours" at $150/hour, plus the cost of parts from Brembo, plus the labor to remove and reinstall the calipers. My brake guy, Dave Zeckhausen, agrees with the rebuild for the same reasons.

Shockingly, I can get an entire caliper replacements from GM for $450 each.

So there's two seals on a piston, sometimes one depending on bbk set up (only have oil seal). There's the dust boot and oil seal. Signs of the dustboot going is cracking or chunks fall off. You don't want to let that go too long because eventually small pieces of pad dust and debris will work behind the oil seal, scoring the piston, causing leaks, or even rust, or unwanted small air pockets. This will cause the piston to be hard to retract and seize. Rebuilding calipers is actually very easy and I personally enjoy doing them. But on the same hand if you can buy a loaded or semi loaded (with or without mounting bracket) for the same price as a rebuild it might be sensible to buy new caliper. Although having upgraded hardware from a company such as Racing Brake can give a lot better longevity, it all depends on why you want. A BBK doesn't mean better servicing or longevity, it's just better thermal management. PM if you need anything else. Hopefully this is somewhat a help

[dparm]

Originally Posted by ayao

Based on the above, BBK costs start to look somewhat justifiable depending on how often you track ...

Not for this car, lol. And even a BBK will need periodic rebuilds.

[CorruptCommie]

DIY. It's such an easy job. Annoying, but easy.

[slicer]

Originally Posted by dparm

Not for this car, lol. And even a BBK will need periodic rebuilds.

I think some aftermarket kits will hold up longer though. For example the Essex AP kits don't have dust boots - which disintegrate with track use anyway. That being said your Corvette brakes are nice pieces which are hard to justify replacing. Especially compared to the single piston OE M3 brakes

[Ximian]

Originally Posted by Ximian

I'll take a few pictures sometime this week but only one of them looked bad and none of them looked damaged or worn in any way. To be fair, I started changing them around midnight so it may have been too dark in the garage to notice all details.

Here they are -











Not in bad shape. One of the pins was bent and the bottom two pictures show what I thought looks like the worst one.

[roastbeef]

Originally Posted by dparm

My OEM pistons are vented. I will probably run titanium shims to try and extend the life of the dust seals, but my shop has said these are going to vaporize from use all over again. It's just the cost of doing business on a street car's braking system, even one that's designed by Brembo.

you might be able to mitigate it with the shims, please let us know if it helps.
i asked jeff ritter if it would help if i ran them on my AP kit, and he said it would be a negligible improvement and more of a hassle than its worth to swap them in.
in your case, if it prolongs the life of your dust boots, probably worth it.

you could always buy a second set, swap those on, then take your time rebuilding the old calipers. might be fun and save money in the long run rather than keep paying to have them rebuilt.

[bigjae1976]

Originally Posted by roastbeef

you might be able to mitigate it with the shims, please let us know if it helps.
i asked jeff ritter if it would help if i ran them on my AP kit, and he said it would be a negligible improvement and more of a hassle than its worth to swap them in.
in your case, if it prolongs the life of your dust boots, probably worth it.

you could always buy a second set, swap those on, then take your time rebuilding the old calipers. might be fun and save money in the long run rather than keep paying to have them rebuilt.

Titanium shims will help the dust boots last a little longer if you're just over the limit. If you've been setting the dust boots on fire every session, the titanium shims won't solve that issue.

I think that describes their value. I run them on my E46 and ST BBK just to help with some heat dissipation.

[roastbeef]

yea, after some thought, i decided not to get them. i suspect that a proper cool down lap helps tremendously.
what i personally need to focus on is ventilation, just to keep pad consumption down.

[Ximian]

http://fancywide.ru/product/preorder...full-diffuser/

Discount if you pre-order. How does the E90 version feel at speed? I'm assuming the best case scenario is that it makes no difference as it's mostly cosmetic.

[dparm]

Originally Posted by Ximian

http://fancywide.ru/product/preorder...full-diffuser/

Discount if you pre-order. How does the E90 version feel at speed? I'm assuming the best case scenario is that it makes no difference as it's mostly cosmetic.

Well the name alone is enough to raise a red flag.

Why not just ask them, point blank, for some information about their testing and the improvements you could expect? I can almost guarantee you that they'll be radio silent, or spout some bullshit like, "we assure you that it will greatly improve the car's handling at high speed."

For all you know, this could actually make things worse.

[scotty_miller]

Originally Posted by dparm

Well the name alone is enough to raise a red flag.

Why not just ask them, point blank, for some information about their testing and the improvements you could expect? I can almost guarantee you that they'll be radio silent, or spout some bullshit like, "we assure you that it will greatly improve the car's handling at high speed."

For all you know, this could actually make things worse.

+1 ... this diffuser looks like the kind that the track inspired bro dozer Street guys put on their "track build" unless they're doing actual analysis in a wind tunnel or have real time track data I wouldn't spend the money

[dparm]

Their website is just fill of nice BMWs totally ruined with ridiculous wheel/tire setups, fifty Instagram filters, pointless body kits and spoilers, etc. I guess this is what happens when these used cars drop below a certain price point.

[CorruptCommie]

The dadmobile has one, see if he's getting to daycare any quicker:
https://www.m3post.com/forums/showpo...ostcount=6165b

[kyoo]

how are you guys running ti shims? I'm assuming the track pads you order come with flat backs?

[Ximian]

Originally Posted by dparm

For all you know, this could actually make things worse.

That's what I'm assuming. I'm only interested in it for cosmetic reasons but I would like some feedback from someone who used it on a track.

[dparm]

Originally Posted by kyoo

how are you guys running ti shims? I'm assuming the track pads you order come with flat backs?

Not sure I follow. It just slides between the pistons and the pad backing plate. The ones from Hard Brakes and GiroDisc have the special cutouts for the retention clips and pins.

Do you have pads with nibs or other weird things on the backing plate? If so, you can just grind those off:
https://hardbrakes.com/index.php?mai...lc9isyeST38m23