06-29-2013, 03:42 PM
So I work pretty slow. I started a caliper rebuild last summer and I'm just getting around to finishing it now. It sucks. I miss driving the car but kids and family have taken center stage so my spare time to tinker is nill. This is my 3rd P-car and I've rebuilt/painted faded ugly calipers on all of the them so far. Mostly just to spruce them up but the 968 was different. The dust boots were dry rotted to the point that they seperated on both the front calipers and judging my the amount of gunk in/around them there was some fluid getting by the pistons as well. I mention all this because it's not the first time I've disassembled and reassembled calipers. I have a pretty good idea of what to do and what not to do. I know what direction the scraper seals go in. The previous two sets of calipers I did were Boxster/Boxster S calipers. I used StopTech dust boots and scraper seals and had great results. I did my research and a lot of racers use the StopTech brand parts to rebuild Brembo brakes. David from Zeckhausen Racing knows his stuff. I found out that StopTech is part of the same company as Centric. Centric scraper seals and dust boots are made to the same standards as StopTech just with a lower temperature rubber and that the specific parts I needed had a newer high temp rubber option. This was good because I was on a budget. The Centic parts would save me around $200 compared to OEM Brembo rubber. Enough for me to buy a chip from RS Barn. So I ordered them up. Holding a handfull of rubber seals that total $300 is enough to make you question yourself but it felt better than $500 or so I thought. I stripped the calipers down to bare aluminum. Had them repainted. Looked great. Started with the assembly. The scraper seals went right in. The pistons... not a chance. In past rebuilds I was able to push the pistons in by hand. I was using all sorts of tools to leverage these things in and not getting anywhere. In doing so I tore some of the dust boots. Had to order more parts. Scuffed up the fresh paint. Curse words and busted knuckles. Heated calipers and Pistons in the freezer overnight. You name it. This was getting ugly. That was last fall. Then I just gave up. I also had a newborn at the same time so the 968 sat for another season. This winter I started up where I left off. I took them all apart again. The pistons were not getting by the scaper seal. I used so much force to insert the pistons that I had actually sliced chunks of the seals right off in the caliper. I mention that I know what direction the tapered seals are supposed to go in. I even measured the pieces to see if I go sent the wrong parts. So I bit the bullet and ordered up genuine Brembo parts from Paragon. I just reassembled all four calipers in less than 20 minutes by hand. A little dab of assembly lube and the piston pushes right in. Long story short... I just learned my lesson. These parts were only different by a few thousandths. But OEM made all the difference in the world. It only cost me an extra $300 to figure this out. Don't be cheap. Order OEM.
