Brake caliper rebuilding

At what point should the brake calipers be rebuilt, what mileage and/or what age? My car is 16/17 years old. I'm all for preventative care, especially with something as important as braking. I don't hear a lot of talk about this being done, and if so mostly with 1975-80 model year cars. I'm curious who has had this done, who did the rebuilding, and when/why was it done?

Jeff

 

I did my own rebuilding of all the calipers. The front right was sticking so I decided to redo all of them.
Superformance has all the little odd goodies that go in the calipers although I was able to reuse the "o" rings that go between the calipers once you split them.
If you rebuild them, I would suggest to paint them nicely too. I just polished them back to aluminum and...they look terrible now only after 2 years.
All the parts are readily available.
It will take about 40 hours to redo all of them: 1 hour for the rebuild and 39 hours to reinstall that POS of "s" bent tubing.
All in all a very simple job. There will be spacers (possibly) between the calipers and the hub carrier. Look for them and keep track of them for reinstalling them afterward.
Good luck.

 

The rear calipers on my 1980 308 were rebuilt last year. The rebuild was required because the handbrake had run out of adjustment and could no longer pass the MOT (UK Annual roadworthy test). I had mine rebuilt by Superformance in the UK and the work came in around £200 (US$400)

However, the rebuilding of the calipers highlighted a number of issues with the suspension so some other work was created - which added to the cost.

Unless they are failing a test similar to the UK's MOT I see little point in having them rebuilt for the sake of it - I am not aware of a schedule for rebuilding them. If they ain't broke don't fix 'em

 

Bacically if it ain't broke...

If a piston were sticking or one of the seals leaking, sure I'd rebuild them. But, if not why.

 

there was a thread awhile back on using porsche calipers. if you do a search you might find the info.

 

As above, rebuilding them is fairly easy.
But don't fix what isn't broken.

I did mine because of a non-working e-brake and slight leak on a rear caliper at the e-brake lever.
There's lots of articles on the board about this topic.

It made a significant difference on a working e-brake (more the proper adjustment than the rebuild). I hemmed & hawwed at painting my calipers and left them au naturale in the end. Mine still had most of the zinc coating on them and I think it's best to leave OEM.

 

It is a Porsche 914 in the rear with the e-brake bit turned upside down.

 

I believe it was 911 in front, but different spacer thickness
and
914-6 in the rear.

I don't have the relevant years at my fingertips, but they are on here in the archives.

 

Agreed, I wouldn't rebuild the calipers until there were symptoms of an issue. On my old 308, the issue was forced when one started leaking! That was because that car had a history of being tracked.

So I consider caliper rebuild to be on an "as needed" basis, but stainless steel brake lines were more of a preventative / upgrade thing.

If it was one of those "While you're in there" things, I'd consider it, but calipers can be done easily and the only implication of doing so is to replace the brake fluid.

 

I had read an article in Excellence, the Porsche enthusiast magazine, about a guy who purchased a 1989 Carrera and one of the first things he did was rebuild the brake calipers. I don't believe he mentioned a problem and it sounded preventative in nature. My car, being a 1989, got me thinking after reading this if that need would be coming up. This Porsche even was about the same mileage to my recollection. I'll inspect them at major/minor services or tire replacement and deal with them at that time. I assume "if it ain't broke...." service means if one is failing, only rebuild the one, not all four?

As far as painting the calipers, with my '89's stock wheels, you have to look pretty hard to see the calipers as it is so no reason to paint them.

Jeff