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Boxter brakes on a SBug
humpty - February 3rd, 2014 at 04:58 PM

Ok fellas... Here's the deal.

I have recently fitted Boxter Monoblocks on a SBug for a mate. The calipers felt and looked to be in very good order. The caliper bracket and strut kit came from VDub Engineering and are of a very high standard. The pad and rotors are brand new, as are the soft brake lines. The MC was rebuilt last year. And there is about 15mm of play at the pedal. The rear drums are new Porsche pattern stockers. The whole lot bled up fine. The pedal feels good and the car tracks and stops amazingly well, but....

The front brakes are dragging.

We have driven the car a total of 100kms since last Thursday and things don't seem to have improved. Everything is as before. Brakes done feel hot or anything after a drive, but the drag on the brakes is still there.

Any ideas?


Camo - February 3rd, 2014 at 05:11 PM

I know its simple, but did you check the slides of the calipers. Did they slide easy?

That's my first thought.

Was there any drag after you bleed the brakes, before driving. The calipers are definitely square too the rotor, not kicked a bit causing drag.


Kev


1303Steve - February 3rd, 2014 at 07:28 PM

Hi

Got to ask silly qestions.

Is the roation of caliper going the correct way?

Is it both calpers doing it?

Can you rig up a pressure gauge in the line to check residual pressure?

Could the seals be jamming in the bores?

Steve


karmann141 - February 3rd, 2014 at 10:30 PM

As above and

the caliper pistons may be sticking. Get a cailper rebuild kit - its always worth replacing seals and cleaning up/inspecting the pistons. Its always difficult to know how long the calipers have been lying around.


humpty - February 3rd, 2014 at 11:48 PM

Supposedly the calipers were fresh and off a recent wreck... The pistons moved back in sweetly when I fitted the new pads... Clean fluid came out upon compression. Didn't check for drag before bleeding, though the rotors spun free before I fitted the calipers. As I suggested earlier Steve... Both calipers are dragging equally, and yes they are on there correctly... Bleed nipples to the top.... They look to be running straight and square.

The thought that the calipers are sticking did come to mind... Thinking that the pistons might have gotten stuck on dirt ridge in the bore.


ragged - February 4th, 2014 at 12:02 AM

Try cracking open the bleed nipples to see if there is 1) any residual pressure and 2) the disc then spins freely.


grumble - February 4th, 2014 at 08:22 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by ragged
Try cracking open the bleed nipples to see if there is 1) any residual pressure and 2) the disc then spins freely.

X2 it may not be a caliper problem,possibly master cylinder.


1303Steve - February 4th, 2014 at 09:10 AM

Hi

Even if the bleed screws are at the top you can still have rotor spinning the wrong way in the calliper, there should should be a direction arrow cast onto the calliper. If it is the wrong was round you can swap the cross pipe and bleed nipple end to end.

The small piston should be the 1st one the rotor sees and the large one is the last.

Steve


humpty - February 5th, 2014 at 11:44 PM

The are Boxter monoblock calipers Steve... They are 4 piston deals with all equal sized pistons as far as I know.... They were marked left and right when I pulled them from the box.... But I will check that idea, and have a go at the cracking of the bleed nipples this weekend.

Rebuild kits are being hunted down as we speak.

Cheers for your replies folks.


1303Steve - February 6th, 2014 at 08:05 AM

Hi

It should have 36 & 40 mm pistons.

Steve


1303Steve - February 6th, 2014 at 08:27 AM

ps, I realised they were Boxster brakes, I just used the Willwood picture to get across what I meant by the piston position, they use odd size pistons to prevent the long pad from cocking


vlad01 - February 8th, 2014 at 09:40 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by grumble
Quote:
Originally posted by ragged
Try cracking open the bleed nipples to see if there is 1) any residual pressure and 2) the disc then spins freely.

X2 it may not be a caliper problem,possibly master cylinder.



make sure it has the correct pedal free play.

lack of free play on the MC was cause build up of pressure.

Hope that helps.


karmann141 - February 8th, 2014 at 01:36 PM

Try Bigg Red in the UK for rebuild kits - found them to be much cheaper than in Aus. and postage is cheap.

http://biggred.co.uk/onlinestore.php