Brembo refurb/conversion

[stu]

I've had my '99 facelift VR-4 for nearly 12 months now and after getting at pair of front brembo calipers from an evo 9, I have now managed to get the rear pair from an evo 8.
Here's what they looked like after a good clean with some soapy water.

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After closer inspection apart from the peeling lacquer and some minor chips, I found that all of the front seals and one of the rear were damaged. The front anti-rattle shims, springs and pins were missing,
the rear pins and all of the bleed nipples were corroded. So after attempting to remove the paint with paint stripper and no luck , it was off to the soda blasters. And this was the result.

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While these were at the soda blasters I set about ordering some bits and pieces. These turned up in the last few days.

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Exact Engineering braided hose set.

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The all important red and clear paint, plus brembo stickers.

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Brembo front and rear clip and pin sets plus front anti-rattle shims.

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Brembo bleed nipple covers, stainless bleed nipples, stainless slider bolts, caliper bolts and stainless banjo bolts with copper washers.

Just waiting for rear caliper bolts and dust seals. Hope to get them painted this weekend so hope all goes well and will try and keep you updated.

[Barney]

Looking good.
Best of luck

[Louis]

Very nice, and well worth doing, I like that look after they have been blasted, I would be tempted to leave them like that.

HOw did the piston seal rubbers look after the blasting?

[stu]

HOw did the piston seal rubbers look after the blasting?

The piston seal rubbers were fine after blasting that's why I went for soda blasting, as it is not abrasive and therefore doesn't damage the rubber.

[foxdie]

Anyone know of a professional Brembo caliper refurb service that work on an exchange basis? I'd like to get mine done (and back to red instead of silver).

[adaxo]

What an effort, good job, keep pict of finished job coming, it will be worth it.

BTW. if you could put pricing for parts and source it could be helpful for others (like me) to judge what cost is involve to do similar job.

[horndog]

Anyone know of a professional Brembo caliper refurb service that work on an exchange basis? I'd like to get mine done (and back to red instead of silver).

If you find someone, let me know.
I've been toying with the Idea of having mine done white, even to the extent of bidding for a set on ebay to get refurbed and fitted - so I'm not without the car

http://www.godspeedbrakes.co.uk/ will refurb, but not on exchange - they've got some nice pic's on the MLR

[Nick Mann]

Where have you bought the dust covers? I have a spare set of Brembos needing bleed nipples and dust covers.....

[adaxo]

If you find someone, let me know.
I've been toying with the Idea of having mine done white, even to the extent of bidding for a set on ebay to get refurbed and fitted - so I'm not without the car

http://www.godspeedbrakes.co.uk/ will refurb, but not on exchange - they've got some nice pic's on the MLR

I've still got FL set of front brakes which you can borrow an then get brembos refurbed

[Davezj]

Stuart,
Can you put some prices up and where you got them from.

Great write up so afr though

[stu]

These came in the post this morning.

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Almost their now. Here's a list and some prices of the bits i've bought so far.

Brembo seals (8) for front calipers and seal (1) for rear caliper ------ £ 116.50 inc P&P + VAT -------- www.porschecalipers.co.uk
Brembo front clips and pins set ------------------------------------------ £ 50.55 inc VAT ----------------- www.camskill.co.uk
Brembo rear clips and pins set ------------------------------------------- £ 24.46 inc VAT ----------------- www.camskill.co.uk
Brembo front anti-rattle shims ------------------------------------------- £ 17.95 inc VAT ----------------- www.camskill.co.uk
VR-4 Brembo conversion braided hose set ------------------------------ £ 66.73 inc P&P +VAT ---------- Exact Engineering - Tel : 01803 866464
Brembo stickers ----------------------------------------------------------- £ 10.20 -------------------------- www.lancerregister.com
Stainless steel bleed nipples (8) ----------------------------------------- £ 20.00 inc P&P + VAT ----------www.godspeedbrakes.co.uk
Brembo bleed nipple dust covers (8) ------------------------------------ £ 6.04 inc P&P + VAT ---------- www.moto-racing.co.uk
M6x16 stainless steel socket button screws (16) ----------------------- £ 9.64 inc P&P + VAT ---------- www.taylorsfasteners.co.uk
M12x40 front caliper bolts (4) ------------------------------------------- £ 25.15 inc VAT ----------------- Mitsubishi dealer
Red VHT caliper paint (2) ------------------------------------------------ £ 25.20 inc P&P + VAT --------- Amazon.co.uk (car builder solutions)
Clear VHT caliper paint (2) ---------------------------------------------- £ 20.43 inc P&P + VAT ---------- www.usautomotive.co.uk
Stainless steel banjo bolts (4) & copper washers (8) ------------------ £ 6.00 inc P&P + VAT ----------- HEL - 01392 811601

Hope this is of some help and that I haven't forgotten anything. Please feel free to ask any more questions.
I will try and keep you posted on any further developments.

[Davezj]

that is excellent, i am sure that will help lots of people on there way.

and show them that just because you buy some brembo calipers, that is not the full cost of the conversion.

very well dome Stu.

[stu]

Finally got round to doing the conversion today, more out of necessity than anything else as you can see.

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I completed the refurb of the calipers earlier in the week including assembly of the new seals, brake pads etc , they didn't turn out to bad. I also ordered the discs, pads and brake fluid from CRN on Tuesday and they arrived on Thursday along with a one man brake bleeder I ordered on Wednesday.

So to the installation, front first.

1. I jacked the car up, chocked the rear wheels, put it on axle stands and removed the road wheels.

2. I loosened the brake pipe union nut (17mm and 10mm spanners) on the inner wing on both sides, did both sides just to make sure both came undone rather than doing one side complete then finding there's a problem with the other side. They were well stuck even though I had soaked them in WD40 for two days, but eventually with a bit of heat they came loose.

3. I undid the two caliper retaining bolts (17mm spanner) and tied the caliper up out of the way, just in case there was a problem and I had to retain the stock brakes.

4. I removed the old disc, just a little tap and off it came. Then on with the new disc.

5. Using new bolts (19mm spanner) I tightened the new caliper (108 nm / 80 ftlb) on to the hub.

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6. I then installed the new braided brake line to the caliper with the banjo bolt (14mm spanner. 15nm / 12 ftlb), unfortunately the sliding bulkhead fitting had been installed the wrong way round by the manufacturer but a minor alteration to the bracket on the hub and all was well.

7. Next I disconnected the brake pipe I loosened in step 1. and removed the old caliper and connected the new brake pipe to the fitting on the inner wing, doing it like this I lost minimal brake fluid.

8. I then started bleeding using my one man brake bleeder connected to both bleed nipples (11mm spanner) at the same time. Using the ATE blue brake fluid (1 litre being enough to do the whole car, cheers Nick) it was easy to see when all the old fluid had been drained from the system (cheers Dave).

9. I then did the other side exactly the same way.

10. Back on with the road wheels, lowered to ground and tightened.

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Now the rear.

1. Same as above.

2. Same as above.

3. Same as above, except the caliper retaining bolts require a 14mm spanner.

4. Same as above, just remember to release the handbrake first. I didn't have to release the handbrake shoes, but you may have to through the small hole with a rubber bung in it on the disc.

5. Next I had to remove the metal dust shield that is spot welded to the brake back plate. I carefully chiseled it off, ground down the remains of the spot welds and then sprayed it black.

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6. Same as step 5. above but I had to cut the bolts down in length by 10mm and then using a 17mm spanner tighten to 54nm / 40 ftlb.

7. Same as step 6. above but this time there is no intermediate bulk head fitting.

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8. Same as step 7. above.

9. Same as step 8. above.

10. Same as step 9. above.

11. Same as step 10. above.

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Now just to bed them in, but so far they are awesome. Hope this is of use to somebody, any questions feel free to ask.

[VR4Kaos]

what a write up mate have some rep !! i also tryed to sourse somewere to referb mine to no avail..

[Nick Mann Services]

What are the discs? They look like EBC items. Just curious as EBC say to mount them the other way round to that. Which way grooves should point is a can of worms in itself, but I noticed and couldn't help asking!

Looks good, hope you get to fully appreciate the extra stopping power on track.

[stu]

What are the discs? They look like EBC items. Just curious as EBC say to mount them the other way round to that. Which way grooves should point is a can of worms in itself, but I noticed and couldn't help asking!

Wondered how long it would take, they are just standard CRN discs. Couldn't really find a definitive answer so just stuck them on the way I thought looked best.

ps. The road is my track.

[stu]

All seems fine after a day, the braking is fantastic, the car seems a lot more responsive to drive and the vibration from the nsf seems to have gone. My conclusion is that the nsf caliper was sticking on, it did seem to feel like I was driving with the brakes on.

[MunkyWrench]

are the pins for the left and right the same?
i have a set here ready for powder.
the two sides have different style of clips for the retaining pins.
IIRC one side had a clip, and the other not.

Have I got mismatched calipers?

[Nick Mann]

They changed the style at some point. I think later versions had a friction fitting on the large end of the pin, the earlier versions had the retaining clip on the small end? AFAIK the pins were the only change, the calipers are identical otherwise.

[stu]

Evo 5 - pins and clips. Evo 6,7,8 and 9 just pins.