Photo Essay - Fitting Brembo Brakes

[PhilMeUp]

Part 1 - Front Brakes

6th September, 2011

The front setup was fitted to the car on the same night that the control arm bushes were all replaced.

DBA list the DBA5000 rotors on their web site for around $800 each, so when I found a pair secondhand for a small fraction of that I bought them as soon as I could. These are a two piece rotor, using an aircraft aluminium centre. The two piece design makes them lighter than one-piece units, and the aluminium runs a lot cooler, resulting in much less heat on the wheel bearing hubs.

For brake pads, I went with Hawk Performance ceramic pads that I bought via mail order from the US. I spent many hours looking through web forums trying to work out which pads would put out the least amount of dust, and the Hawk ceramic pads were frequently recommended for this. Next time I'll buy them locally, but I also wanted some other things from a particular US retailer so bought these to make up the order.

They look small in the photo but these are massive calipers, especially the front ones. They are also extremely heavy. I'll be using braided lines instead of the standard Brembo rubber ones. I got lucky with buying these (via eBay) as the person that sold them to me originally bought them for his ute (ie leaf spring back end, same as my wagon). This meant that the brackets on the rear ones were the correct ones for my wagon, and everything bolted on just how it should.

Starting the job, here is most of the front brake on one side. The caliper is still on the car (keeping the brake fluid contained, for now).

A quick check to see one of the front disc rotors in place. Then it's on to fitting the braided brake line.

The Goodridge braided brake line has now been fitted and the caliper bolted on. Everything fitted correctly the first time.

This photo shows the routing of the braided brake line, before the caliper was bolted on.

Fitting the brake lines was easy enough - undo the nut the top of the line, pull a clip out and do the same in reverse with the new brake line.

The finished setup on the passenger side.

The matching finished setup on the driver's side.

Ready to put the wheels back on. There is a rear caliper bolted on in this photo, but that was just to check the bracket and wheel clearance. Front and back ends were both checked to ensure that the wheels would clear each caliper.

Photos like this don't really show the clearance between the wheel spokes and caliper, but I had a go

Another photo of the finished setup.

This photo sort-of shows the clearance between wheel spoke and caliper. By now there were new calipers, new pads new brake lines and secondhand disc rotors.

The finished setup on the driver's side.

The finished job, ready to leave the workshop. It looks worlds better than a few hours earlier.

Now it was time to go for a drive and wear the pads in. It took a day or two for the pads to wear into shape and match the disc rotors. The original plan was to fit the rear Brembo setup on the same night, but this couldn't be done because the brake line supplier had sent the wrong rear lines (despite me making it very clear what lines I required).

[PhilMeUp]

Part 2 - Rear Brakes

19th September, 2011

Two weeks after replacing the front control arm bushes and fitting the front Brembo brakes, it was finally time to fit the rear setup. It took some stuffing around, but I finally managed to get the correct Goodridge braided rear brake lines.

The rear calipers in the box, ready to be fitted. The rubber brake lines were replaced with Goodridge braided lines.

To get to the brake line mounting brackets, the rear shock absorbers had to be unbolted. This also meant that I could get a photo of the part number so that I know what to order if I use the same stuff when these ones wear out.

The rear axle and handbrake, after the standard caliper and disc rotor have been removed.

Removing one of the standard rear brake lines. Drill out a rivet and the bracket comes away from the rest of the car.

The new bracket then goes into place and is rivetted to the car.

The passenger side rear brake line in place.

The driver side rear brake line in place.

A closeup photo of one of the rear brake line mounting brackets. The rear lines for a wagon or ute are different to the sedan ones. If anyone is planning on putting braided rear lines on a wagon or ute, you need to get the brake lines with these brackets on them.

Another photo of one of the rear brake line mounting brackets. The circlips for the rear lines weren't in the packet, so a small clamp was used on the other side of the bracket to hold the brake line in place until I can get some suitable circlips.

One of the rear disc rotors in place. You can also see how I had used a wire brush on a cordless drill to make sure that the outer edge was clear of rust. This was to ensure no interference between the disc rotor and wheel.

All the parts are in place and it's time to bleed the brake line.

The nearly completed setup on the passenger side.

The plastic brake line guide (the red plastic thing) wasn't suitable, so a rubber protective shield was put together and the whole lot secured to the leaf spring. Part of doing this was to prevent the brake line from flopping around and getting damaged.

An overview photo of the completed brake line and mounting bracket setup.

I didn't use any of the Brembo pads that came with the calipers. These are known for producing a lot of brake dust, so I had researched and bought other pads earlier (ie the Hawk Performance ceramic pads). You can see the copper grease on the outer edges - where the pad sits in the caliper - to prevent brake noise. For my pads, I used some stuff called "Bendix Ceramic High Performance Synthetic Lubricant" on all the pads instead.

The finished job on the passenger side. The car now has a complete set of new front control arm bushes, along with a 6 piston front and 4 piston rear brake setup.

[Ciaran]

Nice job man, very helpful for all the DIY guys out there.

I'd try give it a shot, but haven't the place nor tools to do it :( (or complete understanding yet haha)

[PhilMeUp]

Last week the car had to go through it's annual Department of Transport inspection. I wanted to make sure that the car would pass on the first attempt so made some phone calls and ended up talking to a guy call Phil (same name as me), who oversees modification permits for the DOT (and therefore is the expert on what is and is not legal).

I took my laptop to him with photos of the braking system on this car. His first concern was the legality of the brake calipers - they would have to be tested and certified by an suitably qualified automotive engineer. However, when I explained that these are are same callipers that are used by Ford on FPV Falcons then that meant that these calipers could be classified as a "manufacturer option", meaning that Ford/FPV had already had them certified.

The problem that Phil had was the mounting of the rear brake lines. The braided lines that I bought from Goodridge last year are too long, so have been securely zip-tied to the top of the leaf spring on each side. It doesn't look particularly good, but 52,000km later there has not been a single problem and it has proven to be safe. The response from Phil was that he wasn't particularly pleased about having brake lines mounted to the leaf springs but if I had any trouble at the inspection then to get the examiner to give him a call.

ie:

Sure enough, the brake lines were an issue at the examination. I got a guy who was determined to fail the car for whatever he could. I asked him to call Phil, but he refused to do so.

So, the next day I was back to see Phil at his office. Now that the car had been failed by someone, his attitude was entirely different. What was acceptable a few days earlier was now completely unacceptable. Welcome to government departments.

So, on Thursday night I resigned myself to pulling all the Brembo and associated stuff off the car and putting standard stuff back on. A phone call to CompFriction (where I got the brake lines from) got a good amount of interest from Dave, who was more than happy to make some shorter lines once I explained how much trouble these ones had now caused. But they wouldn't arrive in Perth in time.

I managed to find a last minute cancellation and got the car passed on Friday morning. The registration expired on Sunday, so there was considerable pressure to get it cleared on Friday. What should have been a simple process was made stupidly difficult - I'll be keeping away from that particular inspection centre in future.

So, back to normal life. After having this top-of-the-range brake setup for months I was now pretty disgusted about having standard stuff back on the car, even if it was only going to be for a few days. Oh, I was miffed.

Luckily, I had kept all the original stuff boxed up in the shed. Not being in an overwhelmingly good mood at the time, I wasn't fussed about how much mess I made with brake fluid (everything got degreased and cleaned when I finished though).

And then….

Oh crap. Someone ran a stop sign, resulting in a very damaged car and some troubles with the insurance company about writing the car off and ownership of the wreck.

To be continued...

[helbz]

What a nightmare ! ...

[winstor]

Wait...you ran the stop sign or someone else did?

Also Phil, I know you probably have a sh*tload on your plate now, but do you rekon you could do us a favour?

I need to know what the bolt size and pitch is on the rear Brembo bolts that mount the caliper to the mounting brackets.

[PhilMeUp]

I need to know what the bolt size and pitch is on the rear Brembo bolts that mount the caliper to the mounting brackets.

For both front and rear Brembo calipers, I'm using the standard bolts that hold the standard calipers on.

[winstor]

Yeh I am after the bolt size of what attaches the caliper to the mounting bracket, not the bracket to the car.

The bolts that bolth through the caliper.

Edited 04/03/12 03:30 AM by winstor

[XR6menace]

Excellant write up Phil .. many thanx ..