Front brake upgrade and calliper rebuild

[windym]

just picked up a pair of E46 325 callipers from the bay, they had been blasted and looked fairly clean. The problem was they had been blasted without being diss-assembled, @Synclare helped make up my mind to fully strip and rebuild. Fair enough he was right and although I had intended to strip them I figured a full rebuild was well worth it.

They had been glass blasted and the proof of that is the cut in my finger from some glass, when I tried to pull back the seal to have a look at the top of the piston. So in the shed this morning and I set about removing the seals and pistons from the calliper body.

So had a scout on the net and found various ways to do this, in the end I used a pair of pump pliers to us-screw and pull the piston free. Both came out fairly easily with minimal hassle about 15mins on each, the pistons are in good shape no scoring or rust on the barrel.

The marks on this one came off, I will give the insides a clean and polish and the same with the pistons. So removed all the old seals and rubbers then cleaned with petrol, just having lunch then off to buy some de-greaser and paint. Had to order the seal kit so that will be here early next week, will pop some pics of the callipers when sprayed.

Andy

 

[windym]

So got the underside of the callipers painted, just waiting for the paint to dry and I will do the top.

Andy

 

[Stevo7682]

Looking good make sure you get all the paint back out of the piston bores or could cause problems

 

[windym]

Looking good make sure you get all the paint back out of the piston bores or could cause problems

Hi it's blanked off with circular card, still tacky at the mo will put some pics up when they are finished.
Andy

 

[Grumps]

Mine just got an advisory on front brake inbalance. @Brian4 and @t-tony recently helped do my discs and pads and said one of the calipers was a bugger and would need replacing soon. They were right! I was thinking of looking for a pair of reconditioned ones?

 

[Brian4]

@windym the calipers are looking good but the pistons look as if they need replacing as I found to my cost. The part of the piston just caliper side of the grove will rust very quickly and will stick in the caliper especially as you are going to fit new pads and this pushes the piston all the way back.

Pic of my old and new pistons.

 

[windym]

Mine just got an advisory on front brake inbalance. @Brian4 and @t-tony recently helped do my discs and pads and said one of the calipers was a b***** and would need replacing soon. They were right! I was thinking of looking for a pair of reconditioned ones?

Hi, it was talking to @pgunter that made me decide to do this upgrade from 286mm to 300mm front discs. He had purchased a set of callipers,pads and discs ( I,m sure he did a write up of it) and said it defiantly made a difference. So I figured 16 year old car this can only improve it, I intend going for braided hoses and new fluid at the same time these are fitted.

After looking at different websites about brake balance front to rear and talking with Paul about calliper piston sizes. Decided the E46 325 was the way to go, the Z 1.9 and the E46 325 have a single piston of 54mm so there should be no upset in braking ratio. The only difference is the disc diameter, 14mm.

My discs are pretty worn and have a greatly reduced braking surface, so all in if I have worked it out correctly I will gain nearly 41% more braking surface area at the front.

This is how the callipers are looking tonight.

Andy

 

[windym]

@windym the calipers are looking good but the pistons look as if they need replacing as I found to my cost. The part of the piston just caliper side of the grove will rust very quickly and will stick in the caliper especially as you are going to fit new pads and this pushes the piston all the way back.

Pic of my old and new pistons.
View attachment 37746

Hi, my pistons look ok but thinking about it now I may as well do the whole thing and be done. Where did you get your piston kit from?

Andy

 

[Brian4]

Brake parts.
http://brakeparts.co.uk/#!/shop

 

[g8jka]

Looks great, I upgraded the discs and carriers on my 2.0 to allow for 300mm discs and it certainly made a difference. I will probably go for better pads next time as I only fitted cheap ones at the time but even they were an improvement. You may as well changed the pistons whilst you have them stripped.

 

[t-tony]

I'm thinking I need to upgrade my brakes too, so I'm thinking drilled/grooved discs uprated pads and some S/S hoses. Next job on the list.

Tony.

 

[t-tony]

Mine just got an advisory on front brake inbalance. @Brian4 and @t-tony recently helped do my discs and pads and said one of the calipers was a b***** and would need replacing soon. They were right! I was thinking of looking for a pair of reconditioned ones?

I'll see what I can get you some for after the weekend Dave?

Tony.

 

[billz]

I'm thinking I need to upgrade my brakes too, so I'm thinking drilled/grooved discs uprated pads and some S/S hoses. Next job on the list.

Tony.

I have upgraded ours to Drilled and Grooved. Bought them from Mtec Brakes. I did have Brembo Drilled and grooved on our Z3 but the Discs wore after a year so opted for these and so far so good. I just have to fit my Greenstuff pads

 

[t-tony]

Excellent! Cheers for that Bill.

Tony.

 

[NZ00Z3]

I take it that you have 17" wheels? The 325 calibers and disks won't fit in the normal 16" wheels.

 

[windym]

I take it that you have 17" wheels? The 325 calibers and disks won't fit in the normal 16" wheels.

Hi I am running 18,s so no worries.
Andy

 

[g8jka]

I take it that you have 17" wheels? The 325 calibers and disks won't fit in the normal 16" wheels.

Have you tried to fit 16" wheels over them? I ran 16's on mine with no clearance issues at all over 300mm discs, calipers and carriers.

 

[NZ00Z3]

Some 16" wheels struggle with the E46 325 conversions. The E46 330i conversions with the 325 mm disks definitely need 17" wheels.

 

[windym]

So just finished spraying and now leaving to dry, I won't touch them now till Weds so plenty of time. Just ordered all the internals plus bleed nipples, going to order the stainless hoses tomorrow. Does anyone have experience with Black Diamond stainless steel braided brake hoses, or should I stick to Goodrich?

I guess the logical next step is to do the rears, already changed the discs and pads so need to spray the handbrake part of the disc and re-furb the callipers. If anyone has a set of rears they are not using can you let me know, cheers.

Andy

 

[GazHyde]

They look great fitted Andy dropped down to the shed today to have new wishbones fitted, and brought the calipers and new discs with him. Actually the wrong sized discs, but a quick drive to ECP to switch them over and we were OK!

New wishbones...

New calipers, discs and pads...

Braided brake lines too.

Sadly as this point we sprung a leak. Brake fluid started flowing down from behind the arch liners. After removing the arch liners and plastic covers we found that the copper brake line had ruptured. The rupture is hidden away so unless someone noticed the brake fluid leaking it would have gone unnoticed until it split while braking. Scary...

Andy has just gone to halfords to buy some brake line, flaring tools and more braked fluid.