Nice write-up, grant. *NM*

for those of you who were not watching the previous thread, i was having:

- some very severe taper wear
- some noise
- pretty good performance, but not as solid and smooth as i recall

Marc gave me some very good pointers that brake dust can raise havoc with the pistons. He was right

I did not remove or dis-assemble the front calipers. But I did clean the heck out of the pistons, dust boots and general inner area.
I cleaned, moved the pistons in and out, and bathed them in (old) brake fluid until they moved smoothly. I judged this by:

1. if i pushed on (old, thin) pad set in, did the other set move out in unison?
2. If i pushed one piston in, did its "brother" move out in unison, and vice versa. Little push-pull pairs.

Once they did i put all back together, installed new pads (Stoptech 309w - any opinions?) , bled, and bedded.

Bedding was fun. try to find a place where you can go 0-60-10-60-10-60-10-60-10-60....without causing trouble.

In the end it really does feel better. I didn't know much was wrong, but now i remember what new felt like. Still some noise, but that may well be from the rear where i still have the older pads, with their loose, odd backing plates (Pagid OEM). I did not like those pads - inferior to the Brembo OEM and Textar OEMs.

So, the moral of the story is to clean dust out of your calipers, lubricate them with brake fluid whenever you do service (change pads, flush etc.) and keep them moving freely!

Now i have the P-car back together and the Audi is really in pieces....

Grant

Pretty much sums up Marc contributions to this board; "Marc gave me some very good pointers... He was right"

I had to do the brakes on the Ford today. It makes me appreciate how well Porsche understands routine maintenance. The Boxster brakes are so easy to work on! The Ford mechanism was much better than my daughters VW Bettle in my opinion.

Impossible to get the calipers off for starters. Dis-assembly of the calipers (floating, although about the best floating mech i've ever seen) is also a bear. I just rounded off a star nut (decided to re-grease by force and call that one a day). Bleeder nipples seize regularly. etc. The Porsche brembos are a pleasure to work on.

OTOH the S6's "HP2" calipers ( a weird, btu excellent Lucas design) have given me trouble free service and smooth, easily modulated stops. Few sedans or wagons can say that!

A tired, greasy, Grant.