Check out these two links:

http://www.club202.com/forums/showth...-Chassis/page1

in particular the posts by J Irwan and Speedybenz.

http://www.club202.com/forums/showth...ight=c32+brake

in particular the posts by tpliquid and VIP_MBZ

Unfortunately, the photos in the first link are long gone. They would have gone a long way to explaining what J Irwan did on his car.

I had a good look at my C32 calipers last night, and I think I finally figured out what J Irwan did on his car. I believe he just mounted the left caliper on the left side of the car, and right caliper on the right side of the car, but with the bleeder valves pointed downwards. To do so, he added length to the brakeline by the addition of a fitting, or by custom length hoses.

Reading all of the posts, it seems that to get the bleeder valve to face upwards, others who have done the swap switch the calipers from left to right and vice versa. But doing so means the piston orientation is wrong. The difference is minimal, I think I measured 3mm difference between the larger and smaller pistons.

The correct orientation is to have the disc 'hit' the smaller caliper piston first, before the larger piston. The purpose of the piston stagger is to ensure proper pad wear.

Links:

http://www.wilwood.com/TechTip/TechFaqs.aspx#CP

see under 'calipers'.

also:
http://www.stoptech.com/tech_info/wp...lections.shtml

see #3 under 'summary'.

Now all of that said, it appears that there are plenty of people running the calipers 'improperly' with the piston stagger reversed, and have reported no issues. I speculate that for issues to become apparent, the car needs to be pushed quite a bit, but not with just lazy, every day driving.

The calipers I bought, from an eBay seller, came with a couple of small aluminum fittings, 'J' shaped, to effectively extend the brakeline length, and also to point it in the right direction.

Once my ABS pump comes in, I will have a go at ripping out the stock stuff and installing all the new components with J Irwan's suggestion. The backup position will be to just install the calipers 'improperly' until I figure something else out.

Any thoughts?

 

Hey Saabo.
Let us us know how it turns out!
I'm going to buy my new rotors soon and then I can do the swap.

Bleeding valves pointing down makes problems when the brakes are getting bleeded.
My personal mechanic whom fitted my SS braids said bleedvalves must point upwards otherwise there will be trouble with airpockets in the brake system.
All guys doing this mod reversed those calipers and had them fitted uncorrectly.
Maybe there won't be such a big problem if the larger piston starts working first and the smaller comes after?
There would have been reports about this on the forums, if something had happen with the car and the driver?
Hopefully not.

 

Well, as Speedybenz pointed out in one of his posts in the club202 link, one could just bleed the calipers with them not mounted to the hub, and just place old pads or some other suitable spacer to prevent the pistons from coming right out of the caliper itself. Not a big deal. A bit more troublesome, but not a huge problem.

I also forgot to point out that the guy who sold me the calipers said they were previously used on a W124. Could be those cars need the same sort of mods to fit as the 202?

Attaching a quick scribbled diagram, quality equal to that of Ikea instructions! I think this is the way things should be, just have to double check on the line length.

 

i have 2 brembos waiting for you ladies

 

it's the bottom sketch marked X that will be on our C43's.
That's what youre saying?
Bleeding nipple ontop of the caliper, Larger valve upper place and smaller valve down if the correct caliper is placed backwards

 

No, the bottom sketch marked with 'X' leads to the incorrect piston orientation, but correct bleeder valve position. I am attempting to go with the middle sketch, with the correct piston orientation, but the incorrect bleeder valve position - hence the check mark for the correct piston orientation.

Then I will just have to bleed with the caliper not mounted. I will take the correct piston orientation over the incorrect bleeder valve location and deal with the latter. I figure the brakes are used constantly, but the bleeder valve only once in a while.

 

Anyone happen to know the PN# of the C32 calipers? I have a hunch they may be the same as ML55/ML500. C32 uses a 345mm rotor correct?

 

I can get you the Brembo numbers that are cast into the caliper once I get home, but I don't think there is a Mercedes number on them.

I think 320 Dreamer mentioned that the ML55 calipers won't bolt up to the 202. But I understand that the C32/C55/CLK500 use the same caliper, it's just that the CLK500 calipers aren't painted silver and do not have the AMG logo on them, but are rather just grey and say 'Mercedes-Benz' on them. They all use a 345mm disc though, as far as I understand.

Be careful if trying to buy them new. I had ordered a pair of new calipers from mbpartswarehouse.com, but had to return them as they turned out to be single piston calipers from some other W203 application (I believe).

I've got a pair of Mercedes/Brembo 4-piston calipers from an 02 S500 to suit 330mm discs available for sale if anyone is interested.

 

If you exchange left/right caliper you have around 75% braking power on first piston... not good.
You need to keep site and drill a hole for bleeding piston. Some calipers have alredy a hole on both ends.

But why to exchange the good C43 brakes with the worse C32 brakes?

 

I agree, apart from going the real Brembo way, keep the C43 brakes. I admit the rotors are expensive but that's the price to pay to have good brakes.

 

The C32 calipers are made by Brembo! And I believe just about all of the other factory AMG calipers are also by Brembo.

I have a brake fetish, hence the mod. I would be kicking myself if I never did it, knowing that they are fundamentally a bolt on without major modifications. On both my old Saabs and my S2000, I have enjoyed the pedal feel with multi piston calipers as opposed to the factory single piston sliding caliper. And cost - what I paid for the C32 calipers, rotors and pads is just a bit more than buying just new C43 rotors and pads. Nuts.

While I admire the fact that AMG installed the expensive rotors onto the C43, there is probably a larger expense in fitting multi piston calipers to the W203s. I'll live with the weight increase, and maybe try to deal with it by acquiring lighter wheels later. At any rate, the weight should be offset once the 55 engine is in the car.

 

Did you feel like your car was getting more vibration through the steering wheel after installing the C32 brakes?