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Ok. Got the calipers done today. Overall pretty smooth except for one thing...
First here are the brakes all repainted. My clear coat didn’t turn out as nice as I would have liked (a little hazy), but whatever. 3 coats of paint, 2 coats of clear, cured for an hour at 250F then another 30min at 300F for good measure. Should be durable at least.
Here’s the new RacingBrake hardware. Stainless steel vented pistons, dust boots and oil seals. Shiny.
High temp blue silicone dust boots pop right on the pistons. Easy.
Using the Centric brake caliper assembly lube for the oil seals and cylinder walls. Do NOT use brake fluid to lube everything up because it’ll destroy the dust boots. Plus this stuff is more slippery. Clean the piston bores, lube up, the oil seals click right in. Lube the pistons up and insert slowly. They should slide right in down to the oil seals with zero effort. One of my piston bores that was a little gouged had to be sanded a bit for the new piston to slide in unimpeded. Once they’re at the oil seal, rotate back and forth with a little pressure and the piston should slide to the bottom of the bore. So far so good.
Assembled calipers. New bleeders too. BUT, let’s look more closely.....
These fukin dust boots are the bane of my existence. I can’t get them to fully seat no matter what I do. They’ll seat on the horizontal insides, but on the verticals they’re clearly not all the way in there. I fought with it for an hour and gave up. If anyone has a trick here I’m all ears.
On to the air injection removal (maybe) and brake duct routing tomorrow....
hey Jim,
do you have any feedback on the stainless vented pistons? also how much did they run you? I may be looking into doing the same as I've cooked my fluid after 2 sessions at Laguna Seca. also, what are your thoughts on the Carbotech XP12 you're running? I'm thinking of upping my fronts to XP24 and keeping the rears XP12.
2012 P31 C63 Coupe Trackrat, 2019 GLE63S Coupe Beast
Originally Posted by hachiroku
hey Jim,
do you have any feedback on the stainless vented pistons? also how much did they run you? I may be looking into doing the same as I've cooked my fluid after 2 sessions at Laguna Seca. also, what are your thoughts on the Carbotech XP12 you're running? I'm thinking of upping my fronts to XP24 and keeping the rears XP12.
Hey Barry. No feedback on the stainless pistons really but they can’t hurt as far as heat management goes. Got one track day on them and I couldn’t tell any difference which is good. I got them from RacingBrake at whatever retail is for them.
Jealous you got out to Laguna Seca! Hopefully I’ll be able to get up there later this year - bucket list track for sure.
I use SRF also which seems to be the best if you’re worried about boiling your fluid. I also have HardBrakes Ti shims to help keep the heat out of the fluid. Everything together with the BBK means zero issues with boiling.
I’m on my last set of F/R XP12s and have been really happy with them. Moving to a similar GLOC compound next, and will try their 16 on front while keeping 12 in the rear. In my opinion the 24’s would be terrible for the front as it’s a hardcore endurance pad and is going to kill your rotors and not stop as well at the same time.
GLOC R16s on the front - R12s rear... Carbotechs and GLOCs are both great pads...My experience tracking the ‘507’... GLOCs are better than the carbotechs on the track... after running the GLOCs I never when back to Carbotechs! .. GLOCs have a better initial bite, never had any hint of fade... I run them on the street also... NOISY for sure... FYI ... GLOC was started by Carbotechs owner’s two sons...
thanks guys
jim, do you happen to know the piston size or their full dimensions? racingbrake.com sells them by size not application.
as far as Carbotech XP24's I was eyeing these because I'm running my W211 E63 full weight and the XP12s are losing their bite with each lap. I can't blame them, 4200 or more pounds and it's very understandable why they aren't enough for me. very happy I was able to pickup these used from a member here to try out. I wished Ferodo produced their ds3.12 pad compound for our calipers. from the spec sheet, those are I'm looking for in a pad for the amount of weight that I am pushing. moving to 390mm will help with heat as well as titanium shims which I'll be purchasing soon. hardbrakes ti shims...starting at $119.99. I'm thinking to try 390mm with the shims first to see how it goes. if I still am unable to avoid the brake fluid from boiling I'll 100% need the pistons. pretty sure I'll need to go with the piston upgrade though. this boy is husky.
What a car and what a thread, thank you! So much to learn and research, especially about track pads and brake cooling!
On my first s212 track day I warped OEM front rotors and after reading this forum replaced rotors with RacingBrake and XT910 street pads.
Second track event I used RB's [PD1291-3R7] XR70 pads in front front and XT910 (street) rear and brakes held up just fine, although i went through half the front track pad in five 20 min sessions.
Now after reading this thread and learning about Carbotech/GLOC/Ferodo I want to to find and try compatible track pads for s212/w212, after all PD1291-3R7 was listed for "Aston Martin, Cadillac, Chevy, Dodge, Ferrari, Jeep, Mercedes Front w/6-Piston Calipers"
How is this car doing? and any tips on how to make space for these brake ducts? I have been tracking my c63 a lot and have 2.5 hoses and flanges ready to try to tackle this. Thanks
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