Installing the Rotors and Calipers

This is the third and final part of the Brembo DIY write-up.

As I mentioned at the outset, there’s nothing particularly difficult about R&R’ing a set of brake caliper and discs, so I am only going to mention the things I found unique to the Brembo GT kit installation.

It’s a matter of preference, but I started installing at the rear, in the same sequence you would bleed the brakes on our cars. That means the following order: right rear, left rear, left front, and right front (different than typical due to position of SBC control unit). Needless to say, before starting I deactivated the SBC system in order to avoid any nasty surprises.

My desire was to retain the disc backing plates, so the first thing I did upon removing the factory caliper and disc was to test fit the larger Brembo disc and check for interference. Sure enough, the backing plate has an odd shape at one point that prevented the Brembo disc from rotating freely:



Using the air cutting tool, I carefully trimmed out the portion creating the interference, and then filed the edges to a smooth finish with a Dremel tool with a small grinding wheel attached.



After confirming the disc fitment after doing the trimming, the final step was to spray the raw metal edges with some flat black Rustoleum paint to prevent rust. After the doing the same steps on the other rear backing plate, both discs fit perfect and rotated freely. Here’s a shot of one of the rears following completion of the installation:



The only trick to installing the front calipers was figuring out that the mounting brackets required the bolts attaching them to the hubs had to be mounted from the outside inward, instead of being mounted from the inside as they are on the factory calipers (this is where it would have been nice to have the installation instructions to save some time). The front backing plate required no trimming; here’s a shot of the front backing plate:



Installation of the front discs and calipers was very straightforward once I sorted out the correct fitment of the mounting brackets. Here’s a picture of one of the fronts following installation:



Here’s a view of the inward side of the rear following installation:



Here’s a view of the inward side of one of the fronts following installation:



Once the discs and calipers were in place, the rest is really doing a basic pad job followed by a pressure bleed. There are a wide variety of pad compounds available to fit the Brembo calipers comprising this kit. After doing a fair amount of research, I finally settled on Ferodo 2500 compound pads, which are considered a light duty racing pad suitable for street use. They heat up quickly, don’t dust badly, and have great initial bite and pedal feel (as much as is possible with SBC). Before installing the pads, the backing plates received a liberal application of CeraTEC lubricant.

Once the pads were all in place, the only step remaining was to bleed the system. Although a perfect bleed requires a Star Diagnostic tool to activate the SBC pump and a high pressure bleeder, I was able to get a very satisfactory bleed using a Motive bleeder. Bleeding to my satisfaction required just under two liters of Mercedes DOT 4+ brake fluid. Following completion of bleeding, it was time to re-inspect for any leaks in the hydraulic system, verify correct torque on all attaching hardware, and do a little surgery on the pad wear sensors. Just to clean up the installation, I snipped off the ends of the wear sensors, stripped the insulation on each of the two wires, and soldered the ends together. These were then covered with heat shrink tubing and tyloked up out of the way. Final step was to take a drive and bed-in the brake pads. There’s lots of info out there about how to do this, so I won’t cover it here.

Here’s a shot of the rear with the wheel remounted:



And here’s how the front looks with the wheel remounted:



After it’s all said and done, was it worth it? Based on the driving I’ve done since the installation, I would say absolutely. The reduction in unsprung weight was immediately obvious to me. But more importantly, the braking performance actually required a brief period to adjust to since the braking performance was noticeably enhanced. Having spent some money to make the car go faster, it only makes sense to help it stop faster too, and the Brembo GT brake set-up does that exceedingly well.

 

Nice write up, it should be a great resource for others. Good job!

 

Excellent work, Thanks for taking the time and effort to make a great post!
Hey Mods this is sticky material.

 

this is one of my favorite mods... Wish these were not so costly!!!! Maybe one day I'll get round yto doing it... Great write up ... Many thanks

Sticky please mods.

 

Great write up!

 

Nice write up. Can you shed some more light on bleeding the sbc system. I need to do mine. How do you deactivate it and bleed it without star.

 

AWESOME writeup! Thanks alot
This belongs in the DIY sticky ....

 

Great writeup and nice brakes!

 

It's awesome that you took the time to do such a great writeup. Sticky material 100%.

But I have a question, are these really that much better than the stock Brembos that come on the E55? Just curious.

And thanks again.

 

Yes.

 

Other than the unsprung weight savings, the braking power is much better than stock.

 

Thanks.

And once again... awesome writeup.