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I’m thinking of replacing my front calipers as I always seem to have uneven brade pad wear and strange noise coming from the front under hard braking.
How do you tell if you have ATE or Girling? I understood both were OEM? Can I switch types without any other changes? Is one better than the other? Are "remanufactured? as good as buying new? When you buy remanufactured does it include the pad carrier as well?
thanks for the info.
Keith
Keith - the manufacturer is on the caliper body. The girling is pretty prominent, the ATE is a little harder to find. The ATEs had the female hex bolts the Girling a hex bolt with an inner and outer nut surrounding the pad carrier. We have 2 '87s and one has Girling/the other ATE. We rebuilt all of the calipers ourselves with inexpensive rebuild kits - it made a big difference in brake feel. I will let others weigh in on the pad carrier issue - my guess is no.
Ed
The ATE are hard to find. I have been looking for a set of used cals. What makes the ATE’s better is changing to solid brake guides. Bimmerworld has them https://secure19.nexternal.com/shared/StoreFront/default.asp?CS=bimmerworl&BusType=BtoC&Count1=508098781&Count2=425239205&CategoryID=30&Target=products.asp
The guides give more even brake pad wear. You can buy new or remanufactor cals for around $150 each, then the cost of the sold brake guides. Without the guides I’m not aware of any other benefit ATE have over the girlings. If you do find a set of used cals you can rebuild them for a fraction of the cost over new or reman. It depends what you paid for the used cals though. Most likely I will buy a set of reman.
Found it… GIRLING it is.
I’m kinda hesitant to rebuild a caliper without some guidance. Are there any good DIY instructions with the rebuild kits? Scale of 1 - 10 care to say where a caliper rebuild falls? Seems like the rebuilds are around $60 so that’s not bad.
I assume the guide pin is not part of the remfg. caliper however. Is there a rebuild kit for that as well?
Thanks.
Keith
smithk3933 wrote:
[quote]Found it… GIRLING it is.
I’m kinda hesitant to rebuild a caliper without some guidance. Are there any good DIY instructions with the rebuild kits? Scale of 1 - 10 care to say where a caliper rebuild falls? Seems like the rebuilds are around $60 so that’s not bad.
I assume the guide pin is not part of the remfg. caliper however. Is there a rebuild kit for that as well?
Thanks.
Keith[/quote]
Rebuilding brake calipers on a race car is not something you want to guess at. For $60 each, I’d go with the reman’ed calipers.
Sorry, can’t say if they include guide pins or not. New pins are not too expensive IIRC. Check with www.bmaparts.com or some of the other "usual suspect" suppliers for OEM stuff.
Bret.
yeahhh, solid guide pin bushings are not legal
cheers,
bruce
bmwbadboy wrote:
[quote]The ATE are hard to find. I have been looking for a set of used cals. What makes the ATE’s better is changing to solid brake guides. Bimmerworld has them https://secure19.nexternal.com/shared/StoreFront/default.asp?CS=bimmerworl&BusType=BtoC&Count1=508098781&Count2=425239205&CategoryID=30&Target=products.asp
The guides give more even brake pad wear. You can buy new or remanufactor cals for around $150 each, then the cost of the sold brake guides. Without the guides I’m not aware of any other benefit ATE have over the girlings. If you do find a set of used cals you can rebuild them for a fraction of the cost over new or reman. It depends what you paid for the used cals though. Most likely I will buy a set of reman.[/quote]
The actual rebuilding of the caliper is about a 2. Now, removing the wheel, Caliper, putting back together, and bleeding the brake system is about a 3.
All you get in a rebuild kit is a large O-ring and the dust boot. I typically push the piston out of the caliper with the caliper still attached to the braking system. Just use the brake pedal and have something to catch the fluid after the piston pops out. You then remove the old dust boot and the old O-ring. Depending on condition of the cylinder and piston, you can use a brake caliper hone and clean up the cylinder and some kind of lightly abrasive scrubbing pad to clean the piston. Coat the piston with some brake fluid to lubricate it for install. Next install the new O-ring, put the dust boot on the cylinder from the bottom of the cylinder and pull it upward so that the bottom of the boot is below the piston. install the bottom of the dust boot into the ring around the top of the cylinder and then guide the piston into the cylinder being careful no to bind it. Once everything is lined up I use a C clamp to push the piston into the cylinder. As the cylinder is installed the dust boot will move up the piston to its resting place near the top.
All this is actually easier than it sounds. I can be done in about 15 min and I have done it many times at the track without any problems. The kits are about $10 from Autozone as well as other places. This is something that I replace a few times a season. If I get in a hurry sometimes I just don’t install the dust boot. Race calipers often do not have the dust boot as they are expected to be rebuild often.
Good Luck
Michael O.
Keith,
Michael wrote a good writeup - I agree that brake caliper rebuilding isn’t all that bad, and I’d recommend doing this kind of work yourself if you’re racing. I like to be familiar with the technical parts of the car.
If you feel squeamish about pressing the pedal without pads in the caliper, you can also spray compressed air into the caliper to force the piston out. Use a block of wood on the other side, so that the piston doesn’t go shooting out, and keep your fingers clear.
Another important thing to remember when rebuildling, or even just reassembling your brakes is to lube your guide pins. I use anti-sieze compound, and make sure the pins slide freely. I think this is vital in preventing uneven pad wear.
And yes, the Bimmerworld brass guide pins are great, but they are illegal for Spec E30.
Good luck!
-Vic
OH/IN Regional Director
Well I checked with the local BMW dealer and they don’t list the guide pin and bushing separate from the carrier. The bad news is they can get me a carrier for only… $140 each! Ouch!!! I think I will try to lubricate them good to start with and see if that helps the pad wear. I assume they just slide in to the carrier…
Keith
smithk3933 wrote:
That doesn’t sound right. From what I see on realoem, the guide bushing is available for either caliper type. It is listed as a "REPAIR KIT GUIDE BUSH"
OK… I just ordered a set with a BMW Part number of: 34111161936 from the parts breakdown shown on REALOEM.COM. $40 for the pair… fingers crossed I get what I need.
Keith
If you have mechanical ability, rebuilding calipers is fairly easy. I’m rebuilding a set rear ATE cals. I wouldn’t worry about replacing the caliper guide bolt unless its damaged, (bent, cracked, threads stripped.) It’s just a solid piece of steel. They are too expensive to just replace if they were a buck, thats a no brainer, The rear ATE pins are about $17 each. The pistons can be replaced if they show any visible damage, rust etc. I found a bunch of info on rebuilding cals on the net. About the only place you can find new caliper pistons is from bimmerworld. FYI, I found the supplier for those pistons to bimmerworld and he’s about half the price.