New discs for 996, suggestions?

[magriggs]

I have a feeling that the front discs on my car are on their way out. They've previous been treated by the OPC for corrosion. They don't feel good under light or heavy braking.

How many hours of labour are required to replace 996 discs?

[rods]

Maybe 30 mins a corner,get your local garage/indy to do them.

Rob

[paulburrell]

When you say they don't feel good under light or heavy braking, what are the symptoms. The old OPC trick of "tha discs are corroded therefore they should be changed" is a tried and tested method for them to make money. A little surface rust is inevitable if the car stands around in the wet for any more than a day. Take it for a spin and the rust disappears. When were the discs lat changed?

If the brakes aren't working properly then I would be more suspicious at first of the brake pads or maybe the brake fluid. When were they last changed??

[thong]

magriggs said:

I have a feeling that the front discs on my car are on their way out. They've previous been treated by the OPC for corrosion. They don't feel good under light or heavy braking. How many hours of labour are required to replace 996 discs?

Fitted many of these:-),its a easy job the only thing is make sure you have a 10mm allen key to fit the caliper bolts.

[damianc4s]

thong said:

magriggs said: I have a feeling that the front discs on my car are on their way out. They've previous been treated by the OPC for corrosion. They don't feel good under light or heavy braking. How many hours of labour are required to replace 996 discs? Fitted many of these:-),its a easy job the only thing is make sure you have a 10mm allen key to fit the caliper bolts.

Make sure you get replacement bolts from your OPC.

[mikeg996]

paulburrell said:

When you say they don't feel good under light or heavy braking, what are the symptoms. The old OPC trick of "tha discs are corroded therefore they should be changed" is a tried and tested method for them to make money. A little surface rust is inevitable if the car stands around in the wet for any more than a day. Take it for a spin and the rust disappears. When were the discs lat changed? If the brakes aren't working properly then I would be more suspicious at first of the brake pads or maybe the brake fluid. When were they last changed??

There's way too much pedal travel (probably 1" maybe more) before the brakes even kick in. Once they do, they're far from convincing. My 3 series coupe had sharper brakes, which is saying something Full-on emergency stop braking isn't convincing either.

Nothing in the history suggests it's had new discs or pads, but the OPC did mention that the discs had been treated for corrosion in the past. I've got a Porsche indy round the corner, I'll drop it in there. He reckons £50 to take a look at it, and probably around £1000 for a new set of discs and pads. That seemed a bit much to me, given that parts prices should be around £500 or so.

[996C4]

Just has all disks and pads done at Northway on my 996 C4. £1000 all in (with a small amount of work on a seal). Great service and good people.

[paulburrell]

Mike

If your local indie is JZM then you can trust them to give you an honest and professional assessment of the problem.

If you don't want to take it to a garage then I would look at the amount of pad material you have left on the fronts, if your wear indicators are working then this should not be a problem. It could be that your fluid needs changing but short of actually changing it, I guess a garage would be best placed to check it's water content and see whether it needs changing. When does your service record say that the fluid was last changed?
Do the discs look badly scored? Normally the fronts take much more hammer than the rears and if it is the case that the discs are too thin then you might get away with just changing the fronts. The rears tend to go on for ever.

Just a few suggestions.

Hope you find a solution soon.

Steve


Steve

[richardb.jones]

I think you're probably mistaking brakes with 'feel' vs snappy servo assisted brakes on the BMW. I have both marques so I'm not putting down either. Porsche brakes are designed to let you progressively apply braking pressure - in order to do this, the servo assistance is balanced way lower then say a BMW 3 series. That's the difference you feel, try the brakes on a track - you will thank Porsche (well Brembo actually but you know what I mean). Of course, it may well be old fluid giving you a spongy pedal and new fluid will most certainly firm this up a bit for you, but it will do little to make you push with less force on the pedal vs the BMW. One other thing to check : that pads haven't been replaced with 'racing' pads, which are harder and need heating up significantly to work properly = not good for road use. Hope this helps ... Richard.

[mikeg996]

Thanks to all three of you chaps, useful info.

[gfreeman]

richardb.jones said:

I think you're probably mistaking brakes with 'feel' vs snappy servo assisted brakes on the BMW. I have both marques so I'm not putting down either. Porsche brakes are designed to let you progressively apply braking pressure - in order to do this, the servo assistance is balanced way lower then say a BMW 3 series. That's the difference you feel, try the brakes on a track - you will thank Porsche (well Brembo actually but you know what I mean). Of course, it may well be old fluid giving you a spongy pedal and new fluid will most certainly firm this up a bit for you, but it will do little to make you push with less force on the pedal vs the BMW. One other thing to check : that pads haven't been replaced with 'racing' pads, which are harder and need heating up significantly to work properly = not good for road use. Hope this helps ... Richard.

Spot on... the best example is shown by driving my girlfriends vauxhall on a monday morning.... head for roundabout, jam on anchors at last minute then peel her off the windscreen not forgetting to give apologetic wave to the guy who shat hisself as he was already on the roundabout as you shoot past his front in a cloud of blue smoke.

Only slightly exaggerated for best comic effect.....

Go drive someone elses or take it to a good indie. Your brakes may actually be the Pork norm.

[mikeg996]

Indie chap round the corner had a look at it today, said there was nothing wrong with the pads and the fluid was OK> The discs have some rust on the insides, which he reckons might be contributing to poor "feel". He seemed adamant that the thing would stop if I stamped on the anchors. Not entirely my experience the last time I followed somebody with dodgy brakelights...

We shall see.

[mikeg996]

Quick update to this: when I dropped the car in to the OPC to investigate the clonking suspension, I asked them to have a look at the brake discs. They said there was rust on the back, but it wasn't worth skimming them. I've given it a few more emergency stops since then and things are improving greatly. I also spoke to the previous owner who said that he found them much better once they had some heat in them.

Moral of the story: if you buy someone's weekend "fun" car, make sure you give the brakes some serious stick to clean them up.