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Brembo Race Caliper Maintenance

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I inherited a used Brembo race kit (Pro Series, 14") from a good friend for my dual use 2013, and have been running it for a little over a season now. I was wondering how cautious I should be with maintenance on these, being as they have no external dust boots. It is street driven on weekends, not in snow or with road salt, etc. Otherwise it's HPDE events on 305 street tires, no R comps.

I think Brembo recommends a rebuild every 6000km, but I'm guessing that's for pure race teams and a bit overkill for me. Is there a good rule of thumb from those of you using them, or inspection process? On my factory Brembo calipers the external dust seals were gone after a track day or two, and they held up fine and never failed. Regardless, I'd hate to learn what failed internal caliper seals feels like :eek:
 
Welcome to TMO and great first question!
 
Thanks guys :) A lot of good information on here and mature discussion, nice change of pace from some other places not to be named ;D
 

TMSBOSS

Spending my pension on car parts and track fees.
7,529
5,242
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Illinois
Lucky

I am not running the same caliper as you. (Budget Constraints, LOL)

I have the Stock Brembo's. After about 15 track days I tore my apart and found little to no wear or issues. I put in a new set of o-rings and dust covers and called it good. I did add screw in bleeder inserts to keep the wear away from the aluminum housing. The steel seats with the Aluminum caliper and all wear is limited to the insert. Unsure if your calipers have these insert already.

On a hard driven car, an annual teardown and replacement of soft parts should be more than adequate.

You are correct, mature discussions across this board. Other sites are a great place for clowns to take anonymous shots at others. That just does not happen here. This site is mostly member policed and run by serious folks who want to enjoy a sport and not have to sift through remarks from over aged children.

Welcome to the site and I hope this info is helpful.
 

captdistraction

GrumpyRacer
1,954
1,698
Phoenix, Az
I've worked with some teams that were incredibly hard on brakes, and only twice have I seen a seal fail, both on Stoptech ST40R calipers that were overworked and went too long between maintenance cycles. That being said, the failures allowed fluid to drip out and onto the rotor surface and the driver would report soft brakes and ability to bring the pedal to the floor but still had usable stopping force.

I'd recommend an annual teardown (its relatively easy to do) as well.
 
If I had those brakes, I'd inspect them annually. Just unbolt the caliper from the mount, spray a little brake cleaner and take a peak at the piston seals. I don't think you need to disconnect the brake hose to do an inspection.
 
Thank you for sharing your experience and advice everyone, I definitely appreciate it. I'll be sure to keep an eye on things, and tackle a tear-down sooner rather than later. Also, if anyone has a chance to snag a set used...they are awesome. Stopping power is great, pad selection is amazing, but having 25mm pads is the best of all (and the PFC compound I run costs less than factory Brembo pads)
 
6,360
8,180
Our Brembos have been virtually trouble free, we do routine maintenance before every race, keeping the "pins" lubed seems to be the key to a trouble free operation.
 

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