Salty's 2005 330Ci ZHP Jet Black Coupe Restore

[SaltyNC]

The remanufactured calipers I ordered came in, and I was able to get them swapped out this afternoon. I only had to hold a flashlight in my teeth for the last 10 minutes.

My left (driver side) front caliper was sticking. The rotor looked OK, so I ordered some remanufactured calipers from BavAuto. They carry the Nugeon calipers. BavAuto says they don't come with brackets, because Nugeon often ships the wrong bracket with the caliper, but I hit the jackpot, and both calipers had the correct bracket. I guess they do a hot wash or sandblast these things, because they look brand new, and they are the original equipment BMW Ate calipers and brackets. Nugeon replaces the rubber guide bolt boots and caps, the guide bolts, the piston and piston boot, the anti-rattle clip, and the bleed nipple. Nugeon's rubber boots were very soft, and the cap didn't want to stay on, so I swapped them with my original Ate boots and caps. Much better, and the rubber looked perfectly fine after all these years. I also swapped the bleed nipple. The one they include uses a smaller nut, and it looked inferior, so I swapped over the OE nipples. I did use their included anti-rattle clips.

Here is why my caliper was sticking. The boot had failed allowing moisture to rust the piston:


While I had this caliper hanging, it was leaking very slowly, and so after two days, I was worried I would drain the master cylinder, so I ran to AutoZone to see if they carried something just to top up until my Ate fluid came in. They had Pentosin DOT4 LV for $16, but they had Bosch for ~$7. I went with the Bosch. After researching the Bosch, I was shocked at how good it is. Maybe they priced it wrong, but the specs on this Bosch fluid are great, and it's very low viscosity. It interestingly comes in the exact same container as Ate fluid. It has nearly the boiling points of Ate Type 200, but has superior anti-corrosion properties. Ate now has an SL6 fluid that is similar. These are probably both made in the same factory with slightly different formulations.

https://www.boschautoparts.com/docum...0-91edb62866a3
https://www.lelandwest.com/brake-flu...ow=1&SF=3&ST=2


It's so nice having clean brake parts, so I took advantage and degreased them, then painted them black before putting them on the car.


I had ordered some stainless steel brake lines, but they won't be here for a few more days, and since the calipers arrived so quickly, I decided to put them back on, and I'll do the stainless lines when they arrive. It's very quick to swap lines, and I need to do a complete brake flush anyway, so I'll do all that at one time.

For today, I replaced both front brake calipers and brackets.

If anyone is doing this soon, here are some handy torque values:
Front Caliper Bracket Bolts - 16mm: 81 ft lbs (have fun getting those loose the first time)
Caliper Guide Bolts - 7mm allen (int hex) - 22 ft lbs - BMW recommends running them with no lubrication inside rubber boot
Front Hard Line to Brake Line - 11mm (use flare nut wrench)
Brake Line to Front Caliper - 14mm (use flare nut wrench)
OE Bleed nipple - 9mm

Car sat in the rain for two days waiting on calipers, but that rust was gone after the first test drive. The paint is gloss black, and it's reflecting the blue shop towels in these photos.


Now I need to finish up my tie rod job. The right passenger side is installed, but I still need to do the driver side, and then do a quick and dirty alignment job until I can get it into the shop.

Salty