So You Want To Retrofit a Porsche Brembo Brake Caliper (aka. The Mistakes I Made)

On my last article, I talked about BBK Retrofit (aka Hack) options available for the E46 M3. If you have read that message you would know that I have done the research and the research is thorough as far as the options you have for an upgraded brake. From the most expensive option with the best solution, to the most affordable with the least brake bias, or the happy James Bond medium. I find it fun to know that we have options to hack 5 different Brembo calipers in order for it to fit our car gem.

Now if you have read my article or the complete guides from build journal you also know that the among all of the BBK (Big Brake Kit) upgrade option for the E46 M3, they all have something in common.

The Rear Option ... The Porsche 996 Rear Brake Caliper.

Whether you decide to choose the French option, the English option or the German option on your front brakes, the rear brake option is unanimous. The best and easiest solution is the Porsche 996 / Boxster S solution. The 996.352.421 (left) and the 996.352.422 (right). If you have done your research, you would know that these two set of numbers are the part number you need to be looking for on eBay for a direct fit to your rear rotors.

But even if you follow the step by step are pictured on BuildJournal, you may encounter some snags. If you are a ///noob like me, then you may encounter more mistakes than some. But this is also the fun of being a beginner. We get to learn from our mistakes, we get to ask the community for the fix which in turn, in the end, we make a new connection from it.

Without further ado, here are the "snags" I encountered as a ///noob while retrofitting the Porsche 996 / Boxster S brake caliper. Let's celebrate them.

Mistake #1: Thinking that the caliper is all you need

Hey, we are all on a budget right? If we are not, then we would probably buy the most latest BMW on a lease with extended warranty embedded into our monthly payment. The reason why we got an E46 M3 is because we want a project car. We want to work on it ourselves, maintain it, and upgrade it with the least amount of budget because we need to set aside some savings just in case something breaks. And naturally it will with an 18 year old car.

I bought my first Porsche 996 Brembo brake caliper on ebay for $100 and the second for $120. Great deal right? What I didn't realize is that just buying the caliiper is not enough. Since the brakes are probably one of the main things that ensures our safety, we want to make sure they are in good condition. Even though other websites will tell you that the caliper is a "direct-fit", they have failed to inform you that not all calipers are in the same condition. And if you want to make sure your caliper from an 18+ year old 180,000k Porsche reacts "like new", you need to retrofit them. And it will cost you.

Caliper Repair Kits

These are the costs to replace the rubber boots that seals the pistons to avoid any leaks. If you are forced to cut off the caliper connecting line (see my next point), then the caliper connecting line would be something you would need to incorporate into your total cost of the caliper retrofit.

The list below includes a few things that you can refresh on your caliper but on most calipers are still in good condition.

Mistake #2: The Caliper Connecting Line.

I hate this thing. And apparently I was not the only one. Even the Porsche community who are literally just trying to retrofit the calipers to repair their Porsches also hate them. It almost feels like Porsche purposely put this connecting line permanently on its hole in order to get an additional $50 when you are trying to fix your calipers.

The connecting line looks like this:

And if you don't pay close attention on the eBay listing, you would get a nightmare connecting line that looks like this (this was mine):

What this means is that the screw is hooked into the caliper and is pretty much stuck on there. Here's what I have done to remove the caliper line in the above picture:

1. Applied penetrating oil

2. Cut the line and used a screw extractor (drill into the middle of the screw and used an extractor to extract the screw out)

3. Torch the caliper to expand the housing

4. Hammer the crap out of the area

5. Using a drill bit to break the screw

None of the attempts above worked. I literally had to scrap this $100 caliper and used it as painting practice. Which actually gave me some good practice as well. So it was still worth it.

On the next caliper purchase, I was much more careful and found this solution to be the one that worked like a charm ... every single time.

First, just cut the line and cut your losses. Expect to spend an additional $50 to get a new caliper line and save the headache of trying to get this screw loose.

Without the caliper line, you are able to use a (Irwin) "flower" socket to remove the screw. I still don't know how it works, but it works like a charm. So invest in one of these as well.

Tools you need:

1. Something to cut the connecting line off

2. Apply penetrating oil - $5

3. Irwin Bolt Out (or similar product) - $30

4. New Porsche connecting line - $45

Total cost: ~$100

So far, these are the two unrealized situations that I have encountered. And this hits me hard on the bottom line. The whole purpose in choosing a Brembo caliper that came from another car is to get it on a budget and have some fun retrofitting and repurposing them for our E46 M3. But the cost and the hassle of trying to remove (and clean) some of the parts, may not be for you. For me, it was quite a learning experience. I have accumulated a set of tools just trying to remove the caliper line, and when I get to install these on my rear, I will accumulate more tools along with more experiences. But definitely make some additional mistakes. But mistakes are meant to be learned and in this case, to be shared with all of you e46noobs.

So, that's it for this part, when I move on to installing this caliper, I will share another article with you on that experience. Stay tuned.