Vxr2010

So it was time to charge the discs on the brembo fronts , one side came off so easy , plus no issue with the caliper bolts , sanded the hub so the new disc was flat , mtec discs which were 85£ or so delivered , as i found one side so easy i knew the other side would get its revenge on me , so top caliper bolt slightly stiff so lots of wd40 etc used and it came out ok in the end , all thread was there clearly some marks on the thread in the caliper , i cleaned up the bolt as it has a few small bits of metal shards in it ,i used a very fine screwdriver and a hammer , the caliper thread was generally fine , the lower caliper bolt …. oh dear , lots of backwards and forwards tightening loosening off , plus i use sas as a lubricant , it came out in the end but more aluminium deposits on the bolt which i cleaned off , once the bolt was out but half the thread in the caliper was missing , it did tighten up , the torque is around 80 ft pounds , i think the damage was done by a previous owner , so yes it screwed in and tightened up but for safety too much thread missing , so helicoil time , i have not had a lot of luck taping a new thread in in the past but i wanted to carefully sort this myself , it was the weigh up of its in its tight but probably not safe enough due to lack of thread , i left the caliper connected to the brake pipe , i put a box under the caliper and took the caliper off the car and rested it in the box , i bought a helicoil kit some time ago as this is the second time in quite a few years of scooby ownership that this has happened but last time a garage did it , the kit comes with the correct drill size plus tap helicoil and tools , holding the caliper and using minimal pressure and lining it up the best i could, i drilled a new hole from the pad side of the caliper , it’s very important to take your time doing this so it is dead on , the aluminium is quite soft so it’s not too bad to do but as above get it dead in when you drill it and use a bit of oil when drilling it , the tap i did from the other side again be very careful it is dead on , screw the tap in , back it off then spray lubricant to get rid of the swarf , so lots of backward and forwards till the tap is fully out the other side , the helicoil comes with a tool to insert it , don’t use too much pressure let the helicoil find the thread as you screw it in , once the helicoil is no longer proud on the caliper then it’s in , the helicoil has a little tab that the insert tool holds onto the tab this needs snapping off , test the caliper bolts and caliper with out the disc being on the hub , sometimes the hub bolts holes need a slight filing so things are going on easy and straight so you don’t cross thread , when you put it all back together then a wheel nut on the bottom of the disc keeps it all lined up , not too bad a job to do just make sure it’s all lined up when you drill and tap , the kits can be bought on ebay , the front size is M12 x1.5 the rear is M10 x 1.5 👍

hedgecutter

iTrader: (5)

Been there. Probably not the previous owner, just the meeting of steel and aluminium. Fair play doing it on the car, but much more control when on a bench. I've used Timserts.

evil.soup

iTrader: (1)

Useful piece of information. Had this happen a couple of times and I dread the next disc change, which is due any time soon. Was tempted at one point to have the whole lot helicoiled at once to future proof it last time they were off. Wish I did now!

Vxr2010

i’ve only had two threads fail on brembos in a lot of miles , both being front calipers , probably in the region of 400k miles between all the scoobies , the point of the post is it’s do able at home , i left the caliper on as the brake line banjo bolts can cause issues too , and i was uming and aring can i do it the answer was yes it’s pretty straight forward and the helicoil kits are a bit over 12 for all tools and quite a few helicoils 👍 it’s all about getting it straight not only drilling but also tapping 👍😁