Hi it has been a busy weekend working on Rouge 5, I decided to replace the clutch cable it has been playing up for a few months now especially crunching into first and reverse gear this process didn't go as easy as I thought! Also started to refurbish and ready for painting Le Petit Vert's (LPV) donated rear roof spoiler which is metallic green and I also removed her roof liner and sunroof shade.
Rouge 5's front disc brakes had started to grind a little bit so I knew they would have to have a little bit of TLC lavished on them so I decided to replace them with the donated upgraded"ventilated" front disc brakes from LPV. I did this over a weekend with my mechanic friend after we removed them from LPV we noticed the disc's looked pretty worn so I decided to buy new one's. When I got the callipers on the work bench and cleaned and disassembled them I noticed the seals and gators could do with replacing as well.
I removed the pistons with the air compressor gun and they popped out easily and removed the inner seals with a pic tool, the inside of the piston cylinder was thoroughly cleaned especially in the seal grooves and there was no damage to the cylinder housing sides. The piston head which makes contact with the back of break pads had a little rust which was easily removed with wire wool. I then prepared the calliper castings and arms for painting with red heat resistance paint, I coated the callipers twice. Using the two types of grease provided (one for the seals and one for the gators) I greased up the seals which slipped into the groves and then with a G clamp squashed the piston back into place. The next job was to reassemble the outer calliper arm with the new greased up gators, then a thorough clean of the brand new ventilated disc's with brake cleaner.
Refitting the new disc's and the refurbished callipers was straight forward so was the bleeding of the pipes which was made much easier with the help of my mate. I know the original disc's could have lasted another 12 months and the seals/gators were in reasonable condition but since it was an easy process to strip and check the whole calliper it would be a false economy not replace the components with new for what it would cost.
I already had the brake cleaner and new brake fluid so the cost was:
2 x new ventilated disc's = £50
2 x pairs of new brake pads = £14
2 x packs of calliper seal kits = £34
Total cost of the upgrade of new/refurbished ventilated disc brakes = £98
Sorry I did not take pics of the disassembled callipers but here are a few of the new "shiny" disc's and red callipers fitted to Rouge 5!
A few days after fitting the new disc's it didn't take long for surface rust to appear!
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The callipers for ventilated disc's are noticeable wider then callipers for solid disc's
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The new ventilated front disc brakes do give a measured improvement in performance and they do improve Rouge 5's looks lol!
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Next instalment the "dreaded" clutch cable and a few pics of the "disrobed" Le Petit Vert!
Cheers
Andy
