Porsche 911 - 997.2 - replacement brakes & discs - costs/OE? - Page 1 - 911/Carrera GT - PistonHeads UK

Hi Guys, Some brake pad and disc advice please. My OPC have quoted £2k for replacing the front and rear brakes, and sensors. The car is 13 years old and of warranty. I'm not skilled to do the work myself. I can get the work done for half of this amount at a Porsche specialist, but they are not using OE parts. Another thread suggested Porsche use SHW discs, is the correct? What makes would be suitable replacements for OE parts? Same quality and abilities, etc.. Many thanks.

Sebro. Brembo. Zimmerman.

Full set of sebro or pagid with pads and sensors should be easily achievable in an half decent garage for around 1k all in. Very easy job tbh.

Discombobulate said: Sebro. Brembo. Zimmerman. This. I'd also recommend specifically Brembo, as they do a line with coated hats and edges, the finish on which last very very very well. (I have them on the Subaru which lives outside, and they still look superb years later. My previous Sebros on the 911 were excellent as brakes, but the painted hats started to look ropey after a few years.) I've recently put Brembos on the 911. Here's a photograph I took earlier. I bought the Sebros (top, painted) first, then found some Brembos (bottom, coated).

Nearly forgot - I'd also recommend Textar pads, which are the same as the ones in the Porsche labelled boxes. Arnold Clark almost give them away.

My OPC said my Cayenne needed discs and pads front and rear, ~£2k the job. Took it to my local car man (garage and enthusiast who I trust) who had a look, “you’re fine for another year Sir”. In a year we’ll do it with brands as others have suggested at around 1/3rd of the cost.

Yes good point...... we should have checked. Has the pad warning light come on, or is your OPC telling you it needs doing? If the latter, you probably have two or three years of pad depth remaining.

Thanks all for the comments - really helpful. I've just had the 12 year service at the OPC and it came back as an advisory item, to be done in the next 6 months. The thickness of the pads is 8mm and there is surface corrosion. My MOT is in the Autumn and my annual mileage is not high, so it may be later than that... trying to gauge if it will pass MOT and whether I can delay till 2025. The service was costly, so keen to keep costs down. Who manufacturers Porsche's brakes and pads?

I’m going slotted rather than drilled next, fed up with the rust and holes blocking up https://type911shop.co.uk/epages/de867ca1-377e-432... Textar for pads too. I believe porsche have used various manufacturers for brake parts over the years, with different revisions possibly made by different suppliers eg. OE pads for my 987.2 were .07 according to the latest parts diagrams, but got some .04 versions as new old stock from 9-apart which were made by textar, they were great pads probably made from a material thats now banned for environmental reasons or something.

Last time I bought all the parts myself and had my local spanner monkey change it for me. Brembo discs; Textar pads; Bosch sensors. To my knowledge all oem stuff. Then I had my local OPC change the break fluid (they hook up the computer to have the clutch fluid changed at the same time). Well under £1k all in. ETA: From my readers car thread. https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&... 4x Bosch brake pad wear sensors 4x Textar brake pads (OEM manufacturer) 2x Brembo front brake rotors (ordered their new PVT ones that are not bound to either left or right side) 2x Textar mounting kit for the front (rear one where stupidly expensive and I dared reusing the old ones) Now, regarding the Brembo rotors, the old ones where directional, having cooling fins/vanes. The new PVT ones use pillars instead and aren't directional. So there is only one disc that fits left or right. This also corresponds to the technical drawing and the Porsche part numbers comparison. Edited by Filibuster on Tuesday 19th March 07:49

Bosco said: ... The thickness of the pads is 8mm and there is surface corrosion... Brand new pads are only going to have 12-15mm of thickness, aren't they? In which case the pads are nowhere near needing replacement yet unless you were doing significant miles with track/hard road driving. The surface corrosion is a non-issue. If you don't do track days and are diving a few thousand miles a year, there's a good 2 years of life left in the brakes at least.

Bosco said: I've just had the 12 year service at the OPC and it came back as an advisory item, to be done in the next 6 months. The thickness of the pads is 8mm and there is surface corrosion. The service was costly , so keen to keep costs down. Here is a photo of new Textar pads (my bought-now-for-next-time pads ) these are for a 993 but they'll be the same or very similar depth for a 997. You can see it's just a fraction over 10mm. Any garage advising you to change pads at 8mm within six months, especially when they know your mileage, is ripping you off. I hate to think how many other things they've given you bad advice over. Find yourself a proper garage, and never go to your OPC for servicing again. If you could be bothered, I'd write an email to the Dealer's top dog, pointing out this clear method of printing money - this isn't even marginal - and see what they say. But even if they offer you ten free cars, I'd still never use them again.

Are they saying 8mm inc the plate? I honestly don’t think any garage would say pads need changing with 8mm of wear on the actual pads left?? Surface corrosion can be an issue on the inside of the disc as I’ve seen this in numerous posts being a problem area and unless you have a lift or decent jack and willing to do a ww2 beach crawl on you back to see, its something that can go undetected for a period of time. Edited by Youforreal. on Tuesday 19th March 10:46

If they quoted you a pad measurement and included the plate, they were using a non-mechanic to service your car. Back-face disc corrosion is certainly a 'thing' on Porsche brakes and has been for many years. At some point the discs will need replacing, but if your OPC say 'six months' the reality will be 'three years'.

8mm is plenty. As others have said, you have plenty life remaining. If they are at 3mm then you want to be thinking about pad change. Best way to remove the surface corrosion is to drive the car weekly and take car out for a quick drive after washing it, to clean water off the brake pads/discs. Some specialists will also remove the wear sensors from the old pads, which can save some money.

Youforreal. said: Are they saying 8mm inc the plate? I honestly don’t think any garage would say pads need changing with 8mm of wear on the actual pads left?? Surface corrosion can be an issue on the inside of the disc as I’ve seen this in numerous posts being a problem area and unless you have a lift or decent jack and willing to do a ww2 beach crawl on you back to see, its something that can go undetected for a period of time. Edited by Youforreal. on Tuesday 19th March 10:46 What do you put the excess corrosion on the inside of the discs down to? I'm intriqued about the cause of this.

Thanks for all the messages - I appreciate all the good advice. I was taken aback by the OPC's prices, especially given that I was already in for an expensive service, plus they then found other items that were 'urgent'. I do circa 3,000 miles pa and try to drive carefully - having been on driver awareness courses! Emoji I have identified a Porsche specialist for the brake work and will probably get it done in the next 12 months, or see if I can delay it a little longer. One of the challenges is finding an independent located somewhere accessible to take the car and then pick up. The car is a keeper, so I need to find a trusted alternative to the OPC's going forward. I'll do some research on this next. Thanks again, cheers! PS, my discs always rust up after a clean. I started taking the car for a quick spin to get rid of the moisture after washes, but I guess it didn't work that well.

You don’t need a Porsche specialist, it’s such an easy job any mechanic can do them.