Installing 986 s brakes on base 986
 

I recently purchased a 986 s brake kit from someone parting out their boxster s. I'm getting the calipers, rotors, wheel carriers, and e brake lines. Now I know the fronts convert easily, but how about the rears. I assume I have all the parts, but I read somewhere there may be an issue with the abs sensor on the rear axle. There are older threads about brake replacement, but with the cars getting older I figure there will be more parts available and so needed to update the knowledge base as there is not much written on the topic.

You may ask why I'm upgrading, and to be honest my brakes work great, I just thought the deal was very good and I'm a sucker for boxster parts and DIY projects. When I get them I'm going to repaint the calipers (possibly rebuild), then decide whether to keep the rotors and pads as I'm told they are good. My current pads have about 20k miles on them and my rotors have 50k miles on them. I may prepare these for when my brakes components need replacing or have my shop install them when I eventually install m030, or may do it myself over the winter. Any thoughts, I'm currently driving a base 02 with pagid stock pads and rotors, with SS lines and ate blue fluid.

don't the S cars have a different RR carrier?

it's a bit more weight but I consider brakes safety equipment and the extra bite never hurts.

I've avoided at least two razor thin misses because of my brakes. Really old or distracted drivers really keep you on your toes.

I *think* the issue is that cars with a 7.8 dme have 4-channel abs and cars with 7.2 dme have 3 channel abs. so, depending on what your car has and where (when) the doner brakes are coming from, there may be conflict.

If you do any amount of part cross reference the brake pads for the rear of both the Boxster and S 1999 to 2004 are the same. The calipers and rotor differ slightly in the offset, so the carriers have to be replaced. With that also comes a question I could not get answered about the axle length. In the end I found No real benefit on swapping the rear brakes. The front is the only thing worth changing and they are a direct replacement. Pull the pads, calipers, and rotors and install the new set. Bleed and your done. I'd recommend 17" or larger wheels. My 17" Boxster S II wheels are close and could almost use spacers. My 18" OZ Alegeritta's have great clearence. I found the front swap very benificial, and had no bad effect on leaving the rear brakes alone.

I have the carriers as part of my purchase, just wondering on the axles and abs sensor. The axles are a different size due to a difference in the construction of the gearbox. I don't think 986 s axles would fit a base boxster.

From what I have read, the S axles are longer than the base Boxster because the 6 speed gearbox output flanges are further back than the 5 speed. It makes the halfshafts angle forward at a weird angle which is why the CV boots go bad faster on the S models.

Thread Bump!

I'm looking into this at the moment. The 5 speed shafts fit inside the 6 speed hubs but the issue is the diameter of the axle is about 10mm smaller on the 5 speed where the ABS ring is. This means there is a gap between the ABS sensor and the axle. If you could find an ABS sensor with a longer body I think it would be a straight swap