Look at your brake caliper dust covers

[ChrisZang]

Just a little thing to add to your maintenance list:
I had great 2 track days in Thunderhill last weekend and by now I have 92k miles on the chassis and about 40 track days (+ 20 A/X)
Yesterday night I was switching the brake pads back to street pads and while doing this one of the brake caliper dust covers came apart. I checked all of them and all the front covers are practically done for. The rears are still fine.
I guess the constant heat on the front brakes (my calipers are almost turning brown by now) has "cooked" the covers and made them brittle.
I would have never checked this and just happened to notice by accident.
Relatively cheap part to replace, by the way.
Just though I'd let you fellow racers know ....

[ekam]

I'm curious to see if the inner seals are still in good shape if the calipers are cooked to brown color...

[thstone]

Good hint on the dust covers. Fairly normal for a tracked car to have the caliper color fade. I've seen quite a few "S" models at the track with nearly brown calipers rather than the original red!

[ChrisZang]

Originally Posted by ekam

I'm curious to see if the inner seals are still in good shape if the calipers are cooked to brown color...

Goooooooooood point
What would the symptoms of worn inner seals be?

[ekam]

If your inner seals are worn you'll have break fluid leak... but the calipers should be rebuild if it's gone through that many track days IMO...

[ChrisZang]

yep, on my last track day I "lost" much more brake fluid as can be explained with pad wear
Anyone have the parts number for the inner seals?

[ekam]

Porsche or Brembo won't sell them due liability reasons. You can buy them from zeckhausen.com which is where I got mine.

[986_c6]

I never thought to look at the dust covers. Do you even need them if you track your car and its sole purpose is to keep brake dust away?

[stephen wilson]

I'm not sure about these calipers, but on my Formula Ford the dust seals are left off, since they can melt under race conditions.

[ekam]

You can find titanium shims that will block the heat from the brake pads... I don't think removing the dust covers is a good idea. Lol.

[ChrisZang]

Originally Posted by 986_c6

I never thought to look at the dust covers. Do you even need them if you track your car and its sole purpose is to keep brake dust away?

I am not sure that I am following your logic. The purpose of the dust covers is to prevent brake dust from entering the brake pistons, making sure the don't seize On the track I create more brake dust that anywhere else. So why would it be a good idea to leave them off on the track?
I am not trying to be a d**ck, I am sure you thought your response through and I am missing something here...

[stephen wilson]

This may not be an issue with Boxster brakes, but the reason they are left off my FF is that they can get too hot, and actually melt, causing the caliper pistons to stick. I think the other theory is that on track they are cleaned regularly, and not subject to the long term neglect that street cars can be subjected to.

[ekam]

Originally Posted by stephen wilson

This may not be an issue with Boxster brakes, but the reason they are left off my FF is that they can get too hot, and actually melt, causing the caliper pistons to stick. I think the other theory is that on track they are cleaned regularly, and not subject to the long term neglect that street cars can be subjected to.

I think what you meant by "clean" is the calipers get rebuilt regularly after a few races. There's no way to clean dirt/dust that's trapped between the pistons...

[stephen wilson]

In my case, I just flush them with brake clean when I change pads. A FF isn't terribly hard on brakes.