philgarner
Member
- Messages
- 226
Oooh errr etc.
I've finally had my GS out running for the first time in 2019 today due to a saga with the brake bleed nipples. It all started when I decided it was due a brake fluid change since it hadn't been done in my ownership (since 2016). I started on the OSR caliper and the inner nipple just span when I attempted to loosen it - all the threads inside had failed and there was no easy way to get it out. Next I tried the NSR caliper, and the top of the inner nipple sheared straight off, again no way to extract the threads. Bad times.
I then decided to cut my losses and take all the calipers off and take to a local engineering place to sort out. They did indeed extract and nipples and put helicoils in. So after they'd had them for 6 weeks or something I got them back. Then I put all the calipers back again, and tried to bleed again. Woes continued; most of the repaired nipples were good, but one of the helicoiled ones failed when tightening. There was virtually no thread inside it this time.
I decided to take dramatic action; by tapping out the bleed nipple hole to M12 and getting a special nipple to fit. This worked! All this took months and led up to today where we successfully bled the brakes and ran the car again.
TL;DR - brembo caliper nipples go bad when exposed to UK winters, check yours. There is a clearly a problem with these as I found an ebay shop, addiction motorsports, that sells all kinds of bits (like my M12 hack) to deal with these brembo nipples. They also have a rebuild service, which is what I should have done in the first place if I knew it existed: https://pro-calipers.co.uk/price-list
I've finally had my GS out running for the first time in 2019 today due to a saga with the brake bleed nipples. It all started when I decided it was due a brake fluid change since it hadn't been done in my ownership (since 2016). I started on the OSR caliper and the inner nipple just span when I attempted to loosen it - all the threads inside had failed and there was no easy way to get it out. Next I tried the NSR caliper, and the top of the inner nipple sheared straight off, again no way to extract the threads. Bad times.
I then decided to cut my losses and take all the calipers off and take to a local engineering place to sort out. They did indeed extract and nipples and put helicoils in. So after they'd had them for 6 weeks or something I got them back. Then I put all the calipers back again, and tried to bleed again. Woes continued; most of the repaired nipples were good, but one of the helicoiled ones failed when tightening. There was virtually no thread inside it this time.
I decided to take dramatic action; by tapping out the bleed nipple hole to M12 and getting a special nipple to fit. This worked! All this took months and led up to today where we successfully bled the brakes and ran the car again.
TL;DR - brembo caliper nipples go bad when exposed to UK winters, check yours. There is a clearly a problem with these as I found an ebay shop, addiction motorsports, that sells all kinds of bits (like my M12 hack) to deal with these brembo nipples. They also have a rebuild service, which is what I should have done in the first place if I knew it existed: https://pro-calipers.co.uk/price-list