I did my first DIY brake pad install this weekend. I paired the 997 brake pad change with my Honda Odyssey brakes at the same time. It was a very nice weekend of turning wrenches. I'll tell you, I'm impressed with Porsche for sure. Most of my time was spent getting the wheels off, pulling out the pad wear sensors (without breaking them), and separating the anti squeal shims from the old pad. Replacing everything was a snap. The next pad change should be much faster now that I've done it once.

Parts from Suncoast were under $300 delivered. The money I saved will buy me a spark plug change from a pro. I'm not up to that one myself.

In comparison, the Honda Odyssey was more difficult mechanically. They took about the same time to do all 4 corners on each vehicle, but the Pcar was mostly fiddling with the wiring and squeal shims, where the Honda was dealing with removing the caliper and lubing everything back up for re-install.

Thanks to all of the great DIY's on this forum and Youtube for the help. I knew exactly what I was getting into and nothing came out as a surprise. I figure I saved about $400-$500 not going to the dealer.

 

997 car is a marvel from engineering perspective. new 991 will be much more difficult to work on. 997 is an amazing machine. you can take half of it apart and put it all back in one day.

 

Terpsred - how long did it take you to do the job?

 

true, even non tech guy can do it with some instructions in hand.

 

All 4 corners took me 2.5 hours total. I was moving slow so I could understand the anatomy well, and was getting help from my 7 year old daughter. She loves getting dirty! Having done it once now, I think I could do it under 2 hours without much effort.

 

That sounds great! I was pondering weather to tackle this myself or have the dealer but given your review I will do it myself.

Could you point to the DIYs you used for the brake change?

Any other tips or pointers?

Thanks

 

Just one more question, did you wait until the brake light came up before doing the change?

 

I did not wait for the brake warning light to come on. I figured if I did this then I'd ensure I'd need to replace those sensors. (another $200 added to the costs.) I also reused the anti-vibration shims. Once I peeled them from the old pads I saw that they seat inside the tube of the pistons so they are pretty pinned in by themselves. I cleaned up the old adhesive off of their surfaces, and when I put the new pads in, a tiny bit of anti-squeal paste between the shims and new pads seems to stick them together well. This is a bit of an experiment on my part, next brake job I may do away with these shims all together. There are lots of discussions from the track guys about not needing these anyway. They way they are in now, they should be easy to get to if I have trouble and I could always add new ones if I need to later.

As for the brake warning wires, I zip tied these out of the way on the back of the caliper on their own lead wire. I'll be checking the pads myself regularly anyway and these just add time to the process. (Another "track-guy" trick that I received from others on this board)

I had a brake fluid flush a year ago so I had to remove quite a bit of brake fluid out of the reservoir as I pushed in the pistons on each wheel. I used a small medicine syringe that we used to use for giving kids liquid medicine. It made it easy to get out the fluid with no dripping or mess.

As for the DIY's that I used, here is a good thread with links to boxter brakes. They are the same setup.

https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...2-carrera.html

There are also a few VERY good videos on youtube that were very helpful.
One link is below.



Disclaimer: I am no mechanic, and don't pretend to be one. What I do on my vehicle should not influence you on yours. To be clear, brakes are important to your safety. If you disagree with what I've done, you can feel free to do as you wish. I'm only hoping to give those who want to try a DIY a feel for how easy this job really can be.