WHAT DID YOU DO TO YOUR BRZ TODAY?

[new2subaru]

Originally Posted by B-R-Z

Did a wash, including inside the trunk lid area and under the fuel lid. Also did a plast-x job on my headlights to get rid of the yellow. At 8.25 years and 182k miles and have hardly had any issues. I really hope my next car treats me this well.

Looks great. Is that a wrap on the tailights?

[B-R-Z]

Originally Posted by new2subaru

Looks great. Is that a wrap on the tailights?

Thanks. No, it's red spray paint clear coated with SprayMax 2k. Did this in 2014 and the clear coat is just starting to chip a bit on the top side of the tail lights.

[new2subaru]

Originally Posted by B-R-Z

Thanks. No, it's red spray paint clear coated with SprayMax 2k. Did this in 2014 and the clear coat is just starting to chip a bit on the top side of the tail lights.

Thanks. It's looks really good. It's the perfect transparency.

[B-R-Z]

Originally Posted by new2subaru

Thanks. It's looks really good. It's the perfect transparency.

Yes, I am really impressed with how well they came out. They look like clear red plastic from the factory in person.

[stacyu18]

i have drop 20 degrees in engine temp and oil temp with this hood of course cant drive it in the rain took the inserts out under the vents

[stacyu18]

yes the guy did a bad match of the paint but to the non train eye its ok lol going in for a new paint job over the winter

[NoHaveMSG]

Originally Posted by stacyu18

i have drop 20 degrees in engine temp and oil temp with this hood of course cant drive it in the rain took the inserts out under the vents

Why not? I drive my car with ducted hood in the rain. Mine just having a center duct actually puts a crazy swirl pattern of the rain on the windshield. It is usually parked outside too.

[CrowsFeast]

Finally completed part 1 of my brake change. Started Last Thursday!
Nothing fancy, just normal brakes for a 2013. Bought the parts Wednesday, started on Thursday after work by pulling the rears... Well attempting to; they were stuck. Turns out I was sold the wrong rear rotors anyway (non-vented). Put everything back on, looked up the threads for the 2 bolt holes to push the rotors off. Went to the store to exchange the rear rotors and bought the required bolts. Well, the right rears weren't in stock so they had to order them for me to pick up yesterday.

Went home and proceeded to pull apart the fronts (this is still Thursday). Fronts were also stuck on but now I had the bolts. Got the left front off, pulled out the new rotor, "hey, these don't quite look the same size." Sure enough, the new ones were ~3/8" smaller in diameter (see attached photo with inside pad and rotor. No you shouldn't be able to see the pad at all). Re-assemble old brakes. Pack up tools. No time to get back to the store before they close. Messed up plans for the weekend.

Fast forward to yesterday. Get home from work, go return front rotors and pick up new for all 4 corners (store wouldn't do anything to compensate me on what an ordeal they had added to this job, "rotors were already on sale"). Start with fronts again. Rotors are stuck again/still but deal with it using the bolts. Everything is going ok but then I can't get the caliper over the lower pin on the drivers side. Push as hard as I can on the pin and nothing. Pull it out, wipe off the grease and re-insert to see if there's just an air pocket trapped by excess grease. Still no luck. Feels like it's bottoming out. try putting a C clamp on it, tapping with a hammer, no luck. Remove it to find lots of grease on the tip this time. Wipe off and reinsert. Seems to be going a bit farther but not enough. Press with fingers and remove, barely any grease on tip. Tap with hammer and remove; big glob. Repeat tapping of hammer and wiping of grease until pin sits well within the area it needs to. Remove 1 last time to re-grease the sides. I'm now working by flashlight but I finally manage to get everything re-assembled.

Now I have to find time to do the rears...

Then I get to do my girlfriends car.

[Stonehorsw]

Originally Posted by CrowsFeast

Finally completed part 1 of my brake change. Started Last Thursday!
Nothing fancy, just normal brakes for a 2013. Bought the parts Wednesday, started on Thursday after work by pulling the rears... Well attempting to; they were stuck. Turns out I was sold the wrong rear rotors anyway (non-vented). Put everything back on, looked up the threads for the 2 bolt holes to push the rotors off. Went to the store to exchange the rear rotors and bought the required bolts. Well, the right rears weren't in stock so they had to order them for me to pick up yesterday.

Went home and proceeded to pull apart the fronts (this is still Thursday). Fronts were also stuck on but now I had the bolts. Got the left front off, pulled out the new rotor, "hey, these don't quite look the same size." Sure enough, the new ones were ~3/8" smaller in diameter (see attached photo with inside pad and rotor. No you shouldn't be able to see the pad at all). Re-assemble old brakes. Pack up tools. No time to get back to the store before they close. Messed up plans for the weekend.

Fast forward to yesterday. Get home from work, go return front rotors and pick up new for all 4 corners (store wouldn't do anything to compensate me on what an ordeal they had added to this job, "rotors were already on sale"). Start with fronts again. Rotors are stuck again/still but deal with it using the bolts. Everything is going ok but then I can't get the caliper over the lower pin on the drivers side. Push as hard as I can on the pin and nothing. Pull it out, wipe off the grease and re-insert to see if there's just an air pocket trapped by excess grease. Still no luck. Feels like it's bottoming out. try putting a C clamp on it, tapping with a hammer, no luck. Remove it to find lots of grease on the tip this time. Wipe off and reinsert. Seems to be going a bit farther but not enough. Press with fingers and remove, barely any grease on tip. Tap with hammer and remove; big glob. Repeat tapping of hammer and wiping of grease until pin sits well within the area it needs to. Remove 1 last time to re-grease the sides. I'm now working by flashlight but I finally manage to get everything re-assembled.

Now I have to find time to do the rears...

Then I get to do my girlfriends car.

Did you order a new set of guide pins? From your description, this seems in a need to be changed. Also, I would suggest a little bit of cleaning on the abutment area (wire brushing that).
Also, an anti-seize between hub and rotor may help next time you havr to change.

[CrowsFeast]

Originally Posted by Stonehorsw

Did you order a new set of guide pins? From your description, this seems in a need to be changed. Also, I would suggest a little bit of cleaning on the abutment area (wire brushing that).
Also, an anti-seize between hub and rotor may help next time you havr to change.

The pin actually looked flawless, just had some excess old (but not dry) grease jammed down the end of the hole. I didn't hit it hard enough with the hammer to worry about bending it and made sure it was properly seated before tapping it. The plastic (why is there a plastic section?) didn't show any deformation either.

Unfortunately I do not currently have a wire brush (didn't see a hand held one when I was at the store) but I did liberally coat the inside mounting surfaces of the new rotors with anti seize (the outside has a coating but not the inside )

[Stonehorsw]

Originally Posted by CrowsFeast

The pin actually looked flawless, just had some excess old (but not dry) grease jammed down the end of the hole. I didn't hit it hard enough with the hammer to worry about bending it and made sure it was properly seated before tapping it. The plastic (why is there a plastic section?) didn't show any deformation either.

Unfortunately I do not currently have a wire brush (didn't see a hand held one when I was at the store) but I did liberally coat the inside mounting surfaces of the new rotors with anti seize (the outside has a coating but not the inside )

The tolerances and working of the guide pins are not easy to explain here, but a good practice is to change it whenever tgey are seized/stuck. The grease is not responsible for that (grease can get stuckish very cold situation, but it is not what is going on here). I did not yet disassemble a brz brake (if someone has an old briken, I can disassemble and look in details), but I think you’re mentioning that one of the pins has a rubber insert on the tip, this has several functions, including performance during hard braking, noise and so on. Take a look on the piston and pin boots, of looks brittle, replace those.

Also, replace hardware (clips, specially for anti-drag feature, if available)

[NoHaveMSG]

Ordered a wrap for the car. Just doing the hood, roof, and trunk lid in a geometric pattern. There are so many DGM cars out there I want mine to look a little different. I am also filling in my OE spoiler holes, so now I don't need to paint it, just primer.

[CrowsFeast]

Originally Posted by Stonehorsw

The tolerances and working of the guide pins are not easy to explain here, but a good practice is to change it whenever tgey are seized/stuck. The grease is not responsible for that (grease can get stuckish very cold situation, but it is not what is going on here). I did not yet disassemble a brz brake (if someone has an old briken, I can disassemble and look in details), but I think you’re mentioning that one of the pins has a rubber insert on the tip, this has several functions, including performance during hard braking, noise and so on. Take a look on the piston and pin boots, of looks brittle, replace those.

Also, replace hardware (clips, specially for anti-drag feature, if available)

I think you're misunderstanding what I was describing. The pin moved freely but was 'bottoming out' on the old grease inside the guide hole. once that grease was removed (pulled out when it stuck top the tip of the pin) the pin was able to go all the way in to the guide hole as well as moving freely.

The pin itself is metal at the end but has a ribbed plastic sleeve for about 1" near the tip. Found a picture of a similar one (no hex portion on ours, just 2 flats)


Piston boots and guide pin boots were good; metal clips for guiding the pads were replaced and greased.

I've done a number of brake jobs on a number of vehicles. That's part of what makes it so frustrating when a simple job like replacing brake rotors and pads becomes a long drawn out pain.

I think I now prefer the setup I had on my german cars; pins are screwed into the caliper bracket and the caliper glided on the pins as opposed to this setup where the pins are bolted to the calipers and the pins glide on the mounting bracket. No way for air/grease/etc to get stuck inside the glide hole.

[Stonehorsw]

Originally Posted by CrowsFeast

I think you're misunderstanding what I was describing. The pin moved freely but was 'bottoming out' on the old grease inside the guide hole. once that grease was removed (pulled out when it stuck top the tip of the pin) the pin was able to go all the way in to the guide hole as well as moving freely.

The pin itself is metal at the end but has a ribbed plastic sleeve for about 1" near the tip. Found a picture of a similar one (no hex portion on ours, just 2 flats)


Piston boots and guide pin boots were good; metal clips for guiding the pads were replaced and greased.

I've done a number of brake jobs on a number of vehicles. That's part of what makes it so frustrating when a simple job like replacing brake rotors and pads becomes a long drawn out pain.

I think I now prefer the setup I had on my german cars; pins are screwed into the caliper bracket and the caliper glided on the pins as opposed to this setup where the pins are bolted to the calipers and the pins glide on the mounting bracket. No way for air/grease/etc to get stuck inside the glide hole.

So you like Conti FSIII (Golf) setup, seems like. Their ZN is also good. I like Colette types for other reasons (mainly related performance).

Now I got what you meant, and I never saw a similar failure, with the grease loosing their properties to a point that becomes a impediment for the guide pin to bottom (i would expect the grease to move and create space).
Whenever I have to rotate the tires, I will take a look on those brakes (I think those are Tokico’s, but need to verify). See if they have anything unusual.
Two flats on guide pin is not ideal…