Brake Caliper Leak

[Sam Stevenson]

Okay, so I noticed my recently purchased 2001 porsche boxster 2.7L with 105k miles has a leak at the brake caliper.  The leak looked small, but it was as if the bleed screw was draining fluid even when tight.

 

I just purchased new screws since the threads were looking a little damaged on the removed screw.  When I put the new screw in, it looks like the same problem exists.  There is no leaking around the threads, but it is just letting fluid flow out of the nipple as if it isn't tightened at all.

 

I toyed with the idea off putting some helicoil or tapping larger threads, but I don't think I would ever be able to get it close enough to make a good seal to prevent a leaking brake.

 

Well, naturally I want this fixed.  Looking at parts cost for a new set of brakes, I am not super excited to spend all the money it will take to get a new caliper so I look for some used parts and notice that there are a few complete sets of the boxster S brakes (painted red) from crashed boxsters on ebay that look pretty good for a fair price (~$600-700).  This is appealing because finding a used passenger front caliper yielded few results that were less than $200.  Would I be able to put the boxster S brakes on my boxster, or should I stick to an original part?  Are the boxster S brakes better?  Will the boxster S brakes require a few more replacement parts to fit on my car?

 

Best,

Sam

[Loren]

Yes, Boxster S brakes are an excellent plug and play upgrade.

I have helped several folks do that and I am sure many others on this site have done it also.

[JFP in PA]

Just be aware that the rear S brakes will not work on the base car without changing out the rear hub carriers.  The reason for this is that the ebrakes on the base car are a different diameter than the S, so the ebrake will not work unless your change over the carriers.