Porsche 996 Caliper brake upgrade for my 500E

[mrindiafromuk]

Hi All,

I just finished having the bake calipers upgraded to the Porsche 996 calipers all round.

I was a bit of an expensive journey. seems like I am the one who dives deep and ends up way over my head in costs.

Here’s the shocker.. I have spent approx $4350 in parts and refurbishing the 4 calipers.
Of course it’s never simple, it turned out my rear master cylinder needed to be replaced as well, it was not working at all and there was no fluid for rear, all gunged up, so it probably was that causing the brakes to be poor performance in the first place.

Anyways I am super pleased and will be posting a video soon of the finished project .

It has take a 3 months in total to get everything ready for install and over a week to get installed.

I did not do it alone. German motors in Cotati CA helped to put it all together.

Cost me labor on top. I had no room to work on the 500E myself , Since I had my 944 turbo on jacks stands and currently working on suspension on my gated conversion Ferrari 599. I wanted the brakes done before fall hence I have it to German motors. So I won’t have an install video but will pull all the wheels off and show you how it turned out.

Thanks for reading and all the advice and support I got with brackets and parts etc.

 

[TimL]

@mrindiafromuk, cherish the sense of accomplishment- you tackled some pretty significant things so far!

Looking forward to more info on the brake modifications and to your next project with this car

 

[Slo300ce]

Hey @mrindiafromuk , did you get a chance to upload the video? I'm interested in putting a set like this on my 300ce (I know.. not a 500) but I'm going to be needing the extra flinstone power. I'm curious of how those brakes are working!

 

[mrindiafromuk]

Hey @mrindiafromuk , did you get a chance to upload the video? I'm interested in putting a set like this on my 300ce (I know.. not a 500) but I'm going to be needing the extra flinstone power. I'm curious of how those brakes are working!

HI @Slo300ce , There was another issue after the upgrade. After I changed the lower control arm it needed wheel alignment. After the wheel alignment when I did a full lock on the steering, the new lower control arms were rubbing the wheels. In the end I just had to install 5mm wheek spacers on the front wheels.

I can now complete the review of the upgrade,

As for stopping power, yes it does stop much quicker. The only other thing I can possibly do is to upgrade teh brake booster, but honestly I dont need it. I still need to find a way to connect the porsche wear sensor to the merc system in a way that it serviceable, but for now i dont have any wear sensors.

Give me a couple of weeks for the video. BUT with these older cars who knows what botch jobs previous owners have done to skimp on doing the right thing. My car is an a good place now, sort of wished I just paid for a more expensive lower mile car. But I love it anyways.

If you ask me was it worth the money for the result, The answer is no. I would not recommend going down the route of upgrading to Porsche calipers. I thought I would be in into it for max $2k which even then was an indulgence for this car. Nearly $4500 in parts including fixing the failed rear brake master cylinder.

 

[gsxr]

If you ask me was it worth the money for the result, The answer is no. I would not recommend going down the route of upgrading to Porsche calipers. I thought I would be in into it for max $2k which even then was an indulgence for this car. Nearly $4500 in parts including fixing the failed rear brake master cylinder.

Yikes! That was just parts? Dare I ask the total including labor?

 

[mrindiafromuk]

Yikes! That was just parts? Dare I ask the total including labor?

Including labor it cost $6500 total. It’s one of those things , on paper it was great. Another expense was the used calipers I purchased from ebay. for 4 they cost about $1000, but to get them rebuilt and powder coated was a total of $1600. The porsche caliper rebuild kits were mega expensive.
So there were a lot of cost I did not bank on.

I hope my post will help others think twice before trying the porsche caliper upgrade. Maybe some of the costs were of my own making, like buying not so great calipers off ebay, however they are very hard to find for this particular upgrade .

Again @ DON’T do it is my advice.
Oh another expensive item was the adapter brackets , I think they were $750.

 

[gsxr]

Thanks for the information - VERY helpful!

 

[dionphaneuf]

Are the stock brake hoses compatible? I'm considering doing this on my 560SEC.....

 

[mrindiafromuk]

I had to buy new different hoses hoses

 

[mrindiafromuk]

Quick update on my brake upgrade saga. After following the instructions which 5thscaleracer provides, oh and he provided the brackets I needed to mount the Porsche Brembo brakes. I ended up removing the back plate to the front rotors. Also after the wheel alignment on full lock the new different lower control arms rubbed the rotor. Luckily I discovered this reversing slowly on full lock. I ended up installing a 5 mmm wheel spacer and that solved the problem . I will add, that I have the AMG 18" monoblock wheels, so a spacer may not be required if you have the standard 8 hole wheel.

5thscaleracer has the full specs on this upgrade.​

 

[mrindiafromuk]

For anyone who needs to know the specs on parts etc require for this upgrade, incase you are brave enough to try it out, here is the list I got. I got this from 5thscaleracer before I started the whole project.

dionphaneuf this might help u out for your SEC​

 

[ArauzMotoring]

Thanks for sharing your experience but no pictures on this thread (of the finished product) are unacceptable

 

[mrindiafromuk]

Thanks for sharing your experience but no pictures on this thread (of the finished product) are unacceptable

Yes indeed, I am having 2 4 posts lifts installed this week . First job is to get some shots and a small video. I need to put on new Porsche decals on the calipers after they were powder coated. Saturday will have some shots and video. I was suppose to do this some time back but heart health issues took me away from my cars. I am back.

 

[mrindiafromuk]

Front and Back Porsche 996 caliper upgrade , Video will be out tomorrow
View attachment 208536

 

[mrindiafromuk]

HI Everyone, Here is my video reviewing the installation of the Porsche 996 Brake upgrade.

 

[gsxr]

What 2 items were rubbing that required a spacer? Make sure there's enough of the centering lip engaging the wheel center bore, or you can get vibration up front.

The new front lower control arm installed is not OE, what brand is it? Make sure to check the ball joint for play at every oil change. The aftermarket late LCA's are known for having abnormally short balljoint lifespan, and are not replaceable separately.

Calipers look great! Bummer the custom brackets are not easily available anymore.

 

[mrindiafromuk]

What 2 items were rubbing that required a spacer? Make sure there's enough of the centering lip engaging the wheel center bore, or you can get vibration up front.

The new front lower control arm installed is not OE, what brand is it? Make sure to check the ball joint for play at every oil change. The aftermarket late LCA's are known for having abnormally short balljoint lifespan, and are not replaceable separately.

Calipers look great! Bummer the custom brackets are not easily available anymore.

I did not know the brackets were not available anymore , they were $750 so it added to the cost.

on full lock the inner edge of the rim was hitting somewhere in the knuckle assembly, I did not pay attention to the tech who did this job. My wheels are 9j ET 35. The lower control arm is not OEM you are correct and they are not available OEM so I got the most recommended brand here on the forum , forgot now. Yes I had read about early failure. I will keep an eye on it .

I am hopefully going to get new custom forged wheels so I can build that spacer into the new wheel . At the moment no vibration .

 

[gsxr]

The wheel + knuckle are fixed distances that should not change as the wheels turn / at full lock. See if you can pinpoint where things are touching, to try and get the custom wheel width + offsets confirmed before you order!

 

[mrindiafromuk]

The wheel + knuckle are fixed distances that should not change as the wheels turn / at full lock. See if you can pinpoint where things are touching, to try and get the custom wheel width + offsets confirmed before you order!

I will find out for sure, I know the 5mm spacer fixed the problem which only occurred after wheel alignment was done .

 

[mrindiafromuk]

I do hope that no one else follows this path of using 996 calipers. Very expensive job for me. If I did not have my 944 Turbo in pieces I probably would have tried to do it myself and save the labor at least

 

[500AMM]

You have used 8.8 strength on the bolts holding the calipers, isn't that way too soft??
It's normally 10.9 on all bolts on brakes, just as for the suspension where most if not all bolts are 10.9

 

[mrindiafromuk]

You have used 8.8 strength on the bolts holding the calipers, isn't that way too soft??
It's normally 10.9 on all bolts on brakes, just as for the suspension where most if not all bolts are 10.9

View attachment 210304

If I recall correctly these were supplied with adapter brackets, please can you explain why your concern? I would like to understand more.

 

[500AMM]

The numbers like 4.6, 8.8, 10.9, 12.9 is one of several ways indicating the strength on bolt materials, and the one mentioned here is commonly used on the mass of steel bolts for conventional use. If we take a 10.9 bolt: the first number stands for 1000 Mpa tensile strength - the next is 0,9 of the tensile strength which equals to 900 MPa and gives the yield strength. When stretching a material the yield strength is the limit where the material starts floating and achieves a small, small permanent deformation, and the tensile strength is when the fracture occurs.

A 8.8 bolt has 800 MPa and 640 MPa which is a lot lower than a 10.9 bolt, and the whole point here is which bolt torque it can handle. A bolted connection is held in place by the friction between the mating surfaces. To achieve that the bolts have to be torqued and stretched and tensioned enough to overwin the shear forces in the bolt connection to avoid sliding. So the higher bolt strength - the higher bolt torque - and the safer bolt connection. That means a weaker bolt material would not manage to keep up the same torque/tension as a higher strength bolt will do.

All is relative and it is several playing factors into a bolted connection, but this is the short version. Another thing to keep in mind is the bolt length. Think of the bolt like a spring, the longer it is in dead state the longer it will stretch, but also allowing more flex. That means a short bolt cannot be stretched as much as a longer bolt with the same strength. Take that over to the brake caliper bolts which is quite short, it has a pretty short range to keep up the necessary tension - and that's the main reason for using correct strength on those bolts. BTW, taking this further to wheel spacers and extended lug bolts, giving more bolt flex and the risk that contains.

 

[5thscaleracer]

What 2 items were rubbing that required a spacer? Make sure there's enough of the centering lip engaging the wheel center bore, or you can get vibration up front.

The new front lower control arm installed is not OE, what brand is it? Make sure to check the ball joint for play at every oil change. The aftermarket late LCA's are known for having abnormally short balljoint lifespan, and are not replaceable separately.

Calipers look great! Bummer the custom brackets are not easily available anymore.

I have 30 Front brackets and 10 rear brackets totally available.

 

[5thscaleracer]

If I recall correctly these were supplied with adapter brackets, please can you explain why your concern? I would like to understand more.

I did not supply those bolts, the Factory bolts were to be reused in the front and the rears came with a set of 10.9 grade zinc plated bolts to be used only for the rear brackets because they are longer than stock.

Cost of conversion all depends on acquisition cost of old calipers, brake lines, brake rotors etc.

I recently completed this transformation on a E320.
Ebay supplied Boxter S 986 Red calipers in good condition. PC not needed Calipers all in $780.00 shipped.
Front Brake lines Custom from Paragon $89.00
Rear Brake lines From Paragon $60.00
Front rotors from FCP MB Star parts $104.99 Each $210.00
Rear Rotors from FCP Zimmerman $72.99 ea $145.98
Front 600SL LCA FCP TRW brand $258.98 both sides
FCP Ferodo DS2500 Pads $240.75
FCP Ferodo DS2500 Rear Pads $240.75
Porsche HArdware Shims FCP $117.72
SRF Brake Fluid $143.00 2qts
Brackets $750.00

All in w/o Labor $3036.00 <2025 pricing

Labor time @ $195.00 Per hr 4 hour total $780.00

You should not need to replace the master on the 500E as it's correct but for 190E or other models its suggested to use the 500E master.
It is obvious you paid a shop markup on all the other parts and labor performed.

Other customers are replicating this setup for about 3K . The biggest variable is the caliper cost from E-bay and if you ended up doing additional paint or powder coating.

Sadly you paid a hefty markup with some of the components.

 

[5thscaleracer]

You have used 8.8 strength on the bolts holding the calipers, isn't that way too soft??
It's normally 10.9 on all bolts on brakes, just as for the suspension where most if not all bolts are 10.9

View attachment 210304

@mrindiafromuk i suggest to replace these bolts with the proper 10.9

Mercedes Disc Brake Caliper Bolt - OE Supplier 1244210471

Mercedes Disc Brake Caliper Bolt - OE Supplier 1244210471

www.fcpeuro.com

 

[mrindiafromuk]

So you will see big part of my cost was buying calipers that needed a complete over haul .

anyway not dwelling on that

The rears are correct bolts see gold bolts in pic . It seems only the front are incorrect . Ordering the correct ones now @5thscaleracer . Thanks a lot to @500AMM for catching this and everyone who chimed in.

 

[5thscaleracer]

rear bolts are correct these are the units i supply

 

[mrindiafromuk]

rear bolts are correct these are the units i supply

I bought the correct bolts and changed them. my final final update on my 996 caliper saga

Thanks all