When I was first trying to clean up the left front suspension of the car, I had removed the brake caliper and cleaned it up. I have to admit, it looked good. However, when I tightened the brake line onto the caliper, I stripped the fitting. In true accordance with Murphy’s Law, I could not get the fitting out of the caliper. No matter what I tried, the stripped fitting would just spin. Therefore, I went on the hunt for a new caliper.
I kicked around the idea of upgrading the front brake system. Since my model year Squareback shares the front brake system with a Porsche 914, I began researching what the 914 guys are doing for upgrades. As it turns out, they often upgrade to the brake calipers from a E20 series BMW. I began checking on the cost for this upgrade and then ran into problems. I found out that I would not be able to use my existing calipers for the core charge when purchasing the BMW calipers. Considering that an upgrade would require both front calipers to be replaced, in addition to some slight machining and modifications to the brake line system, I determined that I would be better off simply purchasing a replacement stock caliper and allocating money for other aspects of the overall project.
Luckily, I found that Auto Zone had a replacement caliper available (Advance and other FLAPs had zero stock nationally and no expected stocking date). A few days after ordering my caliper, it arrived. It was not until I went to install it that I noticed a problem, it was the wrong part.
The replacement is on the left and the original part is on the right. The part that they sent, not only has only one bleeder valve, but it is on the wrong side. After researching more, I determined that the part they sent is for the passenger side and for a year older model. In addition, they had now dropped the price by $20, so off to Auto Zone I went. After another parts order and a $20 refund, I had the part I needed.
Murphy, yet again, raised his ugly head. After getting everything reassembled, I noticed that my brake fluid reservoir was bad. Well, this gives me a reason to order some more parts for the car! (evil grin to my wife’s dismay) After receiving a Speedometer Cable, Brake Reservoir, Bleeder Screw Covers, and 4 new hubcaps, I had the brake system back. A routine fluid change and bleeding was in order and now the car has brakes.
The JPD Project 