Cautrell05

25 years of turning wrenches professionally and I don't remember ever replacing calipers on a C2 or C3 before. All the newer cars the calipers are either neutral, meaning the piston pretty much stays in one spot with no pressure or the brake pad hardware pulls the pads back from the rotor slightly. These are the first calipers I've seen that the piston seem to be spring loaded. Put the rear ones on today, new pads, rotors, parts store calipers, no fluid yet. The parking brake is adjusted properly and the rotor spins free without the caliper. Both sides turn pretty hard with the caliper on though. A little drag is one thing, this is way more than I expected. Is that normal for these?

65GGvert

You'll have to put fluid in and bleed them to get the pads to center up. Pressing the brake will slide the pads to center on both sides of the rotor. With brand new rotors and pads you don't have a lot of clearance there.

DansYellow66

That sounds pretty normal for installing new pads. Without the springs the pedal movement and response would be slower so you want to maintain light contact. They will be fine.

Cautrell05

Ok. Thanks guys

TJefferson2020

Had similar experience installing mine. My understanding is that very minor drag is normal. But at first they were clamped down pretty good. Now, the car rolls very easy with no binding. If you installed a new master cylinder, don't forget to bench bleed the heck out of it.

Cautrell05

So evidently, if you leave the plastic plug in that covers the brake line hole it will hold pressure. Remove the plug and all is well. Imagine that.

kolsen911

Maybe you don't drive your cars as much as I do my 72 Porsche 911, but I had my rubber flexible brake lines start to collapse trapping the pressure. Threw them away and replaced with stainless.

JohnZ

Don't know which hole you're talking about, but there's no plastic plug on earth that will hold brake fluid pressure.

Cautrell05

There's no hydraulic pressure because there's no hoses on it yet. Normally when you buy a caliper there's a plastic plug pushed in where the brake line attaches to keep debris out. In this case, they were keeping air pressure in making the caliper hang up on the rotor.