MNTwins

I purchased my baby, a 2005 Ralliart in January. A few months ago, the rear left caliper seized up, eating through the pads and scratching the rotor pretty badly. My dad and I replaced the rear pads, and rotor on the left side. The caliper had a small tear in the grommet around the piston, but I could not afford a new one at the time, so we just put everything back together. A few weeks ago, I noticed that the caliper had seized up again, eating up the new pads and scratching up the rotor again. I found a caliper online for $45+shipping and a $50 core deposit, which I'll get back when I send the old one in. I also purchased cross drilled and slotted rotors, and Wagner ThermoQuiet pads for both the front and rear. The previous owner had painted the calipers (as well as installed a CRI and headers ), so I wanted to paint the new caliper to match. I also purchased new parking brake shoes and a parking brake shoe hardware kit, because I was pretty sure it was running on the originals, and I figured as long as I have everything off, why not, right? BTW, the parking brake shoes are a b*tch to find. I called Advance Auto Parts, and they said they'd be over $100!! I found the shoes online at www.rockauto.com along with the hardware kit for $50 after shipping. I ordered the Dupli-Color Red Brake Caliper Kit from Amazon for $18 after shipping. Once the caliper and paint arrived, I took advantage of the beautiful day and painted the caliper to match the other ones. After I was done painting the caliper, I noticed that the caliper was much brighter than the other ones, so I decided to paint those ones, also. The can of caliper cleaner that comes with the kit worked wonders. I took the wheels off, and then sprayed some on the calipers. It took all the dirt off, plus the old paint, too (bonus)!! I then proceeded to paint the old calipers, and will be installing the rotors, pads, and parking brake shoes as soon as the shoes arrive on Wednesday. I will post pics of the install, so if anyone else wants to paint your calipers, you can see how easy it was!!!

MNTwins

Here is What I'm working with:






Here are my old calipers:





First I taped up the new caliper:



Then I applied the first coat:




Then I waited 20 minutes, then applied a second coat. I repeated this for a third and fourth coat:

MNTwins

After seeing the color difference, I decided to start on the front calipers. First, I jacked up the front, and took the wheels off. Then, I put some newspaper over the rotors. Since I'm installing new rotors, and pads in two days, I didn't care about these rotors and pads too much, so I didn't care if I got paint on them. You can see how much paint was taken off just by spraying the calipers with the caliper cleaner. I went through the can pretty quickly, so I went to the auto parts store down the street, and bought another can. By the time I was done with the front calipers, that new can was over half gone, so I went back to the auto parts store to buy another, just to make sure I have enough. They were cheap enough, $5 per can, so I applied it pretty liberally:






I made sure to tape up the brake bleeder screw and hose:



Then on to the first coat:








By that time, the new caliper was dry, so I flipped it over & painted the rest of it. Here's the first coat:




Then the second, third, and fourth on the new caliper and old ones on the car:

MNTwins

After I let everything dry, I put the wheels back on:








By now it's starting to get late, so I'll do the rear ones tomorrow. I will post pics tomorrow after I am finished painting them. Then it will be only one more day before I can put all new brakes on my lovely lady and finally get to drive her again!! I deliver pizzas ll day, and we recently got a heat wave and the POS I have to drive right now has no air conditioning :-( With the leather seats, I feel like I'm driving around in a sauna right now. I can't wait to get back in the Ralliart...

MNTwins

Also I'm planning on making the symbols on the rims and also the symbols on the front and back of the car red also. Does anyone know if I can just tape everything off and use this caliper paint, or would it be a better idea to ged red vinyl and just cut it to the symbols?? Any help on this would be appreciated

RalliartN

iTrader: (1)

Buy the center cap decals from these guys:
http://www.prostreetgraphics.com/car...erralli04.html

CrAnSwIcK

iTrader: (5)

Not that it matters now, but the shoes are the same as the Evo. The problem is not that they are hard to find, it's the parts stores try to sell you shoe kits for lancers with rear drum brakes.

MNTwins

Quote:

Originally Posted by CrAnSwIcK

Not that it matters now, but the shoes are the same as the Evo. The problem is not that they are hard to find, it's the parts stores try to sell you shoe kits for lancers with rear drum brakes.

That's very true. Every parts store I called tried to sell me the shoes for drum brakes. It's good to know this in the future, that the shoes are the same as the evo. BTW, what version evo would they be the same for?? Thanks for your quick resopnse.

CrAnSwIcK

iTrader: (5)

USDM 8/9 i believe...they are Akebono AK L610 i believe for aftermarket, and OEM p/n MR391631 for genuine mitsu.

MNTwins

Ok so I took the time today to do the back calipers before work, and took more pics. Here is what they looked like after I cleaned them. I could have used another can of caliper cleaner, but I did not have the $ for it, and I had already bought both of the ones in stock at the auto parts store down the block. All together, I used 3 cans of caliper cleaner to clean 5 calipers, but I could have used another one easily. As you can see, the pads on the passenger side still look brand new from when we installed them a few months ago, and the driver side has been eaten away to nothing, even though we installed both sets at the same time:






Then on to the first coat of paint. On the side that I am replacing, I painted the mounting bracket and some of the rest of the caliper, but I didn't really go into detail on the caliper that was being replaced:









Then on to the second, third, and fourth coat. once again, since I'm replacing the rotors and brake pads tomorrow, I didn't care about getting any extra paint on them:




















I left after the last coat to go to work for a few hours, and when I came back I put the tires back on the car. As soon as FedEx shows up tomorrow with my parking brake shoes, I'll be driving up to my dad's to start installing the pads, rotors, parking brake shoes, & new hardware. I'll keep everyone posted on the results!!

MNTwins

If you're wondering about all the rust on the rotors, a few weeks ago I took some armor all rim cleaner to the rims, but sprayed a lot of it, and a bunch got on the rotors. You can even see in some pics where the pads were when I sprayed the rims. Lesson learned - read and follow all directions on all chemicals before applying them to your car!!

MNTwins

The car is finally up and running again I installed the new parking brake shoes & hardware, rotors, pads, and new left rear caliper. I didn't take any pics of the install on rotors and pads, because I've already seen many posts on how to do this. The parking brake shoes, however, were not fun to deal with. Everything is held in by springs, so you have to be careful that they dont pop out & fly away. Here is what I was working with:






FYI, the drum brake spring tool was useless for this car. The parts that the spring tool are supposed to work on were half under the wheel hub, making it impossible to use the tool without taking the hub off. I just put my finger in the hole where the pin was held, and twisted the washer with a pair of pliers. The plier looking tool worked wonders, though. After I got the caliper and rotor off, this is what I was dealing with:





I ended up getting quite dirty throughout this process, so I didn't get the chance to take any more pics before I was done, because I didn't want to ruin my phone. I only did one side at a time, so I could go back & fourth to see where each spring went. The new ones were color coded, but the old ones were so rusty that I could not tell what the color was on them. I watched a couple of youtube videos on how to replace drum brakes, and this went the same, except for the fact that the wheel hub was in the way. I made sure to put the white grease on the points where the shoes touch inside, and I cleaned everything off with brake cleaner before installing the new hardware, and I used caliper lube on all moving parts (parking brake arm & adjuster screw) before installing them again. The new parking brake was extremely tight, so I had to take out the center console and adjust the parking brake cable, as shown in the owner's manual (and other posts on this forum). After installing all the new parts, I used the seafoam spray in the air intake, and poured seafoam liquid in the oil crankcase and gas tank. I also took out my MAF sensor, and cleaned it. The rotors I got were plated with zinc, so I have to wait until the zinc wears off of where the pads contact the rotor, then I'm going to bed them in. Here is what they look like now. It was raining today, so I'm goint to wait until it's nice out, then give my car a much needed wash, and make those tires shine!!




Before:



After:

NorCal Lancer

iTrader: (1)

nice job! I painted my calipers red too with the duplicolor caliper paint. Holds up very well. I do want to upgrade to the cross drilled rotors some time down the line.

MNTwins

I got them off ebay for $135. I could have gotten them with all 8 pads for $180. Hopefully they will hold up on me. I was kind of nervous buying them from ebay, but once I saw the price for them compared to what the auto parts store wanted for regular ones, I figured it'd be worth a try.