737 Jock

Sizes of the bolts involved:

Bleed valves: 10 mm.
Banjo bolts: 14 mm.
Front Guide pins: 14 mm socket, 19 mm open wrench to hold the guide pin from turning.
Front Brackets: 19 mm.
Rear Guide pins: 12 mm socket, 17 mm open wrench to hold the guide pin from turning.
Rear brackets: 17 mm.

One 8-ounce can of POR 15 should do a set of brakes. I bought a quart of POR 15 and divided it into four 8-ounce cans for future work. As POR 15 has no UV resistance it must be top coated. You can top coat POR 15 with any paint desired, but remember to use heat rated caliper or engine paint.
The chemical bond window is 4 to 6 hours, so paint a piece of scrap metal at the same time as the calipers. Test spray the top coat over the scrap piece and wait 15 minutes to observe a good cover with no wrinkling before top coating the calipers.

As an alternative, wait for the POR 15 to dry and sand lightly for a mechanical bond with the top coat.

POR 15 is superb protection when done right. RTF instructions! Read about POR 15 at www.por15.com.

Wear gloves so skin oils don't contaminate the surfaces to be painted.
Thoroughly scrub the brake calipers and brackets. Wash them with a water based de-greaser only, as POR 15 does not bond well to the film left behind by acetone or brake parts cleaner.

Mask off as needed and apply the POR 15 using disposable foam brushes. (I trimmed a few brushes down to 5 mm points for tight areas.) Wait for the chemical bond window, then test the color coat on your scrap piece before spraying the brake parts. These were done with VHT Gold and Clear, then baked at 200 degrees:

(Note: Baking car parts goes much better if the female marriage unit is not home!)



The rotors should not need to be turned if they had no brake pulsation, no groove is deep enough to catch a fingernail and they exceed minimum thickness. Measure the rotor thickness all around the disc. Service limit is 26 mm front and 7.5 mm rear. These front rotors are at 27 mm:



I plan to use these rotors through one more set of pads, then replace them with EBC "Black Dash" USR slotted rotors. So I cleaned up the fronts and dressed the rust with Plasti-Kote Rust Converter on the rim and inside the hat:



In addition to rear rotor thickness, the parking brake drum diameter is checked for wear. Normal is 200 mm and the service limit is 201 mm:



On the rear rotor I dressed the rust on the rim and hat with POR 15:



Anti-rattle clips scrubbed clean and re-installed:



Front Brakes:

Test fitting the pads. These needed to be sanded some at the ear contact points for smooth sliding:



Wheel hub scrubbed clean of rust and smooth. Any offset from true here, will be magnified at the swept area and result in pulsation:



The rotor screw holes will only line up one way. The rotor hat is clean and smooth:



Bracket bolts torqued to 101 lb-ft:



The rotor is snugged down with OEM lugnuts and nylon washers to keep it in true. Pad ears lightly greased. DO NOT GET GREASE ON THE FRICTION SURFACES. The screech clip goes on the inner pad leading edge -- that's up:



Caliper guide pin bolts torqued to 37 lb-ft:



Rear Brakes:

Parking brake shoes should be about 3 mm with a service limit of 1 mm. Hub is clean:



The rear screech clip goes on the inner pad leading edge -- that's down. Bracket bolts torqued to 80 lb-ft:



Caliper guide pins torqued to 17 lb-ft:



Power bleeder pressurizing the brake system:



Bleeding the calipers. Sequence is left front, right front, right rear, left rear:



Brakes bedded and in service:

wspy

" 100 above...minimums-----> Landing "!

Excellent write up!

737 Jock

Thanks wspy.

Also take note of how some small parts are assembled:

Caliper guide pins are not the same. On the front calipers, the guide pin with the plastic sleeve goes on top, the guide pin with the flat sides goes on bottom.

On the rear calipers, the guide pin with flats goes on top and the guide pin that is round goes on bottom.

Also on the rear caliper bracket, the flat anti-rattle clip goes on top and the ribbed anti-rattle clip with drain holes goes on bottom.



"I always drink coffee when I watch radar, you know that!"

SinCity

Subscribed!

dkswim

Good write up.

Kaze66218

looks nice, I am debating on going ahead and doing this to my car, hows this holding up?

I used to think paint should be on aftermarket calipers only, but the front brake is massive and there wouldn't be any need for Baer, Brembo, etc for the RDX.

Hows the "red stuff" feel while breaking?+-?

737 Jock

The POR-15 and VHT painted calipers have been in service for 13000 miles now with no sign of chipping or loss of gloss (pictured below at 13k miles). They are very easy to clean.

The RedStuff front pads are wearing 1.0 mm per 3200 miles. This should give them a service life of 33600 miles. The rears are wearing 1.0 mm per 4300 miles, for an expected service life of 32250 miles (rear pads are thinner when new). On stock rotors which are near their wear limit, the EBC pads have been perfectly steady and smooth. They have not worn the rotors at all, which bodes well for new rotor service life. I have EBC RedStuff on all of my cars. They provide excellent performance street braking with very low dust.

Acuralin

Have you noticed your brakes now overheat much more?
Cause the POR 15 has no ceramic in it, hence there will be no heat dissipation.

An honest opinion will be apreciated

737 Jock

I don't measure my brake temperature. However, when I painted the brakes I also replaced the stock pads with EBC RedStuff, so the only difference I can note is markedly improved stopping power and no discernable fade during spirited driving -- this would be due to the EBC pads. POR-15 may slightly reduce heat dissapation, but it's not apparent (I don't run the family RDX on the track.)

The only difference I can comment on from base-coating the brake parts with POR-15, is that they are corrosion-free, easily cleaned and still glossy (almost 2 years later).

737 Jock

At 2 years, the calipers still look glossy and nearly new.

The RedStuff pads are down to about 3.0 mm front and rear, with about 35k miles on them. I expect the pads to go about 40k miles -- more than I originally guessed.

It's important to note that no floating caliper with pistons on one side only, ever wears pads evenly. I was starting to get uneven wear at about 15k miles, so I swapped the low pads with the high pads, and that evened out the wear. Had I not "rotated" the pads, the lowest one would have been gone at about 25k miles.

The RedStuff pads are easy on rotor wear. These are still the original rotors and they have 105k miles on them now -- way longer than I have ever run a rotor before. They have lost another 0.5 mm since I put the RedStuff pads on and will be coming off soon.

RedStuff is a very progressive pad, which is enjoyable when they have some meat on them, but now that they are down below 4 mm, the progressiveness feels a bit soft. Since I'll be needing new rotors and pads, I'm going to try a new combination with another brand of rotor and ceramic pad.

Here is what the painted calipers look like, cleaned up last night, after 2 years and 35k miles:

DRR98

Thanks for sharing.

wspy

True Jock, my left rear outer pad was done at 15K.

737 Jock

^^

Yeah, not everyone will agree, but I think it is the small variables in a system that applies pressure to one side only.

I polish and regrease the guide pins, polish the piston, and sand the pad ears for smooth sliding, then bleed at every tire rotation. I still get some uneven wear in every car I have ever owned with floating calipers.

dcmodels

Do you mean the Caliper piston? does that mean partial disassembly of the caliper?

737 Jock

Yes, if it has corrosion from a torn boot.

Disassembly is just a snap ring and a boot.

737 Jock

Well, after much research, I bought Autozone Duralast rotors and Duralast C-max Gold pads.

With my points and some deal-making at my local Autozone, I got 2 front rotors and front/rear pads for $130 -- not much more than the price of one EBC rotor.

Haven't put them on yet.

wifesRDXtech

What did you use to compress the piston? I haven't done a brake job in a while but fixing to do the rear pads soon. Any other parts I should buy just in case? I am getting rear pad set from Acura dealer online for 48 bucks.

737 Jock

You can get a piston retractor at any auto parts store for a few bucks. On the RDX rear calipers it is not necessary to rotate the piston in, because the parking brake is the shoe type inside the rotor hub.

You might want to get Honda brake fluid and flush the lines.

wifesRDXtech

I had the brake system flushed at Acura in June 12. I should be ok ? So no need to push rears piston in so I am assuming I will not have to take out any fluid of reservior as per RDX maint manual ? I will buy Acura brake fluid just incase.

737 Jock

Yes, you do have to push the rear pistons in.

Only it is not necessary to rotate the rear pistons as you push, because they are not integrated with the parking brake.

You can push the rear pistons straight in using the piston tool or a large C-clamp. Place an old brake pad against the piston when you push it.

Pushing in the piston will back fluid up through the system to the reservoir. You will have to watch that level and remove some. As you mentioned, Honda says that it is OK to push fluid backwards through the system.

However, it is generally better to push the old fluid out the bleed valve when you retract the piston. But to do this, you must have vacuum on the bleed valve the entire time it is open, or bleed the brakes afterward.

Lanesky_OH8RDX

Is baking them A must or could I just wait to do this in the summer and let them air dry?

737 Jock

POR-15 does not have to be baked, but the VHT caliper paint does have to be cured at 200F for one hour.

http://www.vhtpaint.com/products/caliperpaint/

grtbamdino

curious to know how those Autozone rotors and pads are treating you??? Always nice to save a buck.

Spirited driver that drives for the job. Not much braking on my end at 104k. Dealer said I still have some time left on em

wifesRDXtech

Thanks Jock with all the info, makes it easy. just did rear pads only rear disks still within limits, have 52k miles approx. first time changed rears.

On the fronts I had akebono pads put in kept original disks done about 25000 miles ago , need to do disks and pads soon, I am going with OE pads and disks bought from an online acura dealer in MA.

Am I correct the OE pads also are ceramic?