[plenty]

Just rebuilt and painted my calipers all around with new seals and guide bushes. The guide bolts were in good condition needing only a light rubdown with wet and dry paper.

The old guide bushes visually looked OK and the caliper slid easily back and forth. The new ones, though, are very tight indeed - requiring extremely firm pressure to install the bolts - so stiff in fact that when moving the carrier onto one of the calipers that it pushed a bush out of the caliper body rather than sliding on the bolt.

I know that you are not supposed to lube the guide bolts, but is this level of stiffness normal?

 

[gzig5]

That doesn't seem right and I did not have that problem when I did mine this summer. But, I used a very light coating of a teflon based lube on the guide pins for assembly. I'm not sure I buy the "dry" requirement and the parts I removed had been lubed at some point, by someone and I don't think the previous owner was a DIY guy. May be blasphemy, but I would recommend a light coat of something, wipe it off, and assemble. Good luck.

 

[plenty]

Thanks for the feedback. The bushes are not OEM but from a third party supplier which does make me wonder. I'm thinking I might re-use the old ones instead.

 

[gzig5]

Thanks for the feedback. The bushes are not OEM but from a third party supplier which does make me wonder. I'm thinking I might re-use the old ones instead.

All bets are off then. Return the impostors which are causing problems and get the real OEM parts. They aren't that expensive and as cheap as I am, brakes is one area not to skimp.

 

[sidneyj]

Yeah get the factory guides. In addition, just make sure all the parts are very clean and do them "dry". Brakes are in an inviroment where lots of dust is floating around even if there protected by a rubber boot. Lubing them just attracts dust and "gums" up parts. When I did my brakes I spoke with a BMW tech and I spoke to the folks at Zeckhausen. Dry it is.

 

[DouglasABaker]

No lube on BMW caliper slides. They are different than the usual design, and lubing them will actually make them stick because they are exposed and will pick up crap on them

 

[Johny-Rocket]

Thanks for the feedback. The bushes are not OEM but from a third party supplier which does make me wonder. I'm thinking I might re-use the old ones instead.

I am thinking of doing mine right now all round so who did you get your's off then?

 

[plenty]

I got mine from Brakes International but next time will use OEM. Try BMMini for OEM.