[chrispitude]

Hi all,

I'd like to paint the brake calipers on my wife's 2016 F25. Normally, I thread a metric bolt in the brake hose hole and give it a decent wire brushing and cleanup, then hang by wire from the bolts and prime and paint.

However, I'm wondering how to deal with integrated e-brakes on the rear calipers:

If I remove them from the calipers completely, is the assembly still watertight? What happens if rusty water gets in there?

Thanks in advance!

[Opie55]

Boy am I glad I live where they don't use salt. It's easy to pull the motor off and you can see what's in there. There is a seal where the motor housing is, so it will be very clean in there. It's a large silver disc with an allen wrench fitting that is the mechanism that pushes the piston in. It is not water tight. It's wide open once you pull the motor off.

[Opie55]

And I'll add that the reason I know whats' in there is if you do a brake job but don't have the computer program to spin the motor, you have to remove the motor and use an allen wrench. Just just remove the couple small bolt and wiggle it off. I'd probably just tape the opening off good if I were you.

[pungo]

Hard to believe the caliper is off a 2016. I have a 2011 and they look nothing like that, but I'm in MD so not as much salt I suppose. Also I make sure I give the undercarriage/suspension/brakes get a really good rising with a power washer at the end of winter to remove all the road crap from winter driving.

As for painting the calipers, I highly recommend G2 paint. It's an epoxy type put on with a small paint brush and smooths out to a very durable glass like finish. Just tape off where you don't want the paint.

G2 Caliper Paint

[chrispitude]

I live in PA, but my 2014 328d and my 2016 X3d are both from NY and they both have crazy rust like this. I don't know what they're using up there, but it's hell on cars!

I'll see how easily these come apart today and I'll report back. Thanks for the help!

[pungo]

Yeah, when I was looking for a used X3, it was easy to spot the ones from the north due to the excessive corrosion on a lot of areas even though the paint looked great, therefore I steered clear of those.

You're going to need to remove the motor to retract the piston anyway, unless you have the diag software to retract it.

[Bilbofraggins]

Definitely something to stay on top of if you live in areas where road salt is used as I do...

I mitigate it by getting my vehicles sprayed every couple years, fairly frequent use of car washes and detailed and cleaning frame touch ups each year.

We just sold a 2008 E90... with 177,000 km... that still looked showroom including the calipers.

The brake junk on our F25 was rust tinted on delivery... the OEM rotors fell apart after two winters...

[pungo]

Originally Posted by Bilbofraggins

Definitely something to stay on top of if you live in areas where road salt is used as I do...

I mitigate it by getting my vehicles sprayed every couple years, fairly frequent use of car washes and detailed and cleaning frame touch ups each year.

What do you mean by "sprayed"? Is this a protectant?

[Bilbofraggins]

When new... I have a product sold up here as “Krown Protectant” applied.... It’s supposed to be a yearly thing.... but I don’t do that....A couple years after I get the waxy underbody spray...very common and popular here...

https://www.krown.com/en/