Azrael.nc

After doing some maintenance while putting on new rims, I decided I wanted to paint my brake calipers. Initially I was going to keep everything attached and just tape/tarp off the wheel well, but I had to open up the bleeder on one of the front calipers because it was being difficult, and noticed some dirty brake fluid, so I figured I'd be in for a flush and bleed anyways, so I decided to take the calipers off in order to make it easier to clean them up and get them painted. Last time I took calipers off my other car, I had to change out the crush washers, and after dealing with several parts stores that kept giving me the wrong parts, I finally went through the dealership. This time, I figured I would go ahead and just deal straight with the dealership, but when I tried to order the parts, they said they didn't have a separate part number for them outside of an entire caliper replacement, which I was not going to do. Then I tried to take the washers off the banjo bolt so I could go to a hardware store and get the replacements, but the washer wouldn't come off because the threads for the bolt were larger than the inner diameter of the washer. (!?) Looking at the How-To guide for the calipers here, there is no mention of changing the washers, so is this something I need to worry about? When I tried to reconnect the calipers on my other vehicle, before changing out the washers, it would just leak brake fluid and I don't want to deal with that again.

drhoward

I'm not sure about having to swap them out, but LMR sells just the washers

Derf00

As long as the washers are not totally shredded, you do not need to change them. They crush to seal so they will get some circular grooves in them. As long as the grooves are circular (follow the circumference of the washer) and not radial you'll be fine. Radial grooves would go from the inside diameter to the outside diameter of the washer and give brake fluid an escape path.

To replace your existing washers you'd have to cut them off. The crush process flattens them thus the inner diameter is smaller and outer diameter is larger than original/new. If you're going to cut the washers, may as well replace the entire bleeder+washer at that point.

Edit: this is one of those things that "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"