So its way too late, and I was up thinking about my car. I think to myself "Hey, your swanky new GTU has the puny little single piston brake calipers. But, your wrecked GXL has the four piston calipers..."



From there, I am utterly convinced that I should swap these things over between the cars. But how? I have limited experience in wrenching, and zero experience with the braking system. I DO know that my GXL was in need of pads and a rotor turning/replacement before I put it in the ditch. However, I've never had the wheel off of either car to really examine things. What exactly will I need to swap other than the calipers, rotors, and pads? Will I need to swap the lines and the master cylinder as well? What about bleeding the lines, changing fluid, etc.? How long is this silly scheme going to take to finish?

 

i did the same thing on mine. all you need to swap are front brake lines, pads, calipers. it bolts right on. its a nice upgrade too

 

Do all GXL's have 4 piston brakes? I have a S4 GXL parts car (which by the way if anyone needs anything, blue, blue interior, auto...but I don't know if any of the engine components work cause I got the car and it needs a fuel pump and shifter and I have been lazy) Would S4 brake calipers fit on a S5 GTU? That would make my decision about the slotted rotors easy. I would buy SS brake lines and put on those calipers with all new slotted/cross drilled rotors and pads.



Thanks,

Mike

 

GXL's all have 4 piston front calipers. The 86-88 4 piston calipers are the same as the 89-91 4 piston calipers. The same goes for single piston calipers.

 

In order to do the swap, what do you have to do?

Just remove the 1-piston calipers and bolt-on the 4-pistons calipers? What about the discs? Do they have to be changed?

If yes, by 5bolt discs? I have a GX with 4 bolts + 1 piston calipers....the reason is that I might be able to get them cheap....btw I bought brand new SS brake lines and redone the whole lines from front to rear...

 

You would need to convert your car to the 5 lug hubs before you can upgrade to 4 piston calipers.

 

So there's no other conversion but 5 lug hubs and 4 piston calipers....excellent....I always wanted 5 lug hubs anyway

 

Thats good. Looks like I am going to rebuild the calipers, buy the SS hoses and get my rotors and pads.

 

How do you rebuild calipers?



This sounds as if it will be a lot of work. ???

 

you first have to buy the kit (mazdatrix has them for $26). It contains new seals and maybe other parts

then you change all the old parts with the new ones.....if you have the tools, it should be pretty easy to do with a good manual (haynes, factory service manual (I have it in PDF if you want it 86-88)