Hi Guys,

Long story kinda short.....my local Audi dealer sales department agreed to powder coat all 4 brake calipers on my Audi at no charge because the two rear had some domestic damage upon delivery that couldn't be fixed without fully replacing the calipers with new ones.

So....went to all the work of finding a power coating place in Regina that does good work, make all the arrangements to be down a car for a few days while this occurs, and in the end, have some nice Fire Red calipers on my white Audi.

Yesterday, drop my car off at Audi to the service department. They are supposed to remove the calipers, all the pistons and seals and stuff (sorry....not a mechanical inclined guy so I don't know what's all in there) and get them all degreased and then delivered to the powder coating business.

Hours pass and I finally get a call from Audi Service.....they didn't quite understand what the Audi Sales guys wanted and had originally assumed they were just removing the calipers and sending them somewhere to be painted - not powder coated.

Once it came time to remove the pistons/seals and clean/degrease the calipers, Audi Service guys say they don't have the tools or the skills to do so?!?!?! Apparently if anything ever goes wrong with anything inside a caliper, they just replace the whole unit so they aren't given the tools or skills to do what we needed done.

So....instead they ordered two new calipers for my damaged ones and are just replacing them and calling it a day.

As you can probably understand...I am a little disappointed. Not in Audi of course....I love these guys locally and they are always awesome with me. Just with the situation. Wanna make that clear. Taylor Audi in Regina is awesome.

But....I am the kinda guy that when I hear from someone "it's impossible for us to do" - want to find a way to make it possible.

Has anyone gone through similar experiences or have any ideas? I know an option is to use brake caliper paint and do it manually, but the powder coating process is much better in the long run.

I have searched through a few Audi based user sites and all I ever find is people talking about manually painting their calipers.

Thanks for any advice or comments

 

What exactly do you want to know, Ryan?

It's definitely possible to powder-coat calipers – the dealer techs just don't know much about anything other than what they're trained to know. It's likely that they don't know how to remove the pistons in the calipers; and, they're probably also concerned with tackling jobs they're not familiar with on safety related parts. They also nearly always replace entire units or systems, even when just one part of the system is damaged, e.g., replace entire turbo/manifold (~$2000 in some cases) when just the wastegate actuator (~$100) is faulty, replace entire engine when just the bearings are bad, etc.

Changing brakes is one of the simplest starter jobs you can do on a vehicle. I can help you pull them and pop the pistons out if you want to get them to the powder-coaters yourself – it won't take long at all.

 

Sent you a PM Cheeba....

 

Well....looks like it's a no go....until the warranty expires.

Audi Sales will pay to power-coat them, if an Audi Service shop can do the work to take them apart and put them back together again. Otherwise.....warranty goes bye-bye if I have anyone else do the work they promised to get done in their service department, before knowing that it wasn't something their service guys were able to (or willing to) tackle.

I guess I could just order some MGP Caliper Covers for the mean time and when warranty is done, go ahead up both upgrade to some STaSIS brakes and get them painted red before delivery!

 

Caliper covers, noooooo! I cringe every time I see them

If you're going to keep the car, and spend the money on brakes eventually, just do it right and get the Stasis brakes now. It won't affect the warranty of any other parts on the vehicle – it's illegal for any manufacturer to deny warranty claims unless they can conclusively prove that the failed part is due to modifications to a related part. And, no manufacturer can deny total vehicle warranty because you put different brakes on, if that's what someone at the dealership were alluding to be the case.

Friendly question: why do you want to upgrade the brakes? Your ultimate braking power is limited by the friction coefficient of your tires (or the surface they're interacting with), and not of the clamping force of your calipers; race teams and aggressive drivers upgrade brakes to shed rotating mass, and to reduce brake fade. Upgrading the pads and fluid are usually all that's needed for a car that doesn't have near R-compound tires, or will see track duty. Of course, a lot of people do upgrade the brakes just for aesthetics.

 

My reasoning for red calipers are 1) I love the look of red calipers on white sports cars, and 2) the company decals of mine that will be on the car will have mostly red in them and it will further highlight/grab peoples attention to my car.....hopefully having them read the decals....and therefore, hopefully earning me some business.

As for the calliper covers.....I don't mind investing $400 into some to see for awhile how I feel about the red look.....before I spend $5000 to completely change out the brake system for a cosmetic upgrade...and performance wise, I know it's not needed.....this is all purely for cosmetic looks of something I like.

 

If that's the case, I'd just save myself $3K and buy a set of Stoptechs, which are very well designed systems. The cost of those caliper covers will get you 20% of the way there! As I said, the dealer won't be able to touch your warranty on anything else on the car just because you upgrade the brakes.

 

Yeah....I understand that about the warranty....but it's also a leased vehicle right now, so I can't go changing things without their permission and I may have to pay to return it to original when/if I ever turn it in.

At least with the powder coating, they were doing it....so not my responsibility. And covers, can be removed easily.

 

Cool – just tossing some options out there