Like many other high performance cars, modern Ferraris are fitted with separate handbrake calipers in addition to the main rear braking calipers. This allows the much more powerful brakes to be fitted, in fact the non-CCM 360 and F430 use the same 4-pot calipers front and rear (the bias is different though). Another useful by-product of having separate handbrake calipers is that they can be applied when the brakes are very hot without the fear of transferring pad material onto the disc (especially useful when parking up in the pit lane).
Since they aren’t doing much braking, the handbrake pads are very small. One might think this would make them inexpensive but remember this is a Ferrari – a set of pads lists at nearly £200. Fortunately UK brake manufacturer EBC make an aftermarket alternative (code DP1719) and can be bought for as little as £36. They are a perfect match for the OEM pads – note in the following photograph the EBC pad at the bottom is placed on top of an OEM pad. Note also the red coating on the EBC pads – this is a special bedding in coating that they apply to all their pads. The EBC pads do not come with new springs and pins like the OEM pads but the old items can be reused.
The procedure to change the pads is straightforward. Firstly remove the road wheel for access to the rear hub assembly. The rear tie-rod needs to be detached from either the hub or the chassis – here I have removed the three bolts holding the rod to the chassis. This allows the hub to be rotated to improve access to the handbrake caliper.
The caliper is held in place with two hex head bolts (one M8 and one M10). To access the upper bolt a longish reach 6mm hex is needed.
This picture shows the location of the bolts (partially removed).
The caliper can then be withdrawn from the hub (have something ready to support it to prevent damaging the cable). You can see in this picture that the friction material has completed fallen out of the inner pad – a very common occurrence.
Remove the hairpin cotter from the centre pin.
Drift the centre pin out of the caliper. Retain the spring and remove the pads.
Wind the piston back into the caliper using a rewind tool.
Fit the new pads.
Clean up the pin and spring with a wire brush.
Fit the spring and pin. Once the pin is home, fit the hairpin cotter.
The caliper can now be re-fitted to the hub. Torque the lower (M10) bolt to 70Nm and the upper (M8) bolt to 30Nm.
Refit the tie-rod (torque the bolts to 25Nm).
Finally, repeat for the other side.
The handbrake lever will need to be operated several times to wind the pistons back up to the disc. I also recommend (careful) light application of the handbrake when moving for a few times. This will scrub off the red bedding in layer from the pads, something that wouldn’t happen in normal use.
Related posts:
- Ferrari 360 & F430 Brake Pads
- Ferrari 360 & F430 Front Brake Pad and Disc change
- Rear Discs and Pads Change
- Stainless Steel Brake Hoses
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I thank you so much for your informative posts. This as all have been tremendously helpful.