Re-use brake caliper bolts?
 

Hi, I'm in the midst of a pretty extensive rebuild of my 240D brake system, involving the replacement of both front and rear calipers. When I took the calipers off, I noticed that the bolts holding them on had some blue stuff in the threads (and they were a bear to loosen). At first I thought, oh, blue lock-tite no big deal. But then I happened to be shopping at Fastlane and saw that replacement caliper bolts are available as a separate orderable item - and they come with the blue stuff already applied.

Question: is it OK to re-use the old bolts, perhaps with a little dab of new lock-tite?

Kurt

The service manual says to replace them, and that's what I did.

I have always cleaned them and re-applied blue loc-tite on them.

I've reused plenty with new (blue or red, as needed) loctite--they're not stretch bolts.

Certified aircraft mechanic and licensed mechanical engineer but YMMV.

When you say clean, do you mean you removed the old loc-tite? If so, what did you use as a solvent?

Thanks,

Kurt

Removing old locking compound
 

A wire wheel works great, then some fresh Loc-tite.

I gently hit them on the wire wheel of my bench grinder. if there is rust on them, I use enough force to clean off the rust, and bathe them in oil to keep them from heating up.
clean well with brake spray after the wheel, then I apply blue paste loc tite.

I reuse (w/new loctite) unless what I'm installing comes with new ones. Using the new ones has to be cheaper for the 99% of the folks out there who use a mechanic. R&R is quicker than repair, cheaper for the customer.

I've been to a two-day loctite design/usage "school." They guy there told me not to bother "cleaning," but just to blow off the big pieces. His reasoning was that the powder/specks/pieces left on there is the same strength as the new stuff and will become part of the matrix (like gravel in cement mix to make concrete?). And how would you clean the detritus out of the female thread?

Again, YMMV.