Raider's Review of the Damond Motorsports Brake Caliper Bushings

Raider

Raider

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A week before installing my EBC Red pads and rotors, Damond Motorsports released these bushings. So I bought a set, because after 132,000 miles, upgrade all the things.

Got help from local Nator installing these because basically I'm broken. Install went smooth, using the instructions as a guideline. We did some changes to how we did it, but in they went. Then found rear calipers leaking. But after install, the brakes were night and day, even without a bleed and bad calipers. The pedal just felt smoother.

Fast forward 1 fortnight, and a pair of 49k calipers were installed, the bushings swapped over. Even smoother braking! I've put 700 total miles on them, and very happy with my purchase.

I should have written notes, perhaps @jsmith can help notate some pics.

Thanks to @neganox, @Shampu, @jsmith, @Mauro_Penguin, and @StealthWyvern for their help on this.

The kit can be purchased here:
https://www.damondmotorsports.com/collections/brakes/products/mazdaspeed3-brake-caliper-bushings

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Good stuff.

Use a flathead to push the OEM bushings out of the caliper.

Have some wire brushes or battery terminal brushes to clean the caliper and prep for the copper bushing.

Have a couple of picks to massage the Orings into the sleeves.

Have C-clip pliers ready to put the clips on the copper bushings.

Have a bucket of caliper grease, and grease all the things.

Other than that it's just a standard brake job.
 
Mauro_Penguin said:
2 hours is still great time, assuming you cleaned, greased, and bled everything accordingly.
Click to expand...
I should have specified... 2 hours to get front brakes done including front brake lines, get rear bushings out and cleaned the bore (We used exactly what you suggested, battery terminal brush lol). We haven't put the rear calipers back on and bleed the whole sistem yet lol! Doing all that tonight! Hopefully it's a smooth-er install tonight. After brake is done, then it's time to put the engine in!
 
KiwiFlavor said:
I should have specified... 2 hours to get front brakes done including front brake lines, get rear bushings out and cleaned the bore (We used exactly what you suggested, battery terminal brush lol). We haven't put the rear calipers back on and bleed the whole sistem yet lol! Doing all that tonight! Hopefully it's a smooth-er install tonight. After brake is done, then it's time to put the engine in!
Click to expand...

Unless you plan on rebleeding everything afterward, remember to bleed the clutch slave also since it's all sharing the same reservoir. Use a C clamp or something like it to keep the slave from extending out while bleeding.

Also remember that when you bleed the brakes, the lines criss cross due to the ABS design. So do the Rear passenger first, then front driver immediately after. Then rear driver, followed by front passenger, and the clutch for last.

Rokusek had a good thread on MSF as to how and why.
 
Mauro_Penguin said:
Unless you plan on rebleeding everything afterward, remember to bleed the clutch slave also since it's all sharing the same reservoir. Use a C clamp or something like it to keep the slave from extending out while bleeding.

Also remember that when you bleed the brakes, the lines criss cross due to the ABS design. So do the Rear passenger first, then front driver immediately after. Then rear driver, followed by front passenger, and the clutch for last.

Rokusek had a good thread on MSF as to how and why.
Click to expand...


Yes sir! I actually was reading that thread last night! Thank you!
 
Glad to hear you're liking them @Raider! Once you get some miles on them, and everything starts wearing evenly as it should, pedal feel is awesome.

Mauro_Penguin said:
Good stuff.

Use a flathead to push the OEM bushings out of the caliper.

Have some wire brushes or battery terminal brushes to clean the caliper and prep for the copper bushing.

Have a couple of picks to massage the Orings into the sleeves.

Have C-clip pliers ready to put the clips on the copper bushings.

Have a bucket of caliper grease, and grease all the things.

Other than that it's just a standard brake job.
Click to expand...

I destroyed a battery brush doing a set on the Mazda5. Front calipers are steel, and the rears were also super corroded. That's when I tried the sanding disc in a drill, and it made for easy fitting. I was maybe getting half the rear rotor surface contacting prior to swapping these in.
 
That's the joy of Florida living, no rusty crusty! The new rear calipers were cleaner than mine, too. Worst part was the pins having brake caliper paint buildup lol.

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Raider said:
That's the joy of Florida living, no rusty crusty! The new rear calipers were cleaner than mine, too. Worst part was the pins having brake caliper paint buildup lol.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

I had replaced my rear calipers with rebuilt units. One was a newer Ford style, there other looked like it fell off a truck. lol
 
Matt@DM said:
I had replaced my rear calipers with rebuilt units. One was a newer Ford style, there other looked like it fell off a truck. lol
Click to expand...
Yikes! That would upset me.

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So I just find this thread after just replacing my front pads and rotors last weekend. After noticing how much movement the stock rubber guides have and how my previous pads wore I may be getting these soon for the new pads. Didn't know I had to bleed the MS3 brakes in that criss-cross pattern either, thanks for that tidbit.

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Just put a set of these on my car.

Pads had meat, rotors looked great, brakes were power bled and greased, and the brakes had developed mush in them. Car only has like 56k miles.

Stock rubber bushings looked good, no tears or unusual wear spots but obviously they are soft as intended.

Installed these things and went down the street for a test drive. So far the brakes are super tight! The kind of brakes you'd expect from a dedicated track car. Stopping is linear!

A great upgrade for just a few dollars. I cant say enough good things about all the Damond stuff, these bushing replacements are another great product.

Installation tip: if the bushing grease boots dont want to slide on all the way, poke a small hole in them with a thumb tack. I just used the tip on my C clip pliers, and they went on much easier and fully sat.
 
I've got maybe 4k miles on em, still amazing!

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KiwiFlavor said:
DAMN! I totally forgot DM have these! Ugh! My brakes were fighting me yesterday. Supposed to be an easy job turned out to be a 2 hr job -_-
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Me too man started my brakes the other day, found cracked brand new rotor so put the old ones on but I won't have time to order a set before the replacement Comes in and I NEED to do my brake job can't wait.
 
31,000 miles later, I went BBK but kept rears and zero issues.
 
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