Wilwood D52's leaking from upper bleeder base fitting.

[BR3W CITY]

Long title but pretty self explanatory. I bought a set of Wilwood D52's (for the 1.25 rotor) from Scott's HotRods a while back, and have had them on the vehicle for a lil while now and been very happy....

Earlier this season, I started noticing that there was "bubbling" on the coating on the back of the caliper. Since they are powdercoated...I was shocked it was peeling off like a latex glove on the backside. I wiped off a little brake fluid but saw no signs of leaking and didn't leak with pedal stiff but car off.

Was working on the truck last night, and a quarter sized puddle was inside my rim. With the truck runner and the brake pressure, i could see it weeping from the base of the bleeder fitting (not the actual little bleeder, but the brass base that screws into the caliper itself).

I removed the fitting and lightly cleaned the threads, and used a dental pic to check the threads on the caliper side with no problems at all. I reinstalled the fitting, tightened it as far as I was comfortable....and it still leaks.


Sooooo....what the hell happened? I hadn't bled it recently or ever fully removed the bleeders at all....heck, I haven't even gone through ONE set of pads yet. These aren't cheap per se, so for it to be leaking AND the fitting peeling off? I'm a little disappointed from such a big name product.

Thoughts gents?

[Advanced Design]

Is this the caliper? Does the brass base have a tapered end that should be sealing against a seat? Seems it would. Maybe a problem with the seat in the caliper...angle, debris, dent, crack. Or hopefully just a bad brass base.

[BR3W CITY]

Yup thats the one.

Its only been removed partially once for bleeding, other than that...hasn't gone anywhere. I checked the threads and they looked decent.

I did find out that NAPA actually DOES carry a replacement for this part, just not listed anywhere as a bleeder. Its listed as a repair part, but its the same 1/8-27 NPT fittings with the internal bleeder, same as what Wilwood and SUmmit list. I picked up a pair and I'll throw one in tommorow, see if it helps.

[Advanced Design]

Curious so keep us posted. Does the bleeder look like a regular bleeder?

[oldman3]

I'm curious about how you bleed these, with the two bleeders, more on the bottom one?..Jim

[chevy_mike]

Originally Posted by oldman3

I'm curious about how you bleed these, with the two bleeders, more on the bottom one?..Jim

You only bleed the top one. They have the two so it can be used on the left or right side. This way they only need to build one caliper versus a left and right version.

[oldman3]

Originally Posted by chevy_mike

You only bleed the top one. They have the two so it can be used on the left or right side. This way they only need to build one caliper versus a left and right version.

Thank you, that clears that up...Jim

[BR3W CITY]

Here's the damage. Looks like a sloooooow leak from a poor quality stock bleeder fitting. I'm a little upset about it, as these were the stock fittings which I never removed, only ever bled (which shouldn't move the lower fitting at all!). My rims which are also powdercoated and exposed to that same brake fluid (it pooled in the rim), didn't bubble or suffer at all. I'm dissapointed that Wilwoods coating is so thin and easily damaged.


I kinda feel like a high performance (and expensive) brake caliper shouldn't leak from its bleeders...nor should it use goody "proprietary" bleeders either. The design seems to just create an additional point of plausible leak, and there is no other bleeder that would be able to eliminate the brass lower fitting that leaked.

So summit sells a replacement set of 4 for like $11, but then you need shipping and waiting 3-5 days...which I wanted no part of, bringin the total to around$19 for 4. I wanted a better solution, but calling parts stores didn't yield much.

The thread is 1/8-27 which is NPT. I found a few random part #'s in PDF displays from parts stores, and found something that actually lists as a "Repair Kit Part". This so called repair kit is actually the correct bleeder replacement! I crossed the part # over in the NAPA fittings and brakes catalog, and sure enough I could get one from the local main store for under $8.



I let some liquid thread sealant tack up on the fitting and installed it into the bleeder hole. It threads in perfectly, and seals fairly quickly. The bleeder portion seems to work as it should. Strangely, the wrenches that fit these are metric (my sae line wrenches didn't fit tight)...but everything else is pretty much the same. Snugged them up, and the leak seems to be corrected. Now if only I could FIX the powdercoat.

[Andy4639]

Send your pictures to Wilwoods and tell them your story. It cant hurt to try.
Contact info for you.

customerreply@wilwood.com

[Advanced Design]

Thanks for the pictures and information. Hopefully it will stay sealed. If not, maybe a problem with the caliper? Wilwood may know if they've experienced a problem with that and might help out. Too bad about the powdercoat. If you contact them please keep us posted on results.

[BR3W CITY]

So that didn't solve the problem. We removed the bleeder, removed ALL the tef/sealant, and reinstalled. We retightened it and didn't see the weeping. Going to give it 24 hours, put it under full brake load again and see if the problem is 100% fixed.

Either way I'm speaking with Wilwood about the powdercoat peeling, and why this happened in the first place. I'll let you know!

[Advanced Design]

Did the leak stop?

[BR3W CITY]

I think that did the trick. Reason I say that is; after I tightened everything up like I mentioned, we wiped the backside of the caliper down the best we could with paper towels and some carb cleaner. After driving home and checking the brake, the area around the top fitting felt dry! However, there was still some brake fluid clinging to the lower-most portion of the caliper, just slightly wet to the touch.

I've done this 2-3 times after driving, and haven't noticed any real change in fluid level...and each time the top fitting area seems dry to the touch and to paper towel. However each time, there is just a little bit of moisture on the bottom of the caliper. I do NOT think the lower fitting is leaking.

My theory is that the brake fluid from the top leak infiltrated behind the sub-par powdercoat and created those little bubble you saw. Some of those little bubbles are air, but others have remnants of fluid in them. Since brake fluid doesn't really evaporate, it just kinda stays there. When everything gets real warm, or when you wipe down the caliper, some of that fluid migrates to another place..usually a little lower on the caliper. Eventually some weeps out from behind the coating or one of the "sores" and ends up at the lowest point thanks to gravity.

I'm going to re-bleed the whole system again to remove air, and make sure that everything is perfect. And yes, I'm still going to have a talk with Wilwood about how this happened and why the powdercoat is so lame....I just don't want to pull my brakes off again in the last few weeks of truck weather I have here in WI.