Those front rotors appear to need to be cut or replaced. You’re losing a lot of braking power with a pockmarked surface like that.
Thanks for the observation WDB. While the discs aren’t perfect there is no lip on their edge and most of the ‘pits’ are just surface rust - it looks worse in the photo I think thanks to the angle of the photo. I’ll check them for wear when I’ve got the callipers off. The car brakes are otherwise fine at the moment - its stops straight and feels as good if not better than my previous Plus 2.
So it was time to take off the front calibers and hopefully refurbish them. Easy job with the scissor lift. However when I took the callipers off it was not good news. Both sides had ripped outer seals - which I knew. Both callipers came off easily enough. Both sides were worse than I thought, and there was a bit of fluid leakage as well as corroded pistons to contend with. The worst discovery was the state of the brake fluid - it was comprehensively emulsified with a significant amount of water contamination. Not good.
Here is one caliber before I blew out one piston:
and here is the pool of contaminated brake fluid - note the pale patch at the bottom right - that’s water contamination…
So I’m now struggling to get the pistons out - they all have corrosion so need replacing. I got one out of one caliber using the air line, but the second is a bit more stuck, if not actually seized. In the second caliber the airline again blew out one piston. I’ve ordered piston removal pliers which may or may not work - if not I’ll break out the drill and hacksaw… One thing I noticed is that the second caliber pistons are different to the first calliper pistons - looks like early and late types. So something odd going on there.
So just to amuse myself I treated the trunnions to some new EP90 oil using my trusty hand pump oil can. And surprise surprise it all worked - pumped oil in, watched the black oil come out around the top seal, then carried on pumping until clear oil came out.
I didn’t want to push my luck and try to undo the bottom trunnion bolt which is no doubt firmly corroded onto the spacer - luckily the trunnion bushes were OK.
Hi matt,
I do believe in doing as much as you can yourself but as I am not experience with callipers I recently had some rebuilt by Classicar Automotive in Chelford, Macclesfield.
It appears that the only parts which they reuse are the two castings. Everything else is new. They are completely as new.
I wanted to put them on display for a few days but was overruled. I thoroughly recommend them.
Eric in Burnley
1967 S3SE DHC
Strange that your pistons look to be old and newer style in the same caliper. They should not be dissimilar
Before you resort to brutality, put the piston that you airlined out back in, clamp it with a G clamp to the caliper body and use the airline to push out the seized one out.
When you rebuild, I recommend using stainless pustons.
Good luck..Tony
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Thanks for the encouragement chaps - Much appreciated! I’ve rebuilt callipers in the past and was intending to do these; however having seen the cost of a pair of new ones from SJ Sportscars I’ve ordered a new pair. So I can get the car back on the road quickly and investigate the actual status of the existing ones - looks like I’ve got an early one (up to 1970) and a later one - which explains the different pistons and seals. I don’t have much luck with Plus 2 brakes - when I rebuilt my last Plus 2 rear calibers I found one new piston and one old piston in one calliper…
Interesting couple of days trying to sort out my calliper issue. On the car were an early (up to 1970) and a later calliper. However, both callipers had imperial fittings. The new pair I bought had metric fittings and were the last type fitted to the Plus 2. so there are (at least) three types of calliper fitted to the Plus 2 - early ones, the one on the left hand side of my car, I believe P16 type with imperial fittings (mounting bolts, bleed nipple and bunny pipe connector). These were fitted with early type pistons and the dust cover slotted into a slot around the circumferance of the hole in the calliper. The second type, the one on the right hand side of my car again had imperial fittings, I believe it to be P16S or PS16 type and it had late type pistons and seals with the dust cover held in place by a spring clip. The third type, the M16 type has all metric fittings and the same pistons and seals as the PS16 type. This meant the mounting bolt holes were drilled for a M12 bolt and the diameter of the shank of the M12 bolt is just under 1mm more than the 7/16 UNF bolt used on the imperial callipers, so I could not use my imperial bolts as they were just a bit too loose in the calliper holes. The original supplier of the new M16 callipers didn’t know why they wouldn’t fit, and couldn’t help. However, while going through their website I found a couple of references to calliper bolts being M12 (i.e. metric) but with a 7/16 UNF thread. Doing a bit more digging and talking to Sue Millar, Kelvdon and Classic Team Lotus I could not find these bolts. However, going to Rimmer Brothers the late Triumph GT6 had different bolts to the earlier GT^6 and the photo of the bolt showed it to have a slight shoulder between the thread and the shank. So I ordered a set to see if they fitted, and they do. They are part number 158713 Bolt Calliper on the Rimmer website, although Classic Team Lotus were trying to get some in as well. So I’m just making up a new bundy pipe with a metric male fixing at the calliper end and Imperial female to the flexi end and my calliper adventure will be done. Then I’ll take a look at the rears…
Anyway HTHs
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Excellent progress Matt. Thanks for the excellent reporting on available options.
Glad you found it useful. New calipers now on and brakes bled so hopefully no more emulsified brake fluid rotting the system.
Are you aware that I’m sure I’ve seen YEV 43L appear on eBay today
@Dobber Neil, Spot on! Nice car, nice price! 
That’s odd - thanks for letting me know! The car is not for sale, and the lister is who I bought it from (UK Sportscars) last August. I’ve let them know…
Its quite possible someone has taken over their account, although you would expect any possible buyer to want to see it first. The phone number on their webpage isn’t the same as the one in the eBay ad, so perhaps it is a scam - or just a mistake on their part.
Just talked to Paul at UK Sportscars and it looks like their account has been hacked… He’s looking into it as I type!
@Matt_Elan Hi Matt, Grumpfff (hack). Good to letting them know! Hope UK Sportscars can solve this asap! X the fingers! 
Just bled my brakes again after changing the front calipers last weekend. So easy with the the new scissor lift to get all four wheels off in no time. Bled them again and hopefully all ok now - got a small amount of dirty fluid out again from the rears and a couple of bubbles out of the fronts so hopefully all done now.
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