Chrysler 300C SRT-8 - Brake problems

[ArnieVXR]

A mate of mine has a low mileage SRT-8 that he's owned from new and is 5-years old(ish). The brake pistons (bembros?) are leaking and he's being told by Chrysler that he needs to pay for them to be fixed. He thinks that other SRT-8 owners have suffered similar problems.

Anyone know if this is the case and (more importantly) if there's any good will to be had with Chrylser?

Cheers
Arnie

[chryslerben]

Not a problem I've seen on any srt8's, if he wants to try the goodwill route the car needs a full dealer service history or they will just throw it out and at 5 years old he most likely holds no hope either unfortunately.

[Matt Harper]

It's a common problem on North American cars that are run in the snow belt - check out www.300cforums.com - loads of info there.
The issue is that road salt attacks the electro-plating on the Brembo brake pistons fitted on this model. The plating lifts/bubbles, more moisture gets ingressed to the caliper body via the now unsealed pistons and eventually they start leaking.
Those brakes are not cheap to overhaul.

[ArnieVXR]

Thanks for the responses

[chryslerben]

Good old matt Harper, you learn something new everyday I suppose.

[Matt Harper]

Not ripping on ya Ben - may not be a problem in the UK - but it is here, in areas where they use a lot of road salt. Thankfully mine was a sun-belt example and the brakes never gave me any issues at all, aside from the OEM pads, which create so much dust, it's not funny.

[chryslerben]

Nah its cool man I genuinely didn't know that, as they say everydays a school day. I suspect we don't get the level of road salting over here and coupled with the fact that when its snows over people abandon the idea of driving as to probably why ive not heard of this before.

[japgt]

you could try contacting a guy called ian at godspeed brakes, he does full rebuilds using stainless pistons for most brembos calipers and he's not to bad pricewise, and a genuinely nice fella to boot, he is always more than happy to give advise as well.

[anonymous-user]

How has the car been used? Leaking seals are much more likely if the car has been parked-up than if it's been used regularly.