tpawlak

After reading all the Post on Powder Coating by Mike I decided to have it done. Problem is I don't know what calipers I have so while it may seem pretty dumb to a lot of you but I need help to determine if I have standard calipers or Z51 calipers. I thought I had standard capilpers and brakes but my buddy doesn't think so. I have a 2009 Base Coupe with the F55 Magnetic Selective Ride Control. I thought you couldn't get the Z51 option with the F55 option so I believe I have standard brakes and calipers. My buddy thinks the F55 comes with larger brakes and Z51 claipers but not the other supension upgrades. I do have cross drilled rotors if that makes a difference. Like I said I want to get my calipers powder coated by Mike so I need to fiqure out if I have standard or Z51 calipers. Any help would be appreciated.

St.Char

If you have the cross drilled rotors, then you probably have the Z51 brake upgrade. The only difference in the base C6 and Z51 brakes are the cross drilled rotors and larger caliper bracket, the calipers alone are the same. I upgraded my base C6 brakes to this set-up with ceramic pads and really like it.

filmjay

F55 brakes are the exact same as Z51 brakes. The Z51 brakes are indeed part of the F55 package.

BEZ06

Not exactly!!

Take a look at this thread:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-t...e-caliper.html

Scroll down to post# 6 for the definitive info from Corvette Pilot (he's Mike The Powdercoater). Mike works with these calipers everyday and knows the differences.

As he says in that thread, the Z51 front calipers are the same as the base C6, but the Z51 calipers have 3mm smaller pistons in the rear calipers.

However, as Mike says, many owners have upgraded the base C6 to Z51 rotors with just the larger rotors and the brackets to extend the calipers out to the correct distance. Many have just used the base C6 calipers with that setup with no problems at all.

Bob

tpawlak

I'm a little slow so bear with me. Thought I had it after FILMJAY's response but BEZ06 seems to contradict that. Read the suggested post but I still don't get it. The F55 package just says you get "Driver selectable responsive suspension and Larger brakes with cross-drilled rotors" but I have no idea what "larger brakes" mean.

Can anyone tell me how I can absolutly postive whether I have standard or Z51 calipers on my car? Maybe someone can tell from my VIN #?

marc8090

Later F55 cars with cross drilled brakes will have Z51 rotors and brackets, but I don't know which rear calipers it has. It would make sense though that if it has the larger rotors, then it should have Z51 rear calipers. Front calipers are all the same.

07MontyRed

I believe you can just look at the RPO (option) sticker on your glovebox ... if it lists J55 then you have what are commonly called "Z51 brakes" (J55 is the RPO for "heavy duty brakes" which are the larger, cross-drilled rotors and the smaller-diameter rear caliper).

(I do not believe there has ever been an option for the larger rotors with the standard calipers.)

Although the OP's question has been answered, I'll edit this just for future reference.

We need to separate brake systems from suspension systems. For the base car (non-Z06, GS, ZR1) there are two brakes ... base (no RPO that I know of) and J55 ("Heavy Duty Brakes"). On the C6, the Z51 option has always included J55 (drilled rotors, larger rotors, different rear calipers). More recently, the F55 suspension and ZHZ Hertz options (and some other special edition I can not remember) have also included J55, so we really should not call them "Z51 brakes" any longer.

BEZ06

The Z51 has the drilled and slotted rotors, while the base C6 had solid rotor discs.

The Z51 rotors are larger in diameter than the base C6 rotors:

Base.....front 12.8 inch rear 12 inch

Z51......front 13.4 inch rear 13 inch

You can probably get a measurement of rotor diameter with the wheels on the car - at least close enough to tell if you have the smaller base rotors, or the larger diameter Z51 rotors.

You're not going to be able to measure the rear caliper pistons unless you take the calipers off.

Somebody who has access to the GM computer system can check your VIN to see what the car was built with.

But.....YOU CAN CHECK YOURSELF!!!


Open the glove compartment and look on the door. You'll see a sticker on there that has all the RPO codes of the options that were built onto the car as it came down the assembly line.

You should see Z51 on the sticker if it was built with that option.

Edited: I see you have an F55, so Z51 won't be on your RPO code list. However, as 07MontyRed said, if you have the Z51 brakes you'll have a J55 code on the sticker.

I don't think it matters at all which calipers you have (unless you're trying to do an exchange) - just send them off to Mike and he'll powdercoat yours and send them back.

Bob

tpawlak

Outstanding... I checked the codes in the glove box. I have both F55 and J55. When I looked up J55 is says "Brake System - Heavy Duty". Sort of all making sense now... I believe F55 and Z51 have the same J55 "Brake System - Heavy Duty". Difference is you can't have the "other" suspension upgrades in the Z51 package due to the suspension required for the "select ride" in the F55 option. Checked the rotor size and both the front and rear are over 12" so end of the day answer seems to be that I have Z51 brakes and calipers. The reason I needed to know is that I am not sending my calipers to Mike to be power coated but "swapping" painted calipers he will send me. In other words, I pay for the power coating with a core charge, Mike sends me power coated calipers, I swap the calipers, send Mike my old calipers after which he refunds the core charge. I could wait to send my own calipers to be powder coated this winter as the car will be sitting but really want them on now after looking at all the pictures in this forum. Thanks to all for bearing with me on this. Seems I have a lot to learn!!!

BEZ06

EXCELLENT!!!

That's the beauty of the forum - you can get answers to almost anything about a Corvette here!!!

We need pics when you get the new calipers mounted up!!!

Bob

tpawlak

Will do and thanks to all for the help.

Gene Culley

The rear calipers are different, yes. Just to clear it up, the Z51 rotors are only cross drilled and not slotted.

Jo Jo Jr

I've been C6 shopping for a while and I'd done a lot of research and I had decided that I wanted a Z51 optioned C6 because all of the Magnetic Ride cars I'd seen up until today, had the base brakes.

In my ignorance I was bypassing any listing as soon as I saw standard brakes instead of cross drilled because that had become the "tell" since that had been the case on every base and mag ride car I'd seen to date, until this morning!

When I found a low mileage one owner car that had both magnetic ride and cross drilled rotors, knowing that you couldn't have Z51 and F55 packages combined, I knew I could find the answer here.

It did not take long to find this topic and the answers I was seeking.

The Forum is informational and that is all I needed, no replies or interactions, just information, and I have been informed of all I need to know about this forum. I won't be interacting here again.

919cw313

^ Wow. Quite a mouthful.

Iceaxe

And 9 years ago someone might have actually cared....

ErikR

Turbo6TA

C Ya ...

HBsurfer

he will be back as soon as his map lights don't go off.