Never rebuilt brake calipers before but have seen several build on here where people rebuild them theirselves. Is it really that easy to do? Time consuming? Tedious enough to sware at the heavens? Noticed one of my fronts is starting to weap a little and know it’s just matter of time before much worse. Trying to establish if this easy weekend fix, or if I should just order full front kit from rock auto and call it good. $145 for rotors, pads, and calipers seems pretty tempting
Not running is an inconvenience. Not stopping will kill you.
I always buy reman/new when i can.
Personally, I always rebuild if I can get the parts. There's not much to the job. On a 1-10 difficulty scale, they usually rank about a 3 just for the fiddly bits getting the dust boot in place.
I rebuilt all-4 calipers on the Vette. It took me way longer to clean the outside of the calipers then clean/hone/rebuild them - and mine were seized & crusty.
They are not that hard to rebuild (non-integrated) but it seems like something stupid always goes wrong. The bleeders snapping off seems to be the main issue followed up with frozen pistons and the wrong size parts. If you have time go for it, if not just buy the rebuilt unit and call it a day.
Paul
That’s what I was curious if it’s really worth few bucks to DIY or just be new/reman.
I did it just to prove to myself I could. I'd have to +1 Donebrokeit's sentiments. For my time/money, a $20 caliper is money well spent. For my truck, they were something ridiculous, like $8 each with a lifetime warranty. Price them and see.
Difficulty goes up with piston count, and rear disc parking brake arrangements can be fiddly.
It can be challenging if you don't do it often. I worked at an automotive machine shop where the main machinist did the caliper rebuilding. When the rookies did it, we often pinched the seal and ruined it.
This was back in the day when the rebuild kits were cheap and plentiful. Now they're hard to find, and not so cheap.
If I were you, I'd try it. But I'd buy a couple spares just in case.
One my DD I would just get a re-man but for my race car I do them myself since I know that I won't have a frozen bleeder screw, the pistons aren't stuck in the bores, etc. so doing them myself is easy.
I am currently in the process of rebuilding a pair of ATE calipers off of a 1974 Capri. These are dual opposed piston calipers that I split apart (They bolt together) and will rebuild for a friend. I have a blast cabinet that cleaned them to bare metal, they will get painted with "Cast iron" paint and then I will install new pistons, seals, ang boots. Finally I'll bolt the two halves back together. In this case I had no option but to rebuild them as no one had any re-mans "in stock".
There isn't much to them really. It's a piston seal, the piston cup, the dust boot, a ring to hold the dust boot, and a bleeder. Then you have the slide pins, inserts and boots.
The hardest part of the process is making sure you don't roll or pinch the piston cup seal followed by not tearing the dust boot with the hold down ring. The service manual for the vehicle will tell you what to lubricate the seal with to make installing it easier.
I've done a few sets of car brakes and a bunch of sets of brakes for small aircraft which use caliper type brakes. Never had a major issue with it as long as you take your time and follow the directions.
I own a fleet of neon, and normally have spares from past projects. I normally rebuild them if I have the time. I like knowing its done right and they are always good to go.
Debating this for the spare calipers for the racecar...would probably use oem (Honda) seals, etc but does anyone know if decent Rockauto type parts would be up to the elevated temps on track??
wheelsmithy said:I did it just to prove to myself I could. I'd have to +1 Donebrokeit's sentiments. For my time/money, a $20 caliper is money well spent. For my truck, they were something ridiculous, like $8 each with a lifetime warranty. Price them and see.
Difficulty goes up with piston count, and rear disc parking brake arrangements can be fiddly.
My experience also. You need to research the idiosyncrasies of the particular calipers and order a good kit. Don't forget new bleeders if not in the kit. You need to pull the things apart and clean/inspect/paint. Sandblaster is the only sane way to do this! If they are good to rebuild you go ahead and it is not too hard. Be critical of the bores and pistons, they really should be perfect.If they are not, then you need to research and order a new caliper, there went another week of calendar time with the project not done.
Particular to Miata rear calipers there is a seal for the e-brake actuator shaft. There is an o-ring that should be changed but has a PITA factor of 20 on a 0-10 scale and requires snap ring pliers that are hard to find.
Professor_Brap said:I own a fleet of neon, and normally have spares from past projects. I normally rebuild them if I have the time. I like knowing its done right and they are always good to go.
Having had brand new remanned calipers and wheel cylinders leak right out of the box, the "knowing it's done right" is my top concern. I'm planning to do the fronts on the Turbo II. I've got the Mazda parts, just need to git 'r done!
I rebuilt all of the calipers on my Corolla and it was my first time rebuilding calipers or doing any hydraulic work beyond brake bleeding, and they were in really bad shape before. Only one started to weep a few months into driving the car, a second rebuild by a pro fixed it. Still using them today.
However I was facing horrendous shipping costs and duties on top of relatively high parts prices as the alternative.
There's not much to rebuilding them yourself. Then you can put in OEM or other high-quality seals. I'm leery of the quality of over-the-counter rebuilds from Mexico at the FLAPS, although I've used them and never had issues.
If you do buy a rebuilt, make sure you open the box and inspect it before you leave. I've seen some that have started with corroded or mismatched cores. Same thing for rotors. Same vehicle, mfg, part #, two different rotor castings. Now they both may have fit, but rolling on mismatched rotors would kill my OCDs.
What kind of car?
Interested in this as the rear calipers for a Mk4 VW are stupid expensive, even from RockAuto.
I think I'm going to get a used set to try this out.
I did it for the first time last year on the 944. Got the kits from Rockauto for a few bucks. As others have said, it's pretty easy. My existing calipers were in pretty good shape, all I did was take them apart, clean them well, and put them back together with new seals. So far, so good.
devina said:Debating this for the spare calipers for the racecar...would probably use oem (Honda) seals, etc but does anyone know if decent Rockauto type parts would be up to the elevated temps on track??
I don't know Hondas but on BMWs, the piston hydraulic seals have no trouble taking track heat. I use the $2 Centric replacement seals and they hold up just like the $40 OEM parts. The piston boots are just a wear item. I haven't found any brand that's immune from getting ragged after a couple of seasons.
Every time I'm resealing the calipers on a car for the first time, I buy one extra seal pack for the front and rear. Usually I shred one or both of the extras figuring out how to get the job done right. The job is a little fiddly so it's good to have one test set so I can do the motions over a couple times until I'm sure I have a technique worked out.
FYI, my man Adam says Subaru seals are really hard to get done, even with an extra set of hands.
The only calipers I've ever HAD to rebuild were on Triumph automobiles. They were a major PITA, because they were cruddy and rusted and getting the pistons out sucked. I quit rebuilding slave cylinders because they were too cheap to replace the whole thing.
I am going to have to rebuild the calipers on the new TR-3. I priced replacing them and....yea forget that. So I will be rebuilding another set. The last set I rebuilt, I had to use the "pumping grease in trick" to get the pistons out.
You'll need to log in to post.
