should I rebuild my calipers?
 

Hey I have a 5 lug conversion sitting in my garage and will be putting it on my fc in about a month. Is there any reason I should rebuild the calipers? WHat can go wrong if I dont? How do I know if I need to?

Caliper rebuild kit @ napa: $17
Reman Caliper @ napa: $29 - $6 core.

I'd trust the professionals to rebuild somethign that could save you, or someone elses life.

EDIT: If that wasn't clear, don't rebuild them, just get remans and give your old calipers to napa so they can rebuild them and sell them so someone else.

Unless you've done it before, I wouldn't fuck around with brake calipers.
Rebuilt ones are cheap. A rebuild kit will save a you a few dollars. Not worth it.

i just bought reman ones. for the difference in price you might as well let people that build them every day do it because they suck to do

holy crap that's cheap! I just paid a bunch more money than that to brakeco for them :mad:

the rubber boots and rubber seals on the piston and sliders can crack and stick over time with age, then they let in dirt and let out the grease or fluid and you end up with sticking calipers or a leaking brake system.

with a quick visual inspection on the rubber seals/boots around the caliper its easy to tell if yours need to be replaced.


man, thats cheap for a rebuilt caliper?! is that the fronts or rears or both?

rebuild them....easy and saves money. from the calipers ive gotten (from 2 dif companies; cardone and beck & arnley)....i wasnt all to impressed with rebuild calipers quality. i mean....sure....they were fine but im the kind of person who hates half ass jobs so. if you rebuild it.....u know exactly what was done and you get things how YOU want it. just because a company rebuilds calipers doesnt mean its better than doing it yourself. just my 2 cents

Can anyone give me the link for the calipers at napa?
I keep getting an error message

You paid THAT for four piston calipers?

I think they marked the price wrong!

James

is this the napa that were talking about?
http://www.napaonline.com

NAPAs site has been PITA and worthless. Go to the actual store.

I bought single pots, 4pots are slightly more. But, I just did a quick check on aap site and... The below is for reman 4 pots without pads.


Cardone 191080 http://www.partsamerica.com/images/icon_camera.gif Reman.; Unloaded; Right; w/Normal Suspension; OE Metal Piston Lifetime Limited Warranty
http://www.partsamerica.com/images/spaclear.gif
Ships in 1 day
Weight: 7.2 lbs.http://www.partsamerica.com/images/spaclear.gif
$32.99 $50.00 cor

buy them don't build them trust me ain't that easy had to do them for school wasn't fun too much that could go wrong

I cheked today b/c I need new ones. from orielys. $32 a pice from 4piston front adjustable suspention. $68 for rear all a pice. rebuild kit was $2

The hell with rebuilding them they allways leek. If you do anything just get remand ones.

If you want to check caliper conditions, push in on each piston. They should move in easily. The lower pistons have a tendency to freeze because of the sediment residing in the lower part of the caliper. The rears should turn in easily. If you find the pistons won't push in easily, or the rears won't turn in easily get rebuilt ones. I've rebuild numerous calipers. Pretty easy, but a little time consuming. At least you know it's been done correctly, and know the condition of the pistons and bores. The rears are tricky, just go with the rebuilt.

to hell with rebuilding them?...no offence, but maybe u just cant rebuild them in the first place. what the heck do u think remans are. they arent brand new from mazda. they get cores from the absolute shit to the good and just check tolerances (dont even know about this actually, may just eye ball to see if it just looks good), replace all seals,boots, and other necessaries, even more for the back calipers.

your post lacks a point... Everyone knows thats what remans are. Personaly, I'd pay someone that knows and rebuilds these things for a living rather then have myself do it. Why? brakes are there to keep your ass out of a wall. I'll do my own engine mods because I'm not scared that if I fuck up, i'll end up killing myself.

Seriously, you can rebuild the brake calipers. Its not *THAT* hard, but unless you know DAMN sure you know EXACTLY what you are doing, its too easy to fuck it up and have your ass in a wall or worse another car hurting someone else. If you know exactly what you are doing because you went to SCHOOL for it, good, rebuild your own damn brakes, and heres mine, rebuild mine too. Because you would know how, and most people don't. If you don't know EXACTLY what you are doing however, do the responsible thing and get ones that you can trust won't fail when the car in front of you nails the brakes.

Ok well to simplify my orginal question. The conversion came off a running car so i assume the brakes worked. How can I tell if they need a rebuild?

What the hell? Last time I checked it's insanely easy to rebuild calipers...

Just get rebuilt ones from the autoparts store. Cheep and saves alot of time.

After you remove the brake line, you should be able to push the piston in with a reasonable amount of force (somethign you could do with your hands-- without tools.) If it takes a big ass lever or nothing will push the piston in, its probably locked up and needs a rebuild. Keep in mind that piston isn't meant to move much in the first place, roughly the thickness of a brake pad, which is usually... what a 1cm?

seriously... i've rebuilt the brakes on the last 3 cars i owned, and replaced wheel bearings.... and i know jack shit about cars compared to all of you guys...


On the other hand, if the reman calipers really are that cheap, id go for it too!
Ill pay an extra $10-20 to save myself an assload of time and effort, aside from professional quality.

I'm off to Napa this weekend! lol ;)

yes....my post does have a point. it follows along with my other post in here. just because a company rebuilds it doesnt mean its extremely good compared to if you did it yourself. my rear calipers....i just got remans (from to dif companies) because they were completely screwed up. but...i took them apart and checked everything myself only to clean them more because they werent very good in my opinion, and i greesed/oiled everything better. just because a company rebuilds them doesnt mean they have "pro's" taking there precious time checking and measuring every thing. they just do there lame job putting the shit together and throwing it in a box every day. and for safety wise....there isnt that much to screw up on. there are plenty of write ups and all about rebuilding calipers on here anyways. refer to them or even pm the person who started the post. its NOT that hard. me....im going to test everything after im done. im not goin to go onto the road right away and go fast and stop to test it. THAT is taking chances. check and test everything on your driveway or street when no one is on it.

Wow, it sure seems like the price of a front four piston rebuild has dropped substantially over the past few years....

Kenteth,

Have you ever rebuilt a FC brake caliper?

I have done it once...and I would it again. It is dirt simple and you would have to have interpersonal problems to screw it up.

Front calipers seem to cost over 100 bucks and a rebuild is much cheaper.

The hardest part is getting those pistons out of their bores.

The only situation I would agree with you is a COMPLETE rebuild of the rear caliper. That parking brake seal was a bitch and I left it since it wasnt leaking. I just did the piston seal and skirt. Our your calipers bores are so pitted you need to do something like turn it in for a rebuild:)

I am just sitting here trying to think what you could fuck up.

You could forget to put the piston seal back in....but that would spray fluid on the bleeding. Or, you could nick the skirt open...and it would be a slow damaging of the piston seal as dirt got in there.

Or, your bore could look like the face of a 15 year old with more potmarks than a lunar surface . But if you miss that...it could be the interpersonal problems.

Or you could not secure the brake line but again that would be discovered in the bleeding.

It isn't like the piston is going to shoot out if you mess up. It realy dosent have anywhere to go.

Rebuilding the brakes is one of the easier jobs on the car. Removing rear subframe to do bushings makes rebuilding brakes look like trying to figure out how to open a happy meal toy. It is just a piston, seal, and a skirt.

James

your my hero wankel7

Im gonna try rebuilding them myself. Like stated above, if I do anything wrong itll show in the bleeding long before my life is risked. Does anyone know of a writeup about rebuilding the 4 piston calipers?