Remanufactured brake calipers?
 

So I am thinking about rebuilding my rear brake calipers since I just got some 99 spec rebuilt front brakes I am gonna install on my FD. I have been looking around and found places that sell "remanufactured" rear brake calipers for very reasonable price. They come from companies like Cardone and Centric. May worth it to get them instead of spending the time and money to rebuild my current ones. I assume these are just rebuilt oem calipers correct? Anyone have experiences with them?

centric rebuilds OEM calipers. if you order from them then thats what you will be getting. i would call and verify though. they have fronts and rears listed all over the internet but when i called they said they havent had them in stock for a very long time. i would suggest getting a rebuilt set vs doing it yourself. the rebuilt ones are just so much cleaner and has all new parts. probably comes with a warranty too lol

You can check rockauto.com...they update their stock availability. Just something to think about, I remember reading that one forum member here ordered a set of reman rear calipers...and the pistons were somewhat pitted. I guess the quality of the reman caliper really depends on the donor caliper that was used. So what I would do is make a decision on how bad my current calipers are. If they are in good shape I would rebuild them myself...if they are in really bad shape I would get remans...

I obtained a set of Centric rear calipers from rockauto awhile back as my left side had developed a slight leak. They seemed to be a quality rebuild but after installing them I realized that part of the handbrake adjustment mechanism that exists within the piston was missing and my handbrake only operated the right side. Problem was, I had already sent my old calipers back for the core credit and rockauto said there was no way they could be returned. There were no more left rear calipers available from rockauto so I was stuck. I then found a different supplier that had left side calipers that were remans from a company called A-1 Cardone. I ordered one of those, but the example I got was an abomination - the caliper piston had looked like it had been beat on with a 10-pound ball peen hammer, but much worse was that the caliper body had been shot blasted to such an extent that the mating surface for the brake hose was too rough to allow a leak tight connection. It did have a complete handbrake mechanism though so I robbed the part I needed and used that for the Centric one to get it working.

My advice is to rebuild your original calipers yourself if you can. I could have easily done this, but I just got lazy and the idea of all new hardware was alluring. I had no idea of the terrible QC of the rebuilders.

Or at least make sure you have good parts before letting go of your originals.

thanks for the info! good to know.

I have had nothing but issues with reman calipers for a variety of cars. Number one issue is ones that contain banjo bolts. Where the crush washer bites into should be numerous circular ridges to form a nice seal on the washer. For whatever reason on all the reman's this area is smooth without ridges or very beat up ridges. This will leak 100% of the time.

If you ever get calipers from a local supplier such as NAPA, inspect them before you leave the store in this area.