What happened to brake caliper repair kits

[thinfourth2]

I remember not that many years ago if you had a sticky brake you bought a caliper repair kit and overhauled the caliper yourself.

Now my shed has a sticky caliper i can't find a repair kit locally my only option is to buy a kit from flea bay for £30 which is nuts as a kit for my landrover which has 4 pistons costs £7.

Or i can buy a refurb caliper for £75

Why can't i buy a £1 bloody seal anymore

I love this age of being green and throwing stuff away

[Lucas North]

I've found this too.

Getting caliper seal kits seem horribly expensive for what they are. £40+ for my cars, for each corner.

[Cost Captain]

it's because fewer people maintain their own cars these days, it costs more to pay somebody to rebuild a caliper than it does to fit a replacement one.

same thing with alternators; no one repairs them anymore because the replacement part is so cheap comparitively.

[Malcster]

I got a set for me MR2 Turbo from these guys:

http://www.biggred.co.uk/

Had to buy a kit per axle though, and buy sides / seals individually.

[redstu]

What ! you still actually repair stuff instead of replacing it !!!

What about the economy , we must sustain growth, so stop being a cheapskate throw it away and buy a new one.

[Vidal Baboon]

I'm pretty sure Lucas used to do alot of caliper repair kits.

The local Lucas has gone into administration, so I don't know if they're still running, or at least selling the same amount of kit they used to.

[thinfourth2]

redstu said:

What ! you still actually repair stuff instead of replacing it !!!

What about the economy , we must sustain growth, so stop being a cheapskate throw it away and buy a new one.

I don't think it is wise to spend almost 25% the cost of the car to replace a caliper

I'm going to pull the piston and polish it and put it back and see if it leaks

[andrewboom]

I got 2 from bigred for my Mazda 323f front calipers as well. Did the job.

[Chipchap]

A huge reason behind this is Liability. Your insurers must now carry the risk that you as a qualified/unqualified brake technician have carried out a repair to the brakes. If these subsequently fail, the insurers will look for someone to blame and then counter sue.

So in the case of a replacement at a garage, the line is simple for the insurer to follow.

In the case of a replacement fitted by you, the line is still easy to follow if the part was defective or if the installation was incorrect.

In the case of you stripping and reassembling using eBay sourced components from gawd knows where, it really gets blurry for the insurer to look at a counter claim.

So it would seem that pressure from the insurer to the car manufacturer has then led to pressure on the component suppliers to stop this supply.

The added excuse being that the combined cost of parts & labour are almost as much as a factory refurbished one.

Either way it will all slowly stop and the options will be new or exchange for refurb by manufacturer

[thinfourth2]

Chipchap said:

A huge reason behind this is Liability. Your insurers must now carry the risk that you as a qualified/unqualified brake technician have carried out a repair to the brakes. If these subsequently fail, the insurers will look for someone to blame and then counter sue.

So in the case of a replacement at a garage, the line is simple for the insurer to follow.

In the case of a replacement fitted by you, the line is still easy to follow if the part was defective or if the installation was incorrect.

In the case of you stripping and reassembling using eBay sourced components from gawd knows where, it really gets blurry for the insurer to look at a counter claim.

So it would seem that pressure from the insurer to the car manufacturer has then led to pressure on the component suppliers to stop this supply.

The added excuse being that the combined cost of parts & labour are almost as much as a factory refurbished one.

Either way it will all slowly stop and the options will be new or exchange for refurb by manufacturer

If you follow your logic then insurance companies should pull all insurance from anyone who does take their car to an approved repair outfit.

God can you imagine the profit they would make from that

[spaximus]

Repair kits are still available, the problem is that the average motor factor counter hand now uses a computer to look up availability. Kits do not show as most people will buy a recon caliper.

Lucas Girling is now owned by TRW and kits are available from them and from Delphi (lockheed) you just have to ask them to get them in for you which may involve a catalouge and a call to one of the technical departments.

[thinfourth2]

spaximus said:

Repair kits are still available, the problem is that the average motor factor counter hand now uses a computer to look up availability. Kits do not show as most people will buy a recon caliper.

Lucas Girling is now owned by TRW and kits are available from them and from Delphi (lockheed) you just have to ask them to get them in for you which may involve a catalouge and a call to one of the technical departments.

Wish you had told me that 3 weeks ago before even i knew that my brake calliper had siezed

[soda]

Dealer wanted £20 for 2 rubber seals on an E46, I hate to think what the profit margin is on that.

[Liquid Knight]

Bought a caliper rebuild kit for my brothers Discovery but he decided it didn't need a transfer box any more on the way round. Grrrr!

Still have the kit in my shed somewhere.

[Vidal Baboon]

soda said:

Dealer wanted £20 for 2 rubber seals on an E46, I hate to think what the profit margin is on that.

£118 for 12 seals & 12 dust seals on my Kawasaki.

[redstu]

Chipchap said:

A huge reason behind this is Liability. Your insurers must now carry the risk that you as a qualified/unqualified brake technician have carried out a repair to the brakes. If these subsequently fail, the insurers will look for someone to blame and then counter sue.

So in the case of a replacement at a garage, the line is simple for the insurer to follow.

In the case of a replacement fitted by you, the line is still easy to follow if the part was defective or if the installation was incorrect.

In the case of you stripping and reassembling using eBay sourced components from gawd knows where, it really gets blurry for the insurer to look at a counter claim.

So it would seem that pressure from the insurer to the car manufacturer has then led to pressure on the component suppliers to stop this supply.

The added excuse being that the combined cost of parts & labour are almost as much as a factory refurbished one.

Either way it will all slowly stop and the options will be new or exchange for refurb by manufacturer

don't wish to be rude but this is crap!
Otherwise they wouldn't pay out much ever, after all most accidents are the fault of someone. They pay out when someone crashes if they are over the dd limit, never mind a loose bolt on a brake caliper!

[Jonny_693]

Got one from Subaru main dealers the other year, £27 to do both front's.

[Chicane-UK]

Was going to say - if you haven't already, speak to the parts desk at the main dealer. You can normally still buy the seals, etc as a kit for some DIY refurbishment

[jeebus]

Vidal Baboon said:

soda said:

Dealer wanted £20 for 2 rubber seals on an E46, I hate to think what the profit margin is on that.

£118 for 12 seals & 12 dust seals on my Kawasaki.

My gsxr cost me 70 quid for what looked like a small bag of O rings. As far as I know rebuild kits are common place for motorcycles, but why not cars? it's not even a difficult job to replace the seals either.

[matt 2LT]

i got some from brakeparts.co.uk for my kitcar (sierra calipers) and i think they were 7 quid a corner.