Hi had front brake pads fitted and front brakes binding slightly very hot to the touch . mechanic has suggested drive fora bit. And the pads will wear. However am thinking that I need new calipers . Anyone heard of Budweg , denmark company looking 85 per side for new calipers 2 yrwarranty . Anyone any experience of recon Pagid or British Brakes recon calipers working out at £210 and £180 for 2respectively . Any help guidance great appreciated , what would be the fitting time for a caliper? Thanks
Agree you need recon calipers or re rubbered calipers and to be honest at £65 a side go for the recons.
I have used Budweg and they worked just fine. Pagid are good, I have never heard of British Brakes.
Fitting time with a recon unit say 45 minutes a side.
Has the mechanic greased the calipers and made sure the sliding pins are sliding and not siezed.
If you have a basic engineering or hydraulic back ground it is a very simple job and as by coincidence i will be doing mine tomorrow.
£8.36 plus p+p from MX5parts.
Highly recommend MX5Heaven for new callipers…
I brought and fitted a front pair last year and there are as good as OEM as they use Mazda moulds to make them… the are around £100 a side for BRAND new ones
If you are diying the job yes that is a saving but if as the OP is using a garage then there is no saving as just fitting the piston rubber and not taking their time with the external seal leads to problems when I have got garages to re rubber calipers when I was to busy to DIY the job. All there normal customers want a low price job and due to this pressure they do not spend time getting it right. Further some calipers are beyond repair.
Therefore at the price quoted by the OP to purchase recon calipers and if it is a garage fit do not evn think about re rubbering. Now if the calipers are say £300 like some makes then rerubbering by a garage is a different matter.
Sounds like new calipers are needed, try giving North Down Motor Factors in Newtownards a call as I have always found them to be competitive and where good on price recently when I had to replace the rear caliper on my Ford Focus. And don’t forget to check to make sure slider pins are not seozed also.
perhaps the new pads are tight in their slides… were the brakes binding before? each time I’ve changed my pads (4 times now - the car’s done 101000 miles) I have had to file the backing plates of the pads where they touch the springs in the slides, a little bit of copper grease and check they are free to move but not rattling! Failing that it will be the slides of the calipers but surely they can be sorted without changing the calipers.
Ok, as i said i’m going to do mine this weekend.
10.00am and all the cars are covered in a hard frost and it’s not really going to improve any time soon.
Out comes the car, wheel off, brake hose clamped and caliper off.
Strip, clean piston and cylinder bore, reseal caliper and regrease slider pins, all back together with brakes bled in one and a half hours, and a 20min (top less) test drive.
In all i’m guessing i’ve saved best part of £150 presuming i’d taken it to a garage.
Caliper seal kit was £10.33p including p+p.
Happy days again.
Didn’t take you too long to do either, cold day for it too, did the piston come out of the caliper OK to fit the new seal?
A compressor is a big help and the piece and quiet to do it yourself is also a great help.
Ok, i’m going to try to copy and paste this that i’ve posted else where.
Ok, so it’s 10.00am and i’m looking out of the window and the neighbours across are scrapping ice off their windscreens, shall i, shan’t i? Sorry i cant put this off any longer. (impatience).
Winter woolies on and out i go…brrr, it’s flippin cold.
Car out of the garage, jacked up and wheel off.
Brake hose clamped and caliper off, trusty compressor fired up and piston will not blow out, pipe grips employed to grip and twist the piston now the piston blows out easily.
Piston is almost perfectly ok, just a little light scrub up with the rough side of a pan scourer, Cylinder is also fine, just a little corrosion on the first lip inside the cylinder bore which i polished off with a flap wheel in my Dremmel.
Using ‘Red brake grease’ i fitted the quad seal easily, now comes the hard part, in the video he fits the boot on to the piston and then pokes the boot lip into the cylinder, (not a cat in hells chance), remember it’s about zero degrees and the seals are cold.
So i fitted the boot lip into the cylinder and with the aid of a blunt pick hook i manage to wriggle the boot over the piston, now comes the brute strength part squeezing the piston into the cylinder which takes a little patience and grunting (and a little swearing) but once it eases past the quad seal it goes easily.
Next bit, take the slider pins out and grease up, the bottom slide pin has a rubber ‘quilt like’ sleeve on it which stops brake rattle, new boots supplied and fitted with plenty grease.
Next wrap the bleed nipple with PTFE tape which seals the threads and stops air bypassing when bleeding.
Caliper refitted, brake hose back on and bled up in less than 10 min.
Wheel back on and test drive completed all in a morning.
I’m going to order a 2nd kit so that i can do the nearside at my leisure when the weathers warmed up a bit.
Total cost £10.33p and an hour and half of my time, i’d love to know how much a garage would have charged me.
A job worth doing yourself if you have the confidence and tools to attempt it.
The problem with mine was rust around the external seal gripping the piston. Make sure you get that area clean