Rebuilding rear calipers

[Woody.]

Hi all,

I think my rear brakes are sticking a little bit so have got hold of some decent secondhand calipers and was planning on rebuilding them.

I've heard it might be a bit of a PITA job, any tips or special tools needed?

GTi6 rear brakes if that helps?

Thanks

[PartyJas]

Probably better to buy refurbed calipers. If you get them from somewhere like Brake Engineering they take old calipers in part exchange.

[rikky]

i did it the other week.. i'll post some photos. it's a pain at first but you get the hang of it and it's simple enough

once you properly dismantle the rear handbrake mechanism on the caliper you will struggle like mad rebuilding that without making some tools. there is concave shims in there which need pressing back in so you need to improvise. pics to follow shortly

i got my rebuild kit off ebay too

[Woody.]

Probably better to buy refurbed calipers. If you get them from somewhere like Brake Engineering they take old calipers in part exchange.

I did think about getting some 'pre-furbed' but wanted to keep the car off the road for the least amount of time really.

Pics would help no end rikky thanks!

[rikky]

you will understand this once you start dismantling them, but without a tool like this you will struggle in a bad way. i would do this again no problem in about 10 minutes per side. people who say it's ballache don't improvise with makeshift tools and are most likely salads






you need to compress the shims whilst you reattach the spring. you can't compress it and leave a void for the spring without a tool like that. it's a 21mm socket set i cut down leaving two prongs still there. worked flawlessly. don't be tempted to struggle and leave shims out, as you'll lose efficiency and it's a bodge

they go back how i've got them in my diagram. it's fiddly but not impossible

[PartyJas]

Probably better to buy refurbed calipers. If you get them from somewhere like Brake Engineering they take old calipers in part exchange.

I did think about getting some 'pre-furbed' but wanted to keep the car off the road for the least amount of time really.

Pics would help no end rikky thanks!

Ive just checked and they are around £100 per side for refurbed. Never expected them to be that expensive. Maybe a rebuild kit is the way to go.

[rikky]

rebuild kit is about £20 from memory. dangti6 told me that clio calipers are the same, and one of them is infact a clio caliper. the parts inside are all identical except the handbrake lever is slightly different but works the same. worth measuring the piston diameters though if you're chopping and changing calipers to ensure they're the same

[Woody.]

Probably better to buy refurbed calipers. If you get them from somewhere like Brake Engineering they take old calipers in part exchange.

I did think about getting some 'pre-furbed' but wanted to keep the car off the road for the least amount of time really.

Pics would help no end rikky thanks!

Ive just checked and they are around £100 per side for refurbed. Never expected them to be that expensive. Maybe a rebuild kit is the way to go.

I think I saw some online for £63 quid per side so £120ish all in which isn't too bad I guess but as I'm a tight bast**d I'd rather do it myself and save the pennies.

[Tom85]

Probably better to buy refurbed calipers. If you get them from somewhere like Brake Engineering they take old calipers in part exchange.

I did think about getting some 'pre-furbed' but wanted to keep the car off the road for the least amount of time really.

Pics would help no end rikky thanks!

Ive just checked and they are around £100 per side for refurbed. Never expected them to be that expensive. Maybe a rebuild kit is the way to go.

You can get them cheaper than that:

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/CarFactorsUk?LH...er&submit=

Plus £15 cashback for each old caliper.

Almost sounds too good to be true - but they state 2 year guarantee.

[Woody.]

you will understand this once you start dismantling them, but without a tool like this you will struggle in a bad way. i would do this again no problem in about 10 minutes per side. people who say it's ballache don't improvise with makeshift tools and are most likely salads






you need to compress the shims whilst you reattach the spring. you can't compress it and leave a void for the spring without a tool like that. it's a 21mm socket set i cut down leaving two prongs still there. worked flawlessly. don't be tempted to struggle and leave shims out, as you'll lose efficiency and it's a bodge

they go back how i've got them in my diagram. it's fiddly but not impossible

Those pics are spot on mate, thanks a lot! Yeh I reckon I could frankenstein something together like that, G clamp would do the job by the looks of it

Just need to get hold of the rebuild kit now and set about doing them.

Thanks

[Tom85]

I did think about getting some 'pre-furbed' but wanted to keep the car off the road for the least amount of time really.

Pics would help no end rikky thanks!

Ive just checked and they are around £100 per side for refurbed. Never expected them to be that expensive. Maybe a rebuild kit is the way to go.

You can get them cheaper than that:

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/CarFactorsUk?LH...er&submit=

Plus £15 cashback for each old caliper.

Almost sounds too good to be true - but they state 2 year guarantee.

Actualy scrap that - sorry I think they are the wrong size unfortunately.. I'm sure there were some similarly priced ones on ebay somewhere though.

[Lolben91]

£100 per side refurbed? I had to replace a calliper on the GTI beam i had and it cost me £35 trading in my old calliper (with a snapped bleed nipple), even came with a 2 year warranty

Edit:
Was from motaquip!

[Niall]

Have a look in the guides section mate. I did a guide when I rebuilt mine last year. Rebuild kit was £28 from Big Red Brakes.

[Woody.]

Have a look in the guides section mate. I did a guide when I rebuilt mine last year. Rebuild kit was £28 from Big Red Brakes.

Ah I did have a look but couldn't see anything, have you got a link Niall?