Brake caliper seal kit- Autozone vs. Honda OEM

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vinu_neuro

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The front and rear calipers are sticking a bit in my car I'm thinking about rebuilding all four instead of getting rebuilt ones. Does anyone have experience using generic rebuild kits? Honda OEM is $15+ (piston boot, seal, pin boots, grease), whereas Autozone is $3 (piston boot and seal)+ $10 for grease. Big price difference when you do all four.

Btw, how often is the piston and bore damaged/corroded enough to be the main culprit. Both the calipers that are sticking are only doing so slightly.

Thanks.
 
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Usually the culprit is not bleeding brakes yearly like you should. Otherwise the sticking is just lack of lube or missing clips that pull the pad off the rotor.
 
I'd rather buy the OEM parts and do it once, compared with buying off-brand parts and possibly doing it again. As they say, "you can never afford to do it right, but you can always afford to do it twice".
 
The AZ parts will work fine. Some parts are not as high a quality level as dealer parts, but most are fine. Don't be a 'big box' hater.
 
Originally Posted By: wallyuwl
The price difference is only about $2 per caliper based on the info. you've given. Go OEM.

the difference is 22 vs 60 you dont have to buy 4 things of grease
 
All the aftermarket sources seals from China for import brake rebuild. Honestly, I'd just throw a reman caliper on - even if Cardone quality isn't so hot.
 
You could go to Autozone and have them pull the part and look at it.


I did this today at Advance. The brake cable I needed was made in China. and looked significantly different from the original. It probably would have worked, but it wasn't high quality.

I ended up getting a German made cable that was identical to the original one from Carquest.

You also might want to check out some other local sources for the kits. Carquest has a lot of good import brands, because Carquest owns Worldpac, a large import parts distributor.
 
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Well guys, I'm going to leave the front alone for now. If it's sticking it's marginal. The rear caliper is pretty fubard. I took it off to look it and couldn't turn the piston back in, probably something wrong with the parking brake mechanism inside. It's not something I'm interested in repairing so I'm picking up a reman from rockauto.
 
Originally Posted By: vinu_neuro
I'm picking up a reman from rockauto.


I also recommend checking Amazon. I like Rock Auto, but auto parts are often heavy, so the free shipping on Amazon usually gives them a pricing edge.
 
Originally Posted By: vinu_neuro
The front and rear calipers are sticking a bit in my car I'm thinking about rebuilding all four instead of getting rebuilt ones. Does anyone have experience using generic rebuild kits? Honda OEM is $15+ (piston boot, seal, pin boots, grease), whereas Autozone is $3 (piston boot and seal)+ $10 for grease. Big price difference when you do all four.

Btw, how often is the piston and bore damaged/corroded enough to be the main culprit. Both the calipers that are sticking are only doing so slightly.

Thanks.

Caliper bore is rarely damaged unless the fluid is never changed. Usually the damage is limited to the piston, which will have deep pitting. The pitting will be in a ring around the piston in a specific location that has to do with wear-patterns and time.

And even if the bore does have rust, that's OK as long as the rust hasn't migrated to the square-cut seal's groove.

Aftermarket kits are fine, but OEM will last longest and fit best. Be aware that aftermarket rear-pistons often lack the machining necessary for easy bleeding, so you may have trouble getting all the air out of the rear calipers.
 
By the way, it IS entirely practical to rebuild the rear calipers without disassembling the parking-brake portion of the caliper, so don't even attempt to take that portion apart: You'll never get it back together again!
 
Originally Posted By: Tegger
Originally Posted By: vinu_neuro
The front and rear calipers are sticking a bit in my car I'm thinking about rebuilding all four instead of getting rebuilt ones. Does anyone have experience using generic rebuild kits? Honda OEM is $15+ (piston boot, seal, pin boots, grease), whereas Autozone is $3 (piston boot and seal)+ $10 for grease. Big price difference when you do all four.

Btw, how often is the piston and bore damaged/corroded enough to be the main culprit. Both the calipers that are sticking are only doing so slightly.

Thanks.

Caliper bore is rarely damaged unless the fluid is never changed. Usually the damage is limited to the piston, which will have deep pitting. The pitting will be in a ring around the piston in a specific location that has to do with wear-patterns and time.

And even if the bore does have rust, that's OK as long as the rust hasn't migrated to the square-cut seal's groove.

Aftermarket kits are fine, but OEM will last longest and fit best. Be aware that aftermarket rear-pistons often lack the machining necessary for easy bleeding, so you may have trouble getting all the air out of the rear calipers.



Does this mean you should plan on a piston replacement if you are going to do a rebuild?

Some vehicles have phenolic pistons. I assume they don't rust and can almost always be reused?
 
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Originally Posted By: Donald
Does this mean you should plan on a piston replacement if you are going to do a rebuild?

Some vehicles have phenolic pistons. I assume they don't rust and can almost always be reused?

You haven't got a Ford, you've got a Honda. That means you've got ordinary steel pistons. Ordinary steel rusts, which is why your calipers are sticking. Honda puts lousy brakes on their cars.

Any rebuild for a sticking Honda caliper needs new pistons. Once you have it apart, you'll find out why. I've got some pics on my Web site, or I can email them to you. I'm still kind of reluctant to post my URLs here for fear of seeming like a spammer.
 
Originally Posted By: Tegger
You haven't got a Ford, you've got a Honda.

Sorry!

I confused you with the OP, who apparently has an '01 Prelude.

Phenolic pistons will chip around the edges, but so long as the sides remain smooth, they can be reused indefinitely. Just clean them up and lube with brake fluid or silicone grease before re-installing.
 
Originally Posted By: Tegger
Originally Posted By: Donald
Does this mean you should plan on a piston replacement if you are going to do a rebuild?

Some vehicles have phenolic pistons. I assume they don't rust and can almost always be reused?

You haven't got a Ford, you've got a Honda. That means you've got ordinary steel pistons. Ordinary steel rusts, which is why your calipers are sticking. Honda puts lousy brakes on their cars.

Any rebuild for a sticking Honda caliper needs new pistons. Once you have it apart, you'll find out why. I've got some pics on my Web site, or I can email them to you. I'm still kind of reluctant to post my URLs here for fear of seeming like a spammer.



Sorry I am not the OP, but had a related question. I have a Jeep GC and I think the pistons are phenolic.

And a follow-up, can you use a big C clamp on the phenolic pistons to push them back in? Or will they crack. How tuff are they?
 
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I have pushed my Caravan phenolic pistons in with a C clamp. I use a very large flat washer slightly bigger (diameter) than the piston to distribute the force evenly. Someday I need to ante up and get a real compresser.

"Experts" recommend opening the bleed screw during piston ompression if you have ABS.

My daughter's Escort steel pistons were very pitted. Including them in a rebuild makes the cost close to buying a rebuilt caliper.
 
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