Reman brake calipers

Would all remanufactured brake calipers that you could buy from a common auto parts store (Napa, Autozone, etc.) be made from what were originally OEM Toyota brake calipers or are there aftermarket companies that actually manufacture their own calipers from scratch? I’m not referring to higher end calipers like Brembo, etc., rather I’m just curious about “reman” calipers that are supposed to be stock replacements.
Thanks.

 

The term "reman" says it all. They take bad and defective factory cores and literally refurbished them to usable condition. Keep in mind they're not using OE quality parts for the refurbished as well, but they should carry a lifetime warranty. But the saying "lifetime warranty" mean you'll be changing them for the life of ownership.

 

Thanks for your input.
Is there any downside to rebuilding my existing calipers using an OEM Toyota rebuild kit (seals, boots, etc.) as opposed to buying new calipers from Toyota?
It seems to me that a chunk of metal (that is not rusted out) could be easily renewed by replacing the wear parts (boots and seals) with new oem seals and boots which would make the caliper good to use or even "new"??

 

It depends on what the issue is to began with. Keep in mind, Toyota also sells reman caliper vs your national supply chain.

Reman from your national supply chain do contain good ones, if you're lucky.

 

That's what I did was rebuild mine 6 to 7 yrs ago. Got the kit for 20 bucks from Toyota, plum simple to do, works great.

 

rebuilding your own calipers the most important thing is the condition of the bore .

If it is still smooth and free of pits your good to go. A pitted bore will soon have a rebuilt caliper leaking again.

Just because a vendor made Calipers for Toyota they also may have produced them for the after market as well

I had good luck with Napa for re manufactured Calipers but it has been a few years.

 

I've been rebuilding my own calipers since 1980. Here's what I do:

1. Remove and split the caliper, then blow out the pistons with an air compressor.
2. Remove and discard the little rubber O-rings.
3. Clean the caliper and its mating surfaces with solvent, then dry them with a towel.
4. Make sure there are absolutely no burrs on the mating surfaces. Use your fingernails to check.
5. Inspect the pistons for pitting. If they are mildly pitted, I use a fine emery cloth to remove the varnish and smooth them out.
6. Use fine emery cloth to remove the varnish and whatever other crap is inside.
7. Blow out the little holes that feed the brake fluid into the caliper.
8. Wipe the entire caliper clean and dry it with compressed air.
9. Wipe some fresh DOT 3 brake fluid inside the bores and around the pistons.
10. Install the pistons into the caliper along with two new O-rings.
12. Reassemble the caliper and torque to spec. Can't recall if I torque them before after I install them to the vehicle. Prolly after.
13. Reinstall the caliper and torque the mounting bolts --> DONE!

I do this every other pad change (approximately every 90K miles). I've done it on American cars and on my Toyota trucks. I've not had a single leak or problem after rebuilding them, nor have I noticed any difference in operation, so I guess I'm doing the right thing.

 

That is my plan - to do a rebuild. It’s not a cost issue for me….I actually trust myself more than someone else to take the time and care to do the job right. Plus I like doing this kind of stuff so why not.

 

Late reply...

I've been in the caliper rebuilding industry for 20 years. Here's how it works.

Cores come from wrecking yards and core returns primarily....they are not OEM factory 2nds or parts that failed to meet toyota's spec during production.

With the rising cost of freight/shipping, and the more corrosive de-icing chemicals that are being used, as well as lots more internet business, fewer cores are coming back now than they used to, so many have turned to producing new calipers to fill in. It is very common to find a new caliper in a "reman" box, simply because they ran out of usable cores and supplimented the inventory with new units, hoping to get your cores back.

In a lot of cases (particularly true of internet purchases), the core value is less than the cost to ship them, so people just eat the core price and scrap the cores.

 

Luck of the draw.

Sometimes there is an oem in there and other times mostly the junk

 

I prefer the aftermarket new to reman OE... the reman process is flawed, every caliper is treated the same, regardless of it's condition. Threads are always degraded, pistons typically damaged during cleaning...it's not great, especially since most of the big players have moved their reman plants to Mexico. Cardone, of all companies, I would say is the best as far as reman goes....and yes, while they have been notoriously the worst, they have moved all of their caliper operation back from Mexico to the states because they were having so many problems.

Yes, most of the aftermarket new units are chinese, but they have clean machine work, no rust damage, good threads, new pistons, and much better plating (when a plated caliper is selected) than you can get on a reman unit. My company supplies new aftermarket calipers for late model stuff exclusively with absolutely zero issues over the last several years. We only remanufacture niche market vintage stuff anymore, and take lots of time to do that correctly.

Centric/Raybestos, Nugeon/BBB, and MPA are in Mexico exclusively. Nastra I believe is still here but I'm not sure how much market share they have anymore. Most reman calipers you buy (regardless of the box they come in) are from one of these 3 plants, or Cardone.

 

Up here in Ontario with all the salt; I go though reman callipers almost every two yeas due to pistons seizing from corrosion. I’ve had two sets of powerstop calipers go within a season of winter. The first ones didn’t even make it on the road before they were peeing fluid from where the housing split…

I wish I could figure out how to keep the salt out! I almost feel like I should be coating every raw piece of metal I can..