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Have you considered a refurbished unit? There are companies on the net that offer exchange calipers for about £80 each.The most reputable companies give a warranty as well. £180 each seems well over the top to me.
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Have you considered a refurbished unit? There are companies on the net that offer exchange calipers for about £>>
Rather refubish the one you have, a kit would be about £20
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As has been said, the dealer is trying to take you for a ride and sell you 2 calipers when you only need one, if it is not too late get the car back and go to an independent and get the one duff one changed and don't use that dealer again.
As a little experiment, get a copy of yellow pages and find the telephone number of , say, 5 Ford dealers and their service departments, ring each one up in turn and say your car has been diagnosed with a sticking brake caliper, can they quote a price and is it OK to only replace the faulty one and not both on that axle, I am sure the truth will come out!!
Then tell your local dealer about your findings and see what they say...
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As has been said, the dealer is trying to take you for a ride
That's a wild statement if ever I heard one. What's your evidence of this?
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L\'escargot.
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But a kit wont include the handbrake lever seals and a diyer would have big problems dismantling and reassemling the handbrake mechanism. Its 99,9% likely that its the handbrake lever that seized and causing the problem anyway.
www.brake-eng.com/ do recon brake parts and will have an outlet near you
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The dealer did say that the handbrake mechanism was not the cause of the problem.
Personally I don't trust this dealer as far as I could throw him. When I quizzed him about how free the caliper was able to slide along its carrier and were the brake pads seated in their place correctly he just spun me line of crap which ended up with the calipers being replaced.
I don't reckon he has tested the caliper at all for any faults.
I am sorely tempted just to get some pads and discs myself, retrieve the copperslip from the garage and get to work!! I shall prove him wrong!
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If you do have a go yourself you'll need a calliper piston wind back tool, the pistons need rotating as you push them back.
;O)
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There's not much to go wrong with a brake caliper really. Unless the pistons or slides seize solid, or the seals start leaking, they don't generally need to be touched.
It's quite acceptable to replace calipers individually rather than as a pair. I did it on SWMBO's Fiesta and have had no problems since. When we bought the car, the pads and discs were both at the end of their lives, so the caliper pistons were sticking right out of their bores. On one caliper, the gaiter around the piston had split and the side of the piston had corroded so badly it wouldn't push back in.
I called my local factors who quoted me about £15 for a rebuild kit, but said they could do me a complete exchange (recon) caliper for £35. It wasn't worth the hassle of rebuilding it for that, so I just replaced the whole thing, bled the system through and job done! Brakes have worked fine ever since.
The price you were quoted sounds excessive, and they should also be able to offer you a plausible explanation as to why they thought the caliper needed changing in the first place.
Cheers
DP
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Does anybody know what size of allen key I will need to remove the two caliper bolts (they are VW calipers) and are there any recommendations for a piston wind back tool??
Thanks.
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Think they are either 6 or 8mm (working from memory). But you could get yourself a set of 3/8"-drive Allens off Ebay for a few quid.
To wind back the piston try a largish pair of long nose pliers, or the key off a small angle grinder might fit. You can buy the proper tool, but not worth it for a one-off job. The pliers will work I reckon.
As you rotate the piston back, be carefull that the dust seal doesn't 'stick' in the groove in the piston and twist and tear as you rotate. Best advise is to take a small screwdriver and pry the seal out of the groover sllightly, all the way around, to make sure it is free, before you rotate.
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Looks like I may need to warm up some of that humble pie and get ready to eat it !
I replaced the pads and discs today. Both pistons wound back no problem at all. Wire brushed scabby bits and re-applied the copper ease where necessary.
The OSR clamp is still jamming!! It's not the hand brake cable as the mechanism is moving freely up and down. I even disconnected the handbrake cable on that side just to prove.
As another possibility, I slowly released the bleed screw on the caliper to see if that would free it up but no different. This would have pointed towards an internal break down of the flexible brake pipe.
Looks like a new caliper then after all !!
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Are they sliding calipers on this car of yours? From what you have described there is little else that could be wrong apart from the fact that the caliper may not be sliding properly. If this is the case it may be wise to look into the reason why. If there are any, did you have the caliper sliding pins out to clean and lubricate them?
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You mean the handbrake lever on the caliper is'nt returning to its stop?
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Looks like a new caliper then after all !!
Have you asked aboiut a repair kit? For the Mondeo you can get a kit with new sliders, silicone grease etc, about £25, the answer if the hydraulics are fine. The Galaxy is a VAG part though so kit might not be available.
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Does anybody know what size of allen key I will need to remove the two caliper bolts
You'd be better off having a hexagonal bit that you can turn with a torque wrench.
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L\'escargot.
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