Failure experience rates on rebuilt caliper

Dos anyone know where I can fine documentation on what the rebuilt caliper failure experience rates are on quality name brands?

Not really. I have never experienced a failure with a new or rebuilt caliper. How did your caliper fail exactly?

I’ve got a bad reman caliper story. A few years ago I replaced both calipers on my old Buick, bough remans from the parts store. My first brake job, just doing it step by step according to Haynes. All of the hardware on them seemed to be good, the steel surface had been refinished too, a nice dull silver.

Put them on, finished the brake job, bled them. Couldn’t understand why the pedal kept going to the floor afterwards. Fearing that my master cylinder may have gone, and being in over my head, I gave up and took it to the local chain shop on Sunday. They looked at it for a while, couldn’t figure out the problem at first, then said they had to change one of the calipers again.

It turns out that the bad caliper had seen a tough life. I guess the previous owner had let a pad wear right down, or the disc was somehow loose, or something. One inside face was worn halfway through, with a nice disc-shaped wear pattern. The new pads had an extra 1/4" of space to fill.

How that thing got through the reman inspection process, I’ll never understand.

My new mechanic, who I am beginning to lose trust in, had replaced one of my calipers and 1-1/2 days the rebuilt caliper failed. He tolled me the about 30% of rebuilt calipers fail, that sounds like and awful big number. He seams to have an answer for everything. I am just trying to ascertain if he is correct. Is he using brand names or cheep stuff?

even good products and good companies have error rates. give your mechanic a break. he also is at the mercy of parts vendors and pricing points to compete.

How did it fail? Leak? I used to rebuild calipers and the piston/seal is awful simple. Clean bore, good seal, ok piston.

With a considerable history of brake repair business I have never installed a rebuilt caliper that failed but a few rebuilts were returned due to rust indicating they had been wet at some point after being rebuilt. I recall one wheel cylinder and one master cylinder that were found to be defective before leaving the shop and I would think that a faulty caliper would show up during a test drive if not while bleeding.

gdawgs- That is what I am asking. What is the error rates. My mechanic seems to think it is 30%. I am looking for data / answer not a guess.

gdawgs- That is what I am asking. What is the error rates. My mechanic seems to think it is 30%. I am looking for data / answer not a guess.

You’re asking for something no one is keeping track of. The ONLY ones that would possibly keep that data is the rebuilders. And they’re not about to release that information UNLESS it benefits them. A 30% failure would be very high…and if I was the rebuilder I surly wouldn’t want that information getting out. It would have to be 1 in every 10 million rate of failure before I as a rebuilder would want to disclose that information.

I don’t see the point in having data. Even if it is 0.1% failure rate and your happened to be one, then you have to take the car back and the mechanic has to stand behind the work.

Now, if he doesn’t, then you have a problem. I am not sure where he got the 30% number either, I do not believe there is any valid stats out there. If you don’t like his general attitude, which is what your post implies, then stop using him.

Shops would rebuild calipers if the failure rate out of the box was 30%.

“What is the error rates. My mechanic seems to think it is 30%.”

I don’t see any point in debating this with your mechanic. I think this translates to his failure rate is 30%. You should take that into consideration the next time you need a repair.

From following the other thead it seems that you are trying to cure a brake noise by replacing parts (calipers). This is a common practice at chain repair shops. I have been told that a customer will either get used to the noise from their cheap brake pads or run out of money tring to silence their brakes. There are practical ways of addressing brake noise but that may be a different topic.

What, how do one compares price with quality / reliability? How dos one decide if the $50, $72, or a $157 rebuilt caliber is a fair price? When one buys a car there is reliability criteria on how often it brakes down. For national name brands calipers there got to be an excepted slandered industry rate.

For national name brands calipers there got to be an excepted slandered industry rate.

Says who???

There are too many things that can come into play here. For one…design flaw. The 4th generation 4runner has a basic design flaw in their calipers. Their 4 piston design calipers are very prone to premature failure. I have over 240k miles on my 05 4runner and I’m now about to replace my 4th set. Never had I had a problem with calipers before.

And as I said…companies may be gathering that data for their own internal use…but NOT to be viewed by the public.

What, how do one compares price with quality / reliability? How dos one decide if the $50, $72, or a $157 rebuilt caliber is a fair price?

I stick to a known brand name from a reputable parts supplier for my parts. It’s worked for me. Outside of that…GOOD LUCK.

Perhaps I found a niche to collect and sell data on after market and refurbished / remanufactured parts. I got to think vehicles mechanics and consumers would like this information to make an informed decision on price / quality. Just like “Consumers Reports”

The reason no one has done it yet…is because it’s either NOT very profitable…or the information gathering is too monumental…or both.

The only way you can get this information is from the mechanics…And just because one mechanic says it’s a 30% failure rate…I’ll bet it’s not even close to that. I’d be extremely surprised if he ever kept accurate stats. Then what about design flaws??? How are you going to handle that in your data??

MikeInNH - If aftermarket rebuilt parts information was available, as an on-line database similar to consumers reports, would you like to have it and if so what would you pay for it on a yearly basics?

I’m really not buying into that 30% failure rate unless the numbers are very small; say 1 out of 3.
Get into 15 out of 45 and there might be a trend.

The independent parts store owners I have dealt with would likely clear their shelves of any product line long before experiencing a 30% failure return rate. It would be better to scrap the junk and replace it with a reliable product rather than lose customers over the problems caused by returns. Some bogus refrigerant labeled R-12 nearly bankrupted a local parts house. He paid a small fortune to have the junk disposed of.

You’re missing the point - no way to get this confidential or nonexistent data. Sure it’d be nice to know but there’s no practical way to know it.