Hey guys ! Never buy those sh**ty $80 reman (by A1 Cardone ?) calipers from Advance Auto. We live on an unpaved road in the hills of VT (so dirt, gravel, salt, snow, the works) and so when it came time to replace the rear calipers on my gf's 2002 Mini (one of them was binding and I decided to do both), I cheaped out. The reman calipers I got from Adv Auto had been drilled out and tapped with 1mm larger bleed screws. Having done and messed up my share of brake jobs on all kinds of cars, I took special care - took the screws out and scrupulously teflon taped them. Came time to bleed the brakes (yes I took all the usual precautions - only tight enough not to leak - crack a quarter turn to bleed, etc) and would you know it - the threads broke ! On both calipers !!

Guess I'm going to have to get brand new ATE's for over $200 each. I think the dealer charges $275. Any ideas on lower prices for new (NOT remanufactured) calipers ?

Not that it helps me much, but I wondered if others had similar experience with these calipers.

Thanks,
Bhima

 

In my limited experience I've found that you get what you pay for. Sorry you had bad luck.

 

I work for CARDONE and the reason why the calipers are cheaper is not because they are lower quality, its because the metal castings are stripped down and reused. All the seals, bleed screws, etc are replaced. Our products are reverse engineered, so likely the smaller bleed screws were found to strip out (threads or bolt) so they made them bigger to counter this. (I'm not positive of that I'm in Marketing, not engineering).

We sell thousands of brake calipers every year, and have been in business for almost 40 years, we wouldn't be in business if this were the norm. Take back the calipers you purchased... I'm sure Advance will give you new ones. Email me if you have any problems. clippert@cardone.com
Seriously, we'll make it work.

Also, I've never used teflon tape on bleed screws. How much did you use? I think they make a liquid verson.... this may work better for you.

 

1) find out the thread specs of the bleeders, and order some yourself that are made of stronger stuff.

2) The rebuild is mostly for the seals etc. If you've ever rebuilt a caliper with a parking brake mechanism, these take some special tools and are a PITA. $80 is a fair price.

3) The seal with the bleeder is based on the chamfered end mating with the bottom of the hole. The teflon tape doesn't do any sealing during normal operation, only makes it easier to bleed cause you don't get seepage past the threads (or breath air back in past the treads). Go real light, just over one turn of teflon tape there.

4) Teflon tape has so much give to it that it wouldn't have anything to do with the bleeders breaking.

Matt

 

OK.. Will do a 'defective exchange'. The threads in the aluminum caliper broke, not the bleed screw itself.

Bhima

 

I sell a1 calipers all day long maybe every 100th caliper might have a problem

 

holy S^&% you only paid 275 for a rear caliper? mine ran almost 400 from momentum here in houston... I feel raped... and yes that was for JUST one

 

Well.. I'm going to give Adv Auto another shot - although with two bad calipers, I don't know why I should. But yes, it seems like you can buy new ones for between $200-$300. Does the $400 include pads ? (In some deals they come loaded with the pads).

Bhima

 

+1
It happens. I spent 2 1/2 years with AAP and have had it happen. I'll tell you what, though. We have and had waaaaayyyyy less defective returns than Pep Boys and Zone do. Take 'em back, if you can, talk to the store manager. Explain the situation (please keep calm ) and they'll take care of you.

 

Agree. If the calipers are aluminum... its a soft, but light metal. Its bound to happen especially if you aren't careful making sure they are threaded properly (not saying you did that).

Advance should take them back.

 

Negative BMW does not include the pads with a rear caliper replacement. I even talked to advanced, oreilly's and autozone... they all sell front calipers but noone stocks rears.