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Seized Up Brakes

C

CoolAsLife

New Member
My rear off-side brake caliper has seized up. I managed to get the caliper off and take it down the guys at my local garage (wife's brother is the manager ;) ). They got their wind-back tool on it but it wouldn't budge. Took it to another chap and he managed to wind it back after a lot of cursing and swearing.

We put it back on earlier this week, pumped it up, bled the brake line - but the piston will not return - so it looks like it's well and truely seized up.

Searched but only found a couple of posts regarding calipers on the forum. One made a reference to Bigg Red. www.biggred.co.uk

Has anyone used them before? I'm thinking of sending all four calipers off for a refurb.

What's the cost of a new caliper?
 
Hi m8, BigRedd are ok, but they wont touch AP calipers, they only do mainstream stuff and our bendix rears are citroen items. They can either refurb or supply a seal kit for you do yourself. Be aware that their paint system is not praticularly durable.

I had my fronts and rears painted by different people but I wish id had them all done by this company,
http://www.brake-caliper-painting.com/

they are based in Nottingham. Looks like a big company from the website, but its a one man band working out of a bodyshop!

If you call and speak to Richard Munt, he will give you a price for doing all 4 calipers. Pretty reasonable, and a good guy. If you phone, tell him that I put you onto him, he knows his way round these calipers now!

Richard ended up rebuilding all 4 calipers as I had real problems with the rears, I bust 4 of the slide pin seals, and in the end gave up and gave it to someone who knew what they are doing!

Cheers
Dan
 
If you want a new caliper, give Brakes International in Rochdale a call and speak to Dave who does refurbs. They have (or did about 3 weeks ago) 2 rear bendix calipers in stock, refurbed. This is the caliper only and does not include the pad carrier, (the bit the caliper bolts onto)

Exchange unit at the time was about £84.
 
Cheers Dan, I also came across brake-caliper-painting.com in my search for someone to do the refurb.

I got a reply from Tony at Bigg Red and he knows that the rears were Bendix (I assume from doing yours) but is asking who the fronts are by. Any ideas?

I will give Richard a shout in the morning. Depending on how quick he can do a refurb on all 4 and the cost, I may end up getting a single caliper from Brakes Int if Dave still has them.

All a bit of a palarva really...I was all set to go to the the Renaultsport National Meet on 5th May but not going anywhere with a seized caliper. And I'm in real need of a full set of discs but the group buy from Apec is looking like the end of June.... We'll see how it all pads out - pun not intended :)

Thanks for sharing your experience regarding both refurb companies - always good to know from someone who's been there before!
 
Hi Fella, Ive been rebuilding my brakes for about 6 months now and partly because I was waiting for parts, but its been a bit of a learning curve! I had the rears powdercoated (wont do that again) and then the fronts properly spray painted and laquered (which is how Richard at Brake-caliper-painting will do them).

The fronts are 'AP Racing Calipers' and just to confirm, BigRedd wont touch them. Richard at Brake-caliper-painting will do all 4 calipers for you and is used to dealing with the high end calipers off Porsches and Ferrari etc, so AP and Brembo. In fact he has just got some sort of contract with McLaren doing their road car calipers?!?

If you want a quick fix, it may be best to go down the new rear caliper route from Brakes International.

Good luck and keep us posted on what you do.

Cheers
Dan
 
Update time...

I let BiggRed know that the fronts were AP Racing and they ran a mile as expected. Quote "we are not geared up to do AP Racing". For the rears they have quoted £179.00 to refurb and repaint. They haven't gone into any details and to whether the quote includes a replacement piston for the seized one or if the quote is per caliper or for the pair. Based on feedback from Thunderstarter, with the paint job not being all that, don't think I'll be going with them.

In contrast, Richard Munt at brake-caliper-painting.com was very helpful. He's happy to do both rear and front. Quote for the rear only refurb comes in at £152 for the pair. The replacement pistons are £38 or £76 if I need both.

The fronts are a slightly different story. The AP Racing service kits for the fronts are only available from the main dealer. Richard could source the service kit for me but would add he's standard 30% mark-up. Given that there's less than 5% discount to trade, I would be better off sourcing them myself and supplying Richard with the parts. The cost would then just be labour and the re-paint.

He suggested giving my local Renault parts desk a call and they could at least point me in the right direction. Richard said that I would just need rubbers and seals. Apparently the pistons on the AP Racing are so good they should never need replacing.

For now I'm going to send the rears of to Richard and then think about sourcing an AP service kit for the fronts. Will try and take some before and after pictures along the way.
 
And another update - Spoke to the very nice chap (Alasdair Lecky) over at RaceParts and he has spoken directly to AP regarding the AP Racing front caliper seal kits and they are £25.25 ea.+VAT so I will be ordering a couple. Very prompt and effectient response from RaceParts . Another good recommendation from this 'ere forum!
 
CoolAsLife":2a7d2zjp said:
And another update - Spoke to the very nice chap (Alasdair Lecky) over at RaceParts and he has spoken directly to AP regarding the AP Racing front caliper seal kits and they are £25.25 ea.+VAT so I will be ordering a couple. Very prompt and effectient response from RaceParts . Another good recommendation from this 'ere forum!
Click to expand...


Yeah, the pistons on the AP's were like new on mine when I stripped the calipers, youd be very unlucky if you need to replace those. What colour are you having them painted? standard black? Are you having AP decals applied to the fronts? If so there is a guy on Ebay that does them.

there is also a thread here about AP supply issues, and dealers to avoid
LINK >
 
Took the rear capilers off last night. Holy-moly, the seized one is it poor condition compared to the other side.

Here the side by side photo: - guess which is the fooked one!
9e42fc174fc47746b04452a27f42d02a.jpg


And a close up of the seized piston. The rubber has perished.
c2cf10276babd53301f2bf41b2757821.jpg


This is the working caliper with rubber seal in tact:
2f9bcf1c57cec5949cfe57126f733a4b.jpg


Also took the carriers off and sent them off to be shotblasted and repainted
a2fd663ebfb9ed754ec64a19ddfc43d2.jpg

I forgot to take a picture of the brake discs themselve but they are extremly worn and in bad shape. The brake pads from the seized side has crumbling rounded edges and the pad material is flaky and cracked - new pads needed.

I will get them painted red again as red gives you more stopping power, in the same way that red Ferrari's are fast :)
 
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Interesting feedback Phil. A very different experience from Dan's.

Fingers crossed as I shipped the calipers and carriers off now!
 
I'm sure you'll be fine. I'm no doubt one of the unlucky customers. I waited patiently, and was polite, etc. Very frustrating!
 
Hmmm, that does not sound good Phil! I actually went and delivered mine in person as i didnt fancy sending 4 calipers off and potentially not seeing them again. Richard was very polite, sounded knowledgable etc. my only critisism would be that he was slightly forgetful, but in his defence, he has a lot of jobs on the go and is probably getting to the point where he needs someone looking after his admin! he is a pure 1 man band and spends alot of time painting in the oven, hence why you possibly couldnt contact him Phil, but thats still no excuse for not sending your paint!

my advice would be to phone him every day and ask where he is at, ive got a landline and mobile for him, let me know if you need them.

Its a great niche market hes got there and all because no one will touch the high end calipers.
 
Hmmmm - I'm getting the wiggin's now. Shipped off my calipers and carriers yesterday, £301 taken from my bank account this morning and he's not answering the phone. Called 5 times this morning - no answer. Maybe he has a day off today.... [smilie=icon_eek.gif] If you do have a mobile number for Richard could you PM it to me please Dan?
 
Not sure why he would take payment prior to finishing your job, he took my payment when he shipped them back to me. but don't worry fella, all will be fine.

here are the 2 numbers I have:

07572 440254
01332 873281
 
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