What Calipers
#1
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What Calipers
So last night I replaced my rear brake pads. Simple enough right. Well when compressing the calipers I messed up the passanger rear. I took it to a shop to power bleed them. The guy was pretty cool but he said I needed both rear calipers even though only one was bad. Do you always need to replace these in pairs? And what kind do you recommend or can you get rebuilt ones less expensive?
#4
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Ok but as far as me replacing the caliper/s is it required to do both at once, is it a safety issue? Or can I just replace the one that is bad and call it a day? They wanted way too much to do it.
#9
I worked in a shop for 8 years, dealt with parts shop such as Autozone, Napa, Carquest, Foreign Car Parts, Lee Auto, and even dealerships. First of all, you don't have to replace both calipers if you don't want to and the shop can't make you do it if you didn't want. Second, there are two reasons they want you to do both calipers is because it effects how they make their money. The tech. gets more labor to replace a simple part, and they make more money on selling you extra parts, which are marked up. It is however better to do both calipers in pair only if they are old and have been on the car for a long time, and lots of miles. The miata calipers are fairly cheap and I don't think it really matters if you go to the dealership or any parts house. Napa Calipers will probably be Beck Arnely and other shops will have the same ones. The cheapest quality parts you can get are probably sold by Autozone. They sell lots of china stuff. Guys just because something is made in China does not always mean its ****. They make different quailty parts depending on who they sell it to and what they want. If you can install the caliper yourself, which is fairly easy except for the parking brake adjustment, which you can have the shop do for like 30-40 bucks. Whenever you go buy a part at a parts house just ask them which brand the part is. They will usually quote you the higher price part, that does not mean its always the best either. Once you know the brand the part is call up the other parts house and ask for brand and compare the prices. You will see they will be differnet, just buy the cheapest price quoted. Always call the dealership too, sometimes they have the original part and its the cheapest.
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