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?

Brake parts are usually replaced in pairs, especially by a shop with legal considerations.

AFAIK, most of the time hydraulic parts are on a core charge basis.

Also, FYI, most rear calipers need to be turned in because they contain the parking brake.

if one is dead the other is almost there
you really want to do both at the same time...but you dont have to...i would

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.

do it yourself...take of your calipers, go to parts store and tell them you need two calipers for "billybobs shop" with their discount...you could save some serious dough...lol

The shop in question would have to have an account with the store for that to work, lol.

311: replace them both.

ok Both it is. Now is stuff from NAPA that much better than say checker, or autozone?

If you're not getting Mazda parts, they're all made in china, so it doesn't matter.

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 shit. 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.

When I worked in a shop (3 of 'em before I enlisted), it was both or GTFO when it came to brakes.

I've always replaced them in pairs... only because my OCD will not allow asymmetric cleanliness and if I have a clean new one on one side and an old dirty one on the other side I will be so distracted I'll wreck the damn car.

If the calipers on the car are old, replacing both of them now will save more money in the long run in labor, down time, rebleeding, etc.