Calipers - Buying used stock sport calipers vs. new Remanufactured
 

I had a sticking front left caliper yesterday and went to advance auto parts for a "Wearever" replacement that I changed in paddock and continued on my day at the event. That got me thinking... with 125k miles on the car and a lot of autox/track time, the other calipers are probably on their way to sticking as well (I bought the car a year ago and have no idea how the previous owner maintained the brakes.)

I wanted to get opinions on the following options:

1. Take stock calipers apart, rebuild/regrease
2. Buy OEM Remanufactured calipers from dealer
3. Buy advance auto sport calipers all around
4. Buy used sport caliper set from TreasureCoastMiata or similar
5. Upgrade to Wilwood fronts (and figure something out for rears)

Will also swap the original hubs for Mazda Motorsports or something.

The car is a N/A bolt-on '01 with ABS that sees track time but also street driving.

I've been buying Rockauto remanufactured ones. They are $40-$60 after you return the cores. Its not worth my time to rebuild the ones on the car.

My opinions:
1. not worth my effort. I hit the easy button so I can focus any available garage time on other things.
2. expensive compared to other options
3. not sure of cost but a good approach
4. if not rebuilt you'd probably want to rebuild
5. if your build path takes you that route, it eliminates a lot of these issues. with that said, i think people time out the calipers and replace them every so often.

I've had an Advance Auto Parts rear reman. caliper in the car for a couple months and it's completely covered in surface rust. Does the rockauto the calipers have the same issue? Not a huge deal I guess but looks horrible.

Check what they sell. I know they have Powerstop ones that are powder coated red.

It appears they sell the powdercoated red ones for sport brakes for about $140 for the full set of 4 after core exchange. That's a winner. Thanks!

Edit: Nevermind. Advertised as pairs but priced as individual calipers. So $280 for the set.

A can of caliper paint is maybe $8

100% agree. I did this and then painted them with gloss black caliper paint before install. Easy peasy.

I tried rebuilding my fronts. They started leaking in a cpuple months and I put remans on.

Every single rear I have gotten from autozone has had issues with the parking brake not releasing. I have had four (bought two and two warantee replacements for the above issue).

I ended up buying a set of the powder coated powerstop calipers from RockAuto. After core exchange, $280 for the set. I'm ok with that for knowing I have fresh brakes all around.

Pardon the mild necro, but are remans a crapshoot with bleeder screw seats, or does a certain brand have them on point? I just threw on a set of reman Centrics (after seeing TCM recommend/carries them) and both fronts spit fluid into my barrels at the track still seep fluid.


The proper "light-snug" torque spec wasn't keeping fluid from seeping past the threads upon initial install, so I just cranked em down and sent it. I didn't lose a ton of fluid or any brake performance, just annoying. Tempted to just grab whatever NAPA has and cross my fingers.

Remans are crap and there aren’t any quality replacement parts for the oem calipers. Also the sport calipers are tanks.