Calipers New vs Reman
 

Im in need of brakes soon and I'm considering doing the 5th gen upgrade all around which isn't gonna be cheap by any means. Im on Rockauto and pretty decided what im getting besides the calipers.

Right now its Raybestos R-300 rotors, Akebono performance pads and im between new or remanufactured calipers both Raybestos.

Anyone recommend one over the other? Why? price wise its pretty close, Its cheaper the reman route by maybe $50-$70 depending on what the shipping costs to send the old ones back but I do have to package the and ship back so that's time and effort aswell.

Going to pick up my 2 cans of caliper paint that I paid $5 for later today :biggrin2:

I look at the warranty period when buying reman calipers. If its warranty is 2 years, thats how long it will last. I know from experience. When I went to make my claim, I looked at the receipt where it said 24 month. My cars caliper was 26 months old. :suspicious:

I just replaced all 4 of mine and used cardone powder coated calipers. They have a 10 yr warranty.

I like the coated ones from Rockauto. Seem to be holding up pretty well.

Shoot I didn't even notice where they posted the warranty info! Looks like I'm going cardone also! Centric and power stop was 90 days! next highest was 2 years which isn't so bad really but since im still in the middle of divorce and bankruptcy soon after I might as well get the longer warranty just in case im stuck in this truck for that long I won't have to worry about them lol

Correction the Nugeon brand has limited lifetime. Never heard of them before I don't think.

The big difference in remanufactured calipers (or pretty much anything remanufactured for that matter) is the parts and the process they use. The cores they start with are pretty much - but not all - all OEM. You can take a good core, "remanufacture" it with a poorly controlled process using cheap parts and end up with a great looking caliper that's not going to last as long as OEM. Or you might end up with something pretty good. How do you know what you're getting? I'd suggest the warranty is a pretty good indicator.

My son recently bought some fancy remanufactured red painted calipers for his Scion tC. I didn't trust the quality of the parts they used, so we bought an OEM caliper rebuild kit and replaced the parts inside with OEM stuff. Oddly enough, the stuff we pulled out looked pretty pathetic compared with the new OEM stuff we put back in. Yup. You get what you pay for!

I have a 2005 with 150,000 miles. The front calipers (4) cylinders stick. Best thing to do is replace them with new or rebuilds because even though a good mechanic can free the old ones up, they will stick again.

Save yourself a lot of time. Don't "free" them yourself. Buy new/rebuilt :artist2:ones.

Cardone will work.
Don't forget NAPA.

I like NAPA - especially their oil which is over here at Kelly's now and then.

I watched a good mechanic spend two/3 hours trying to free up the calipers so they could work. Puts them on and they stick again.

I'll throw in my anecdotal experience. I haven't purchased new, but got 2 reman Cardone calipers for the front from Rockauto about a year and 15,000 miles ago. One of them was DOA and leaked from where the brake line connects to it. Getting a replacement was super simple, and I haven't had any issues since.

I've also gotten new parts that were DOA (not calipers, but still), so there isn't really a 100% correct answer to this question. Buy your parts, install your parts, and if they don't work get them replaced under warranty. I would guess that reman is more of a gamble, but I don't have any statistics to back that up.

Thats the plan along with upgrading them to 5th gen vs 4th gen. Just wanted to see the different opinions on new vs remanufactured.

Gonna go with the Cardone whenever I order them. Not sure how long Ill have this truck but I want them to work as long as i do!

I love the 4runner but 3 kids I need something bigger either back to a Pilot or Ill go with a Highlander whenever I can get things together.

I grabbed Napa reman calipers, mainly because it made the core return easier compared to the RockAuto ones. Plus I was somewhat concerned RockAuto wouldn't take the core back since I would be returning a 4th gen core for a 5th gen caliper.

At one point I thought I had a problem with them, but the clunk when I hit the breaks turned out to be ball joints... From what I remember they have a lifetime warranty, but it doesn't look like they are carrying their own brand of calipers anymore unfortunately.

Your comment didn't pop uo until after I posted my last one, Do you know which ones they were? they have 2 different grade apparently one lower one higher. The higher having a 10 year warranty but now that I've added them to the cart the shipping has gone up and price due to all of them coming from different warehouses. Guess ill do a bit of thinking on it and see what I wanna do.

At this point I'm sure whatever I choose will last me as long as I need it to.

Ill have to check them out just to see what they have now. Advance auto says lifetime for their brand but 95.99 each vs $40 or more less at rock auto!

I know that the front calipers are replaced but the original owner at 85k and I got it at 87k but I don't wanna tear everything down and have an issue. He used cheap pads and didn't replace the rotors so not happy with the breaking currently. just about to hit 104k

Part # 192767 and 192766 are the ones I used - the uncoated ones with a 2 year/24k mile warranty. Again, haven't had issues since I got the DOA one replaced and I've taken them on several long trips on steep grades with lots of downhill braking so they have been put through some paces already.

my understanding with "new" toyota calipers is they are remanufactured units. i think the only new calipers are the ones that are on new vehicles. manufacturers may set aside new stock for warranty work.