Front brake[s]
 

At the weekend the n/s front brake caliper decided to seize. I could of course buy a rebuild kit[as long as I could be sure of piston diameter]but that could go badly wrong[not being able to get piston out of caliper or bore being too rusty etc]so looking on e-bay I saw a listing for a new caliper[which it said fitted my car]for a reduced price @ £31.49.Contacting the seller as is my habit with the reg number to be sure it would fit brought the response that there was more than one caliper listed and asking for the disc diameter so I sent them that information[280mm which ties in with the information in Haynes]and they replied it didn't fit mine and linked to another which they say does but that is[at a reduced price]£42.96 which seems a pretty big hike in price? Has anyone else bought front brake calipers if so from where? and under what part number[s]? Car is a V reg[first registered Jan 2000 Phase 1 V70 2.4 petrol 140.

Partsforvolvo list front calipers at £73, which is what I would think is a reasonable price against quality. I would be very sceptical at the prices you have been quoted.

Hi

I can vouch for the PFV calipers. I eventually had these on all four corners and they were fine although they never seemed to bite as well as the originals.

Best regards,,

Rich.

Agree with the above, you get what you pay for, and i'd not recommend cutting corners with brakes. PFV ones are good, or even try Euro Car Parts or similar - these calipers are used on quite a few other cars and they're likely to have decent ones in stock and it's cheaper if you do it on an exchange basis - that's what I have done in the past.

Of the two prices I quoted in my original post the cheaper one is at 50% of its rrp while the dearer one is at 40% of its rrp. I did look at ECP[although I try to avoid them for such things as they've previously supplied me with the wrong brake parts for other cars]and they want above £90 each.One thing I don't understand about the e-bay listed ones is that although the seller[a reputable supplier by all accounts]says the cheaper one doesn't fit and the dearer one does both parts are listed with the same OEM numbers! That being the case what possible differences could there be for one to fit but the other not?

Well I've ordered the one listed at £42.96 and with a 10% discount voucher from e-bay the price reduced further to just over £38.The part comes with a 5year guarantee so we'll see how things go once it's arrived and I've fitted it.

I'd be inclined to replace both 'Dd', especially at that price.

If, as is probable, the existing calipers are of the same age, is it not at least possible that as one has failed, the other may not be far behind?

I've also found that, as with springs and tyres, replacing brake components on one side of an axle only may also introduce an imbalance in the way the car handles, owing to the resulting difference in wear rates.

Regards, John.

I understand what you're saying JW and I intend changing the offside one within a couple of months unfortunately it's all a matter of budget at present.