BAV reman brake calipers?

[gmu525i]

Hey guys,

I was putting in the big order today for the next stage of my e34 project, and noticed that the remanufactured calipers sold by BAV seem to have changed. Before they just said "reman calipers" and nothing else, now they have this big warning on them: Please Note: Price is for caliper housing only, you must reuse existing brake pad carrier bracket.

I could swear that they didn't say that before, but the price is the same. Remanufacturer is listed as Nugeon, which I also don't remember from before.

I talked to Jesse at BAV and he said that it's fine and it actually comes with a pad carrier bracket it's just not right for the e34, and so you wind up reusing the old one and returning the new as part of the core. He also swears he just did this on one of his cars. This all seems odd to me though, and I don't want to reuse the old one on my car since it is pretty eaten up. Also, the ones from Turner Motorsport don't say anything about this, and I have never encountered this with any other reman calipers for other cars.

Has anyone heard of this before?

[John in VA]

It's not uncommon for the caliper to not include the carrier. How are yours "eaten up?" They are usually a substantial metal piece, if we're talking about the same part (#3 in the diagram).
Have you checked with BluntTech.com or www.FCPEuro.com?

[John in VA]

A myE28.com member in OR has a pair of rebuilt front E34 540i calipers, painted black, with carriers and new pads for sale - $175 shipped. Price was $200, and he says he's open to reasonable offers so maybe he'll go lower.
http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=131092

[gmu525i]

John,

That is indeed the part in question. My description of "eaten up" is based on the metal parts having enough rust on them to have oxidized metal flaking off. The car sat a lot with the previous owner, thus why I got it with 82k miles on it. They certainly might be fine, but I would really prefer not to mix new with old.

I have to call them to confirm, but Turner Motorsport says nothing about not including the carrier bracket, and the pictures they show on their site include it. I need to ask who does the reman as well....
http://www.turnermotorsport.com/p-57...530i-535i.aspx

Thanks for the link to the 540 big brakes. I don't think I am ready for that yet. I want to experience the car with the stock feel first. Although I did deviate from that a bit by ordering the Bilstein Sport plus BAV spring package.

[gmu525i]

Called Turner Motorsports just now and the phone rep confirmed that their remanufactured calipers do come with complete with the pad carrier bracket. Also, they told me that the source is Centric Brakes, which appears to be the parent company of StopTech.

For FCP it looks like theirs come with the bracket as well and are rebuilt by WBR, while BluntTech has WBR and Cardone options which are with and without the bracket respectively.

Based on all that I will probably go with the ones from Turner. "Parent company of StopTech" certainly isn't the same as "StopTech", but it seems like a better option than the other two.

Now I just have to find a place for the six boxes of suspension parts that came yesterday from BAV!

Stephen

[John in VA]

I hope the E34 does better on Bav Auto springs than E28s do. Many report that they're too soft/bottom out and can sag prematurely.

[gmu525i]

We shall see. I picked them on the understanding that they are on the softer side and so retain close to a factory ride. Fortunately they are not a super expensive part of this project at $250 for the set, so it's not a huge disaster if it turns out I don't like them.

Any thoughts about painting the new calipers before putting them in? Or has anyone gotten theirs powder coated?

[gmu525i]

I did a little research about the two options and I suspect neither are really worth it:
- The paint kits are cool, but you either get a crappy spray kit and don't get even coverage or you get the brush-on epoxy kit and it's a fair amount of work, and if the environment isn't right the paint is not going to cure correctly.
- The powder coat place I called estimated $100 per unit to start. That seems silly when the purchase cost of the unit is half that.

[John in VA]

If you clean the parts well with Brakleen or VHT caliper cleaner first, the VHT caliper paint from the big-box parts stores will do a fine job. No orange or yellow, please!!
http://www.vhtpaint.com/products/caliperpaint/

[Beemu55]

Did you receive the Bilstein Sport and BAV spring package? Just curious if you have totally fixed the calipers.