I spoke with A&H motorsports today for some price quotes, and here is what I found. All of the parts needed for a caliper rebuild come to around $75/pair for the fronts (this is for an 88 CRX Si). On the other hand, replacing the calipers (with core deposit) runs around $150/pair for the fronts. So, replacing them is roughly twice as expensive, but there's no potential for caliper damage (from me ). My calipers (I'm sure) are original for this car, which makes them over 150K miles old. I want them to be fresh, and I'm likely going to just replace them outright unless someone can give me a good reason to rebuild them. Thanks for any info or experiences!

 

hmm. Why not go with a salvage yard? I found a front caliper for my Integra for cheap (45$). it was in great shape, and the donor car only had 45k miles on it.

 

Well, finding calipers isn't the problem. Calipers (like hubs, bearings, timing belt) are things that I want to keep fresh, and I want to know exactly how many hours they have on them so that I can put them into my regular maintenance routine. Either way, I will only start out the season with fresh calipers.

 

I replaced mine after a seal started leaking... oddly enough I don't think rebuilding them even occured to me.

I'm not positive on the years but the later cars had beefier front calipers, which most people try to get for ITA cars. I know the 88's had the ligher ones but I don't know what year they switched.

 

Well, most of the ones you buy are rebuilds as well, just done by some guy in a factory. Buy new if you want, buying rebuild just saves you a few hours labor.

 

Actually, I don't know how much new calipers are. I was talking about rebuilds (done at the factory). I'm just wondering if it's worth $35/each to avoid the pitfalls and time.

 

The rear calipers are NEVER worth rebuilding. Just suck it up and buy the reman units. They are very hard to do with the ebrake crap there. The fronts on the other hand are very straight forward and rather easy to do. If you have a pick and some sand paper you should be good to do them yourself. The hardest part is getting the outside gasket/boot to seat properly without tearing.

 

Is there an online source (or any source, really) that I could look at for directions? I'm not afraid to do them myself, but I don't want to take any blind stabs at the braking system.

 

heres two sites from PCA. i have purchased all the rebuild parts and am gonna try em on my own as well.
http://vista.pca.org/sch/tech_articl...er_rebuild.htm http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarti...er_rebuild.htm

 

The reman'd units cost me $75 after the core return (which they got from me 5 days later) for the front axle from NAPA - seems pretty cost effective.

 

Thanks for the links to the rebuild sites! It doesn't look that hard. However, based on some of your comments it looks like I might want to pick up a set of the larger 90-91 calipers rather than rebuild/replace my 88s. Does anyone know if the 90-91's are a direct bolt-on replacement, or will I need some brackets to go with it. Also, will Honda accept my 88 "cores" if I buy reman 90-91 calipers from them?

 

Why get them from Honda? They just have them rebuilt by someone. Go to Checker or BAP and get them for $30-65 each depending on the company they get them from. Checkers are like $28 or so last time I checked.

 

Where are these places located?

 

fastbrakes,

Do you have some? I'm up in Phoenix from Tucson at least once a month for a race. I have been told that the 90-91 calipers are larger than the 88's and are a worthy upgrade, so I'm not really interested in rebuilding my 88's. However, I would consider doing future rebuilds on my own.

 

Honda-tech.com is invaded by NERDS!

Before you do a caliper swap, you will want to get a definitive answer as to whether it is legal or not. You are looking at parts from years on the same line of the ITCS but the rule says that updates may only be applied to "complete assemblies". The "induction system" is given as a specific example and - I think - the complete assembly in this case might be more than just the caliper on each side.

Of course, you should probably also find out (from someone with way more Honda knowledge than me) if the updated calipers really ARE better!

Kirk