Leaking Brake Caliper: Sanity Check

[DuncanF]

Can I please use the board wisdom?

My '07 RS4 failed its' MOT this morning with a leaking n/s/f front caliper. The dealership tells me that the part is north of £1000 and they can fit and retest tomorrow.

My question is this: for a leaky caliper, are replacement seals/gaskets/whatever not a more cost effective proposition? I pressed the dealership on this and was told the whole caliper needs to be replaced. Do calipers fail completely? Is there anyway for me to tell if the job needs a replacement or if the caliper can be fettled?

Also, my car is under the "Audi Protected MOT" program. The policy document is gloriously obscure as to what is/is not covered:

Brakes: ABS warning system / controls, condition of service brake system, condition of parking brake system, service brake performance, parking brake performance, brake fluid levels where below the minimum indication.

I wonder, will I be covered to the £750 policy limit?

Thanks all.

[jonytek]

Seems excessive to me, £1000!! I would definitely find out exactly what is leaking and ask for pictures. You could have all 4 stripped, rebuilt, new seals, nipples etc and painted for half of that. I have been dealing with a company called Brake Caliper Refurb who seem to know the <beep> at a really fair price. Give them a call - 07425 298 255 and speak to Johnny.

I would think that they are not equipped to refurb the caliper so for them the easiest choice is replace the whole thing.

Ask them about what they cover. If they cover 75% of it then for £250 I'd probably just get them to do the work.

[MB2]

That would be my approach - if coming out of my pocket I would have them overhauled but if Audi are contributing...

They should be able to tell you there and then if you are covered or not - they happily paid for a brand new headlight for me under this scheme (or almost all of it).

Do beware they will just replace the one caliper (of course) and so you will have one new and one old caliper.

[Harris.]

Brake caliper specialist - Google them

Just had mine worked on and painted so like new .

£168 Inc postage

[gt2]

where is it leaking from?

[FaisalJ]

Living up to their nickname; "stealers"




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[skywriter]

dealer tried this one on me after a brake fluid service said it was leaking, drove it home i knew what they had done yes your right they had fucked o/s nipple bought two s/s nipples replaced nackered one ond n/s also, bled brakes all done took the old nipples back to audi to show service manager refunded my £18 and said my next fluid service would be gratis good result since i bought the nipples from a bmw bike dealer

[Pistolpete2543]

Replacement caliper is around £750 inc VAT from TPS. I know, I had to buy one as my nipple sheared and stripped the caliper thread. I didn't fancy heli-coiling so replaced the complete caliper. I guess with a couple of hours labour to fit and bleed gets you to £1000.

[DuncanF]

Thanks all for the feedback. It's going back today for a more detailed examination of where/what the problem is. I'll decide the next steps based on that.

[DuncanF]

I'm at the dealership now and it's all fixed. It turned out to be a slightly internally corroded bleed nipple. That has been cleaned up on the wire wheel, replaced and the brake fluid changed in case of debris from the corrosion. The MOT is signed off without retest. To be on the safe side a replacement nipple is ordered for a fiver and will be fitted next week.

It beggars belief that Audi's first port of call was new caliper! It turns out that the price quoted was for both front calipers! The price would have been £630 part/£880 fitted for one. How many people take what they are told by main dealers on face value? But for the advice on here and a helpful chat with Jack at Brake Calliper Specialists, who gave me along run down on possible failure modes and repair options, I could have signed off on the Audi plan of replacing both calipers today ...

[jonytek]

That's BS mate. Like Faisal said 'stealers'!!

[MrHilario]

This is why I don't use Stealers, would much rather use a qualified Indy who values your custom