mirrorfinishman

The brake calipers on my Corvette are stainless steel lined and until now they have been okay since they were installed in 1997. I recently noticed that one of the calipers is now leaking.

The warranty covers the original purchaser and same owner in the "event that the stainless steel sleeve should break away from the cylinder wall or leak between the sleeve and casting".

Has anyone ever experienced this situation? How likely is it that the leak I am seeing is actually being caused by a faulty stainless sleeve?

birdsmith

When I first rebuilt the brakes on my '70 about six years ago I was surprised to find four sleeved calipers already installed. I put a Stainless Steel Brakes kit on my '67 Mustang 17 years ago, raced it for six years, and still no problems. Apparently though not all sleeved calipers are created equal because when I took my Vette's calipers apart to put new seals in them I discovered galling on the pistons and noticeable depressions (too deep to hone out) on the sleeves. These brakes were installed by Midas about 10,000 miles before I bought the car. I went ahead and installed new seals on these calipers, put them back on the car, and they actually worked OK for about 15,000 miles. The front calipers did eventually start leaking again though and I replaced those with AutoZone rebuilts and so far they seem to be working OK. I think if you went out and spent the big bux for SSB calipers they'd probably last forever, but there definitely seem to be many rebuilders out there offering less-than-ideal quality.

72LS1Vette

It's more likely that the rubber seals are leaking. You can either get rebuild kilt from somewhere like Autozone for ~$12.00 each or get the O-ring kits from VB&P. It seems that the key to keeping the brake system in good shape is stepping on the brake pedal! Either drive the car regularly or pump the pedal weekly to keep the pistons centered in the caliper bores.



Rick B.

wnjlt1

i replaced my calipers about the same time period as you and recently repaired a leaking front caliper due to a faulty piston seal. rebuilt all of them since i was there.

with Blair Winch Project that it's more likey the rubber seals leaking. i have never heard of sleeves breaking away or leaking between the sleeve and caliper bore casting.

Cory1970

I bought the auto zone lifetime ones about 3 years ago... 2 started leaking this spring, so I just returned them for a new set. It was an easy fix, but I would rather have a set that I didn't have to replace every 3 years

mandm1200

In 1986 I put SS lined on my 76. They were fine until last year. I pulled a front caliper of the the front and it started to leak. I purchased mine from Mid-America. I remembered they had a lifetime warranty. I looked at the warranty and only the sleeves were lifetime.

Chances are that the caliper(s) only needs a rebuild kit which are inexpensive. They can be purchased at any local auto store or from some of our supporting vendors. I think the original lip seal design is fine. If your car sits for long periods of time they leak, or that is what some may say. I think that is BS. My car sat many of times for several months and they lasted 20 years. Had I not distrubed the caliper, I may not have had any leak. My car is garaged and does not see much rain or snow.

crazywelder

The quality of the auto parts store rebuilds depends on the shops procedures, the materials they use, and the core quality. Even though they are warranted for life, and they are cheaper up front, there is still the hassle of replacing them when they go bad. In the long certain rebuilds can cost more.

There is no room for error when rebuilding especially with the lip type seals. How many times can a single core be resleeved and retain the necessary tolerances under high heat situations? What is the quality control of the parts? At any rate, oring seals are the way to go on rebuilts especially if the car sits inactive. My car still has one original caliper at 20k miles, so I belive lip seals do last on original parts.

Lone Star is the only remanufacturer that I would trust, my personal opinion. I replaced my front calipers last year with the new AC Delco castings to avoid the rebuilt hassle, and try something new. They are fine after a thousand miles, but it's still too early to tell, however they have already outlasted my neighbors right front (Murrays Auto Parts) that he replaced last summer. It's been an annual ritual for him with at least one failure per year the past 3 years, and he ordered AC Delco's as well last week. Time will tell.

GWell78

You cannot re-sleeve a casting once it has been sleeved. Sleeves are not manufactured with different bore sizes. Sleeves can become loose in the bore under very high heat conditions.

The other problem you run into is not having matched halves. This can cause leaks around the cross-over seal between the halves. This is a common occurence with "low cost" rebuilders. I made sure my original calipers were rebuilt to assure the proper matching of the caliper halves.

redvetracr

First off DO NOT buy seals from Autozone they are crap...for a car that doesn`t get raced or driven much the o-ring is the way to go. And to whoever bought "new" AC Delco calipers, I believe those are reproductions by Lone Star.....and not actually produced by AC-Delco or Delco Moraine who was the brake division.
...redvetracr

Duke94

As stated by Rick B., "stepping on the brake pedal! Either drive the car regularly or pump the pedal weekly to keep the pistons centered in the caliper bores." This is key. If the pistons tilt at all in the bore, the seals seem to leak. This is especially true if the lining wears on a taper. It's really a poor design, the ultamate fix is to buy the o'ring style pistons.