Front Brake Caliper Seal Kits

[Arfa]

Front brakes have been squealing a lot recently, so gave them a clean the other day. Can of Muc-Off brake cleaner (all local Halfords  had handy) and toothbursh and gave them a good scrub. Some oft he piston didn't want to come out until I pumped the lever a many many times. Also, I wasn't able to rotate these pistons with my fingers at all. Pistons themselves aren't too bad, just a little corrosion along the top edge. I'm also pretty sure the brakes aren't quite as strong as they once were, fairly sure I'm having to squeeze the lever a lot more than I used to. Kind of thinking some new seals would probably help matter here. Would you agree?

Anyway, still got some Hel brake lines to pop on, so figured it'd be best to do both at same time whilst the system is drained.

So, what brake seal kits should I get?
Genuine are £25 per pair of pots. Did I get that right? £100 for all seals for all eight pots across both calipers?!
https://www.fowlersparts.co.uk/parts/4181570/fzs600-fazer-5rt4-2003-070-a/front-brake-caliper

Whereas M&P do a seal kit for £9 odd, per caliper. Are these any good, or just a false economy? Why are there ebay listings for right and left caliper kits - are they different?!

Some kits (like this one) also include new bleed nipples, caps etc. Worth swapping these at same time too?

What do I buy?!

[darrsi]

That's certainly a bit of a conundrum Arfa, the price difference is massive?


You would like to think that a company like M&P would not mug you off by selling you the £9 kit that could in theory be sub standard to OEM, but in the same breath they're just rubber rings, could they really be so very different?


There is another route you could take, but it's taking a bit of a chance, and that is to buy the £9 set AND a used pair of calipers, which will probably still come to less than £100.


This way you can have a set to clean up properly with the bike still on the road, and if the seals don't work out then resell the calipers.


You could be lucky and buy a perfectly functioning pair of calipers which could be left alone and fitted straight away, then reseal your old set as a quick spare for a quick change over when needed.


Just a thought. 

[crickleymal]

Wemoto do a full seals kit for £37
http://www.wemoto.com/bikes/yamaha/fzs_600_fazer/98-99/picture/rebuild_kit_full_seals_caliper_-_front/

[JoeRock]

Stay well away from the cheap seal kits - you'll end up pulling them out and binning them (although I've heard the wemoto kits are okay).


Best bet however is to get the calipers stripped down and take a look - a lot of the time corrosion behind the dust seals pushes them out which is what makes the pistons stick, but once you clean the calipers up the dust seals are actually completely fine to be reused!
Fluid seals are even more unlikely to need changing

[AN GOF]

I rebuilt my calipers at the end of last winter with those M&P kits. A good fit and good quality. I know ive had cheap seals on my XJ600N before and they didnt fit very well and were binned within a week.

[midden]

If the pistons are ok, only showed a little corrosion (which you've managed to clean off) and you had no signs of fluid leaking out why bother to change the seals.  Wipe a smidgen of grease on the pistons,  fit the HEL brake lines, bleed and then go for a ride

[Dave48]

I can vouch for the quality & value of the kits supplied by Powerhouse Automotive.
Did my Fazer FZS 600 & 1000.
Powerhouse also supply included with rear calliper kit the small central "O ring" type seal.
They know brakes & they are a British company to boot-bit of a rarity these days!

[Arfa]

If the pistons are ok, only showed a little corrosion (which you've managed to clean off) and you had no signs of fluid leaking out why bother to change the seals.  Wipe a smidgen of grease on the pistons,  fit the HEL brake lines, bleed and then go for a ride

Don't get me wrong, the brakes aren't super bad or anything, they still certainly stop the bike in a hurry if needed and I give it enough of a fistful. But what worried me was the few pots that just weren't moving particularly smoothly and I couldn't rotate by hand. Also, they're squealing again now, I only cleaned them down a fortnight ago and then again a month before that. Something is surely amiss?


FWIW Just to point out the obvious, the pads still have 2-3mm of usable material left and nice deep wear grooves. Discs seem fine too.

[midden]

Obviously I'm no expert but if all pads have similar wear surely the problem isn't the pistons or seals.   Maybe change pads incase the ones fitted have gone shiny. Perhaps mark fitting position on old pads and store as spares if new pads make no improvement.
copper slip on back of pads should cure squeeling