E86 3.0Si caliper and carrier refurb

[M1k3yC]

Before I put new wheels on my coupe I'm having all my calipers and carriers refurbed. BCS Automotive near Nottingham has done the refurbishment and painting. I opted for the remanufacture service, replacement of rubber parts, and high end painting. I gave BCS the paint code for the car (which is silver grey metallic) to match. Unfortunately, there were some return shipping issues but I'm not sure if that was the fault of BCS, the third-party that organizes BCS's shipping, or Parcelforce. When the parts are back on the car I will probably put something in the Dealer feedback section, but for now I thought you might be interested in seeing the finished parts. The caliper spring clips were blasted and sprayed black, but I'm having them all replaced with new parts anyway so they aren't pictured.

 

[Anonymous]

Looks like a professional and classy job..out of interest how much did you pay and what was the turn around time?

 

[Vijay]

Hi M1k3yC, actually looking at doing this myself. Can I ask how much this comes in at...?

 

[M1k3yC]

The total price for refurbing and painting was £614 and that's just the work done by BCS - I don't work on my car so I'm paying my local independent to put the parts back on and bleed the system etc.

It's worth nothing that, of the total cost, the high end painting is £315 plus £35 for mixing a custom colour. The high end painting and the remanufacture both carry a lifetime warranty. If you have standard painting (two year warranty) then the paint service is £155 so that would save you some money. You can also have painting only, if for example you'd already traded your old calipers for remanufactured ones and just want to personalise them. It was easy and quick to get a quote on BCS's website - I'm sure it varies according to car make, model, and trim level.

 

[M1k3yC]

[ref]Pbondar[/ref], current turnaround times are on BCS's website as I think they can vary. I dropped them in on a Monday lunchtime and BCS shipped them on the Thursday of the same week. That was what I expected, but due to a mess up with delivery addresses the parts floated around Parcelforce depots for another week and a half. I'm not sure that was entirely the fault of BCS but, yeah, I'd advise calling and emailing regularly if things take longer than expected! :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

Well the price is what some would consider expensive..its about the same as I paid BiggRed for my 35is rear caliper re-furb pro-rata..

Class work doesn't come cheap..nice colour i think that will sit well without looking chav-ish

 

[Zedebee]

That seemed expensive, but it’s a lovely job. There are plenty worse ways to splash £600 on an “upgrade”.

 

[Vijay]

The total price for refurbing and painting was £614 and that's just the work done by BCS - I don't work on my car so I'm paying my local independent to put the parts back on and bleed the system etc.

It's worth nothing that, of the total cost, the high end painting is £315 plus £35 for mixing a custom colour. The high end painting and the remanufacture both carry a lifetime warranty. If you have standard painting (two year warranty) then the paint service is £155 so that would save you some money. You can also have painting only, if for example you'd already traded your old calipers for remanufactured ones and just want to personalise them. It was easy and quick to get a quote on BCS's website - I'm sure it varies according to car make, model, and trim level.

Thanks for the feedback; I'll get a quote.
May I ask: how would one know if a 're-furb' is required? Any symptoms which leads to this conclusion, or just a preventative measure?...

 

[M1k3yC]

Thanks for the feedback; I'll get a quote.
May I ask: how would one know if a 're-furb' is required? Any symptoms which leads to this conclusion, or just a preventative measure?...

I've had some intermittent sticking (rare, so not enough for me to get resolved previously) and I wasn't completely happy with the feel/stability of the car under hard braking. Even without those issues, though, as mine have had no work (to my knowledge) in their 14 year life and I've owned the car for over eight years, I decided that a complete job with a supposed lifetime warranty was a good idea.

 

[enuff_zed]

Thanks for the feedback; I'll get a quote.
May I ask: how would one know if a 're-furb' is required? Any symptoms which leads to this conclusion, or just a preventative measure?...

I've had some intermittent sticking (rare, so not enough for me to get resolved previously) and I wasn't completely happy with the feel/stability of the car under hard braking. Even without those issues, though, as mine have had no work (to my knowledge) in their 14 year life and I've owned the car for over eight years, I decided that a complete job with a supposed lifetime warranty was a good idea.

Wifey arrived home on a wet day with steam coming off the front right. As a precaution I swapped both front calipers. Both were sticking slightly. Since then I've found that, being an auto, it now needs no throttle to start moving on our gravel drive and fuel consumption has improved by 1-2 mpg. Until then we hadn't really considered they could be sticking. Weren't that bad, but enough to make a difference.
So I'd suggest an overhaul is a good idea.
Not necessarily to that price point, but bear in mind the OPs calipers will still be looking like new when the rest of us are on our third time round with the Smoothrite. :roll:

 

[M1k3yC]

Wifey arrived home on a wet day with steam coming off the front right. As a precaution I swapped both front calipers. Both were sticking slightly.

Also detectable before they get to this point by putting your hand on the wheels after a decent journey to see if any are noticeably warmer than the others! :lol:

 

[enuff_zed]

Wifey arrived home on a wet day with steam coming off the front right. As a precaution I swapped both front calipers. Both were sticking slightly.

Also detectable before they get to this point by putting your hand on the wheels after a decent journey to see if any are noticeably warmer than the others! :lol:

A valid point of course, but usually it takes some form of other feedback to make you think about doing that.

 

[iiNNeX]

Great work bud, they look great. That grey colour is what I usually do my calipers in when I refurb them and it looks very classy behind a silver/black wheel.

 

[M1k3yC]

[ref]iiNNeX[/ref], thanks They are back on the car now but its still on MV2s so I'll put up more pictures when I have swapped over to the new Style 152 individual alloys that are waiting to go on. I'm very pleased with the result - it's subtle, but the parts have been matched very well with the colour of the car so it does look almost factory in that sense. In my biased opinion, of course!

 

[Vijay]

Thanks for the feedback; I'll get a quote.
May I ask: how would one know if a 're-furb' is required? Any symptoms which leads to this conclusion, or just a preventative measure?...

I've had some intermittent sticking (rare, so not enough for me to get resolved previously) and I wasn't completely happy with the feel/stability of the car under hard braking. Even without those issues, though, as mine have had no work (to my knowledge) in their 14 year life and I've owned the car for over eight years, I decided that a complete job with a supposed lifetime warranty was a good idea.

Finally got my callipers painted and discs replaced. Thanks for the steer M1k3vC; got mine done at BCS too.

Went for black with chrome clips:

 

[M1k3yC]

[ref]Vijay[/ref], very nice! Chrome clips are a nice touch - I would love to see them with the wheels on