Looking at replacing the calipers on my 1986 F150. Haven't found many sources of feedback on the Centric reman calipers. The Centric's are half the price of the Motorcrafts, but wondering if anyone has any real experience with them? I don't mind spending the money on the Motorcrafts, but I don't want to throw away money either. I am open to other brands as well, but those are the two that I've looked at most. I have read a bunch of not so good reviews on the Napa remans. Any thoughts? I'll be install new calipers, rotors, pads, wheel cylinders, shoes, and rums. Sticking with Motorcraft pads and shoes because I've always had good luck with them. Looking at Centric drums in the rear and haven't made up my mind on rotors yet.

Thanks!

 

Well,, let me tell you my experience and give some personal opinion as well....I'm right down here in Los Angeles and Centric's facility is close by.

My wife's 1997 Cougar Sport was due for brakes (4 wheel disc) last year and was still running the original oem calipers. Although they were working fine, no leaks, etc., I figured I should rebuild/replace because of their age. Based on all the research I did, I went with Centric Calipers. Fit and finish was fine, what wasn't good was as I hooked up the brake lines, the new copper crush washers (which appeared to be aluminum), leaked like a uncorked garden hose...and could not get it to stop. All the castings looked fine, I had two NOS copper crush washers sitting around and replaced those on the fronts.....worked like charm, but no-one had any in stock. I called Centric direct and advised them of the issue, they insisted the crush washers were copper with an aluminum coating over it (well, not what I saw), but they wanted to swap out my rear calipers...I requested they include real-old fashion copper crush washers- they agreed....returned the calipers to the parts house, advised them of the situation......received my new ones that afternoon.....they worked perfect......IMHO, if you go with Centric, buy a pack of copper crush washers 1st.

While they do come "painted", it's so thin, they didn't last 1 month before surface rust started forming......I ended up buying rustoleum caliper paint and hand painting them- on the car (oh that was fun)....so plan on painting them also prior to install.

IMHO, next time I would just buy the caliper rebuild kit including a new piston...... yeah, almost the cost of new but the amount of time I spent on these, I would have been done much sooner and right the 1st time. The original oem calipers still had a very nice coating on them, no rust and really would had gone right back on with a basic clean-up.With regards to rotors, I have run OEM replacement rotors that are cryogenically treated at Diversified Cryogenics or the past 20 years, making them almost as hard as stainless steel. Unfortunately, Brembo, Powerslot, Raybestos, Bendix, Hawk etc. are all purchasing their rotors from the same foundary in China (with the exception of the $300 each composite high end units for Ferrari, Porsche, etc). DC (aka "Frozen Rotors") purchases the highest grade rotors made, laser mic them for quality, scrap the ones that are out of spec and cryogenically treat the good ones which are now as strong as stainless. Now with that said, DC has a relationship with "Stop-Tech" now and are selling their cryo-treated rotors through them. A place called Brake Warehouse (in Los Angeles) http://www.brakewarehouse.com are selling their lineup for very good prices......with being close by, I will likely buy from them next time as compared to purchasing from DC direct (save a lot on shipping). FYI- the DC rotor hubs I purchased for my Mark LT were excellent and came with Timken bearings (the only brand I will/have ever used in the past 40 years).

FYI- I would also go with cryo drums as well for the same reasons as above. and yes, I run those on my 1965 Mustang for 30 years with CarboTech linings