1.9 Girling Calipers

[Anthony 1,003]

Did you guys bother rebuilding the calipers at all before using them?

The only thing that needs checking on them in my experience is the sliders, as these can "dry up" or corrode, causing the caliper to be stiff or completely siezed on the sliders. Personally before fitting 1.9 calipers to the car, I seperate the caliper from the carrier, and regrease the sliders and check the slider boots for damage, making sure that it slides nice and smoothly on reassembly. Otherwise, a quick glance at the rest of the caliper to check it looks OK with no evidence of leaking and the dust seal isn't damaged.

[Anthony 1,003]

£20.20 for the front axle on a 1.6 setup. I really dont see how 1.9 calipers are a lot more robust than 1.6 ones other than the difference in material's used. They are still getting on for age (15+) and need some TLC if you expect to get some real decent braking from them.

In my experience that's simply not the case - I can count on one hand the number of knackered 1.9 calipers that I've seen, and generally speaking, so long as the sliders aren't corroded/siezed on them, they work well. I pulled a set off my old ZX Volcane with 230k+ miles on that looked like they'd been at the bottom of the ocean for years, and they still worked perfectly with strong, balanced braking. Bendix calipers on the other hand just don't seem to age at all well, I believe most of the problems steming from worn sliders, and as a result you get poor braking performance, uneven pad wear, and those tale-tale "clunk" when you brake in reverse, and all that seen on cars with well under 100k miles on the clock.

 

I know that you can still find Bendix calipers that offer good performance, and if you can then that's great as they do weigh slightly less than 1.9 calipers - but in my experience, the single best thing that you can do for the braking on an average 1.6 GTi (or indeed base model 205's) is to swap the calipers to 1.9 Girling items. It will be interesting to see how your rebuilt ones fair Ed, but my suspicions - if the theory about slider wear is correct - is that even with new seals they'll still be underwhelming.