Bigg Red caliper refurbishments

[Neal]

Chet - OK to put this in the product reviews forum?

So I sent my calipers for the black hatch away for refurbishment...

Biggred brake calipers for Saxo, Punto, Fiesta, Nova, Astra, 106, 206, Mini, BMW and more....

cost was around £220, so not exactly small pocket change.

Initially when I received the calipers I was chuffed... they looked spot on. Bigg Red provided a very speedy service and were helpful by email etc. As I didn't need to put them on the car at that point, I put them back in the box and put them away.

Recently I came to install the calipers and a number of things became apparent.

Front calipers (21turbo):

The first thing I noticed when I seperated the calipers from the carriers was that the carriers had been grit blasted before being repainted (good), but they had grit blasted and partially painted the slider pins too, rather than protecting or removing them (they are a sliding component and meant to be shiny!) I was a bit miffed about that but I just used some wet and dry to bring them back to the correct surface finish. I then greased the sliders up (they had no grease on them as received) and put them back together.

It was then that I noticed the second complaint. The rubber boots for the slider tubes which the retaining bolts go through appeared to be the old tatty (in my opinion) ones that were on there to begin with, complete with flecks of silver paint from the dodgy paint job the calipers had before. A couple of the boots have small splits/holes in them.



I emailled Bigg Red to ask if it was standard practice to refit old parts to a customer's calipers, to which I received the following reply:

"no it is not standard practice unless the parts in questionare not available and refitting will not impede the performance. We still have these particular seals on backorder but no firm deliverydate.I am more than happy to supply you replacement rubbers foc when I manageto locate."

Well it would have been nice to tell me that they didn't have the parts to complete the job before I sent them my calipers and give me the option of whether or not to go ahead. I like the 'FOC' part he tacks on there, as if I haven't already paid for them.

So it seems they replace parts on your calipers unless in their opinion the old ones are good enough, despite the fact that their website states

"All prices include a full remanufacturing service, new pistons*, new seals, casting seals and bleed screws."

and

"Pistons, Rubber parts & other components subject to wear are replaced with 100% new components equal or exceeding OE specification."

although the above statement is sightly open to interpretation as to its meaning.


I replied saying that 'yes I'd like to be sent new seals please' to which I received no reply. I waited a while and emailled again asking if they knew when they might get the seals. Again, no reply.

Rear calipers (19 16V)

Now this is where I started really getting frustrated.

The slider tubes on the refurbished calipers were VERY stiff. They should move smoothly and easily. So I pulled out the slider tubes to see what the problem was.

Once again, Bigg Red in their infinite wisdom had not only appeared to have grit blasted the slider tubes, but the machined bores of the caliper castings that the tubes are meant to slide in had also not been protected from the grit blaster. Both are meant to be smooth, machined surfaces. Reassembly had involved not a speck of grease. Maybe they just had a clueless work experience boy in that week or something? I decided to just wet and dry the slider tubes smooth and put them all back together. I spent ages on that but in the end I gave up and just pulled the slider tubes from another couple of knackered old calipers and used those.



old one at the top, 'refurbed' one at the bottom. Couldnt get a photo of the insides of the caliper bodies.

Also notable was the fact that the big rubber boot for the handbrake mechanism was not seated correctly on either caliper (and are suspiciously perished in places), and the retaining zip tie was missing entirely, presumably because with the boots seated the way they were, they couldnt get a zip tie on. Incidentally, it took me just a couple minutes to pull back the boots and locate them properly in their grooves... why exactly they were unable to do this right is a mystery to me. Again, work experience boy or imported blind phillipino child?

Now, I'm going to keep onto 'John' from Bigg Red. If he ends up coming good on his word and sends me replacement seals for the front calipers, I'll put the whole thing down to a lesson learned and not use their services again. If I don't get my replacement seals though, I'm going to have to take it further, as in my opinion I have only received half the service and parts that I paid (handsomely) for, and the seals are about £30 from Renault ( )

I'll keep this updated.

If you're going to use their services, I advise you to remove all rubber seals (or badly damage them) to ensure they dont get reused, and to remove sliders etc.

[Chet T16]

Yeah stick it in there, its all based on fact so its fine

[bidderman1969]

yep, keep us posted chap!

[MicKPM]

Thanks for the warning as well Neal cos my Gordini callipers were going to them for refurb. That's now looking highly unlikey!

Mink

[Gentle Ben]

Might be worth including this link on future e-mails to them Neal.

It's about time firms like this who market themselves towards the automotive enthusiast woke up to see that poor service will find it's way around by word of mouth.

[Chet T16]

Originally Posted by MicKPM

Thanks for the warning as well Neal cos my Gordini callipers were going to them for refurb. That's now looking highly unlikey!

Mink

Ditto my front and rear spares

[Wicked Neo]

ditto my front and rear spares as well (that i just got off JB )

[Clio 16valver]

I've never heard of them before, but that is seriously a crap service, whether an 'apprentice' was doing them or not, it should have been noted that the sliders need to stay smooth. And as for using the old rubber boots , well thats just taking the pi** really if you've paid good money.

[Neal]

Wel I've seen the company being mentioned positively in PPC magazine a few times so I thought my bits would be in safe hands.

I guess the people who run the company are mates with some of the people who work on PPC or something...

Anyway, you know what they say - one unstatisfied customer will tell 11 other people. I reckon if you factor the internet/forums into the equation you can easily multiply that by 100...

[MicKPM]

Maybe they also assume that people don't really know fek all as well Neal and don't expect people like yourself to call their workmanhip in to question.

They quoted me £150 to refurb and rebuild all four of the callipers on my Gordini which i didn't think was a bad price but again, after reading the above I'm now looking for another company cos I can't afford to have them fuck these up.

Mink

[bidderman1969]

and if XIX's brakes needed doing, guess where they WOULDN'T be going!!!!

[james]

i have used big red. they did not refurb my calipers as i did it but they supplied my with the parts to do so at a reasonable price this included 2 pistons, complete seal kit and new rubber boots. these were 21 turbo callipers

[Neal]

I have emailled them again:

"Hello again John

I did not receive a reply to my previous email, so just reminding you that I still want these new seals, could you give me a rough time that I can expect to receive them?

Thanks "

Let's see if anything comes back...

[james]

i found emails did not really get much response mate.

call them i found things happened much quicker with them