First post; been lurking around for a while. Great site, tons of info.
I own a '99 TL-S; I've had it since '00, loved it since the first ride. Recently replaced the rotary damper with a Bitubo unit, and it's great. (If anyone knows Danny Never from Traxxion Dynamics personally, please shake his hand for me. Super helpful guy, and very patient with all my questions.) Now the front end needs re-doing, so I've got all the goodies ready: RaceTech springs, new fork seals & bushings, fresh steering bearings; even the rubber seal that goes under the top 3-clamp, above the steering neck, to keep water & dirt out of the bearings.
I figured while I'm at it I might as well upgrade the brakes, so I got stainless lines for the front & rear. I installed HH pads last year, so that's all set. My brakes have been dragging a bit, so it's time to clean the caliper pistons and replace the seals...
Here's the question: my local shop gave me a ridiculously high price for the seals - $208 (plus tax) to do both calipers. The parts guy at the shop is a former riding buddy and longtime friend, so I'm confident he's not screwing me on the price, but I think their system is giving unclear info. He's telling me each seal kit (p/n 59300-34820/34821) consists of one fluid seal & one dust seal, and I need 8 kits (one kit per piston x four pistons per caliper x two calipers) at $26 per kit. I think (I'm hoping) each kit c/w four fluid seals and four dust seals, so I'll need one kit per caliper x two calipers; around $60 tax-included total. I read an old post by Dread from back in May '07, he said "...i think i paid like 50 bucks for the rebuild kits altogether...", which makes more sense to me. I checked with a shop near my work, (Honda shop, sorry) and seal kits for CBR1000rr calipers are $5 for a set of two seals; around $40-50 total. A brand new OEM caliper from Honda, pistons, seals, everything, is only $290.
So, is my local shop confused? Or am I looking at spending almost $250 to refresh my seals? At that cost, I'd rather buy a used pair of recent 6-pot 'Busa calipers , get the proper master cylinder, and have better brakes.
Can somebody shed some light on this for me?
-chris
Comment