3rd & 4th Generation (1992–1996 & 1997–2001)Toyota Camry Discussion for years: 1992-1996 & 1997-2001
Topics of discussion range from fuel economy, safety, modifications, performance all involving America's favorite family car, the Toyota Camry.
I'm tuning up my car for a 2000 miles road trip from Houston back home to CT. It's a 99 5FSFE with 182 K on it. My brakes has been hitting the floor lately so I decided to have it check by my mechanic while he was changing my differential fluid and automatic transmission fluid (for 36 bucks ). He told me all the pads and rotors are great. But it seem that master cylinder is acting up. So I decided to have the master cylinder replace. He quoted me $122 for the job. I came back a few days later so he can work on the car. I was waiting in the shop when he came back in like 4 hours later. He told me the job couldn't be done today because he had ordered rebuilt units for me to keep the prices down and that they were defective. Yes, it happened twice. Two units from two different vendor and they were both crap. He put my old one back on, took it out for test drive and then send me home (at least I got new brake fluild haha). Btw, he did not collect any money from me or anything. He told if I want, I can come back the next day and he'll get a new OEM one for me to put on. So I came back today, he put it on the new one for me which took like an hour and then he took it out for a test drive afterward and everything turned out fine. The new OEM part cost like an extra bucks so I paid 140 total. I guess the moral of the story is if the prices diffrence is not too bad, buy OEM .
When buying rebuilt parts, what you have to bear in mind is that the part is only as good as the person rebuilding it. Also, you never know how the part performed pre-rebuild... Like you said, if the price difference isn't horrendous, I usually go with OEM, or OEM brand and spare myself the headache...
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1995 Toyota Camry V6 LE-6M1 250K Miles, Fun Car
1997 Acura RL-Gone
2007 Acura RL SH-AWD, Technology Package, Opulent Blue Pearl- Fun Car/Daily Driver
Master cylinder is something I'd always use NEW and OEM!! Aisin on rockauto is about $80 for ABS w/o Trac. Not bad at all.
Quote:
Originally Posted by schumionbike
I'm tuning up my car for a 2000 miles road trip from Houston back home to CT. It's a 99 5FSFE with 182 K on it. My brakes has been hitting the floor lately so I decided to have it check by my mechanic while he was changing my differential fluid and automatic transmission fluid (for 36 bucks ). He told me all the pads and rotors are great. But it seem that master cylinder is acting up. So I decided to have the master cylinder replace. He quoted me $122 for the job. I came back a few days later so he can work on the car. I was waiting in the shop when he came back in like 4 hours later. He told me the job couldn't be done today because he had ordered rebuilt units for me to keep the prices down and that they were defective. Yes, it happened twice. Two units from two different vendor and they were both crap. He put my old one back on, took it out for test drive and then send me home (at least I got new brake fluild haha). Btw, he did not collect any money from me or anything. He told if I want, I can come back the next day and he'll get a new OEM one for me to put on. So I came back today, he put it on the new one for me which took like an hour and then he took it out for a test drive afterward and everything turned out fine. The new OEM part cost like an extra bucks so I paid 140 total. I guess the moral of the story is if the prices diffrence is not too bad, buy OEM .
Ditto - it can be new or reman, I've seen it all. . .
Metal shavings cutting the piston, grime from the boring process, stuck valves, bum threads, cut pistons, ect. . . .
Not that we want the cost associated with this but the FDA attempts to keep us safe from crap we put in and use on our body. Someone needs to look over the misfits who manufacture and assemble master cylinders. Any other part of the system can have a one time failure and not kill us. Not true of the master cylinder.
On that note, these high mileage cars that run forever are almost scary as the master cylinder is full of sediment and people unknowingly kill the m/c by pushing them all the way to the floor during bleeding processes. No big deal right. Not always. On a system that work well, the pedal has never seen the bottom using the full stroke. 200,000 miles later, you manually bleed it, stir up the junk, some floats past the cups that have never been to the limits of their travel and a week later the m/c fails!
All I'm saying is be careful as your best effort can lead to a brake system failure. If its got allot of miles on it, replace it and bench bleed it to get as much junk out of it as possible. New and Re-manufactured can be full or surprises.
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95 Cam, V6 1MZ, Auto A541E, LE >245,000 miles!
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). He told me all the pads and rotors are great. But it seem that master cylinder is acting up. So I decided to have the master cylinder replace. He quoted me $122 for the job. I came back a few days later so he can work on the car. I was waiting in the shop when he came back in like 4 hours later. He told me the job couldn't be done today because he had ordered rebuilt units for me to keep the prices down and that they were defective. Yes, it happened twice. Two units from two different vendor and they were both crap. He put my old one back on, took it out for test drive and then send me home (at least I got new brake fluild haha). Btw, he did not collect any money from me or anything. He told if I want, I can come back the next day and he'll get a new OEM one for me to put on. So I came back today, he put it on the new one for me which took like an hour and then he took it out for a test drive afterward and everything turned out fine. The new OEM part cost like an extra bucks so I paid 140 total. I guess the moral of the story is if the prices diffrence is not too bad, buy OEM 
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