The Proline calipers I ordered from Rovers North arrived the other day... so fat I'm not impressed. Seems they were made by 2 different molds, by 2 different companies. I called up RN and they said Proline is just their badge and that Proline badged parts are actually made by one of several different companies with the UK. Kinda disappointed me and I dont understand why one company will make a right hand side caliper and it takes another company to make the left hand side caliper. Look closely at the pics and you can see several differences in the molding. The silver caliper has been smoothed out in key places and looks to be of higher craftsmanship while the gold caliper was not smoothed and the craftsmanship seems to be noticeably lesser.

 

I told you that the Proline brand was made by different people and that on a general consensus they were a junk brand.
They are made by the lowest bidder, which means this run they are made by company "A", next run they are made by company "B", and so on and so forth.
What you have are two different brands, it does not mean that the left was made by company "A" and the right by company "B", what it means is that Rovers North has parts stock from both companies sitting in their warehouse.
The guy who filled your order pulled down two boxes, one left and one right caliper, both boxes say Proline on them.
When they get a order from the UK they have no idea who made that batch of parts, all they know is that they say Proline on the box.
Thats the way it works on all aftermarket parts, you either buy rebuilt ones, which will be OEM that was torn apart and had all new parts installed.
Or you buy aftermarket and hope its any good or you buy used.
Land Rover calipers were made by Lockheed Martin, so were their brake pads.
Land Rover had spec's that had to be meet, then they let companies bid on building parts to those specs, all car companies do this, its cheaper than making your own parts.
If you cant build the parts to spec, you dont get the job.
The aftermarket companies say "we need parts to fit XYZ, who can do it cheapest?"

 

I'd like to see a review after install, that's annoying that they're different. I wonder if that'll affect pad wear.

 

Yeah I'll keep everyone posted on how they perform once installed. Im also very irritated but Rovers North stands behind them so I'll give them a shot. Spike I hear what your saying, and it sucks how they contract companies to build these calipers but even then I still would prefer Proline over autozone calipers.

 

I'm curious why did you opted to to buy new calipers. eBay may be a great place to buy Genuine used ones then have them rebuilt. I saw that Rockauto has new caliper seal rebuild kits for $1.98. Rovers North has the LR Genuine rebuild kit for $20

 

Because my front calipers are past the point of a completed rebuild job. I suspect the pistons themselves are damaged and the seals shot to say the least. Who knows just had bad they are. My truck does have 130K anyways so replacing with new calipers sounds like a good idea.

 

well to be fair you did go with the lowest priced calipers you could find, correct? that isn't a criticism of you, or your choice, but when i buy something cheap i tend to expect lesser quality for the most part. i think for things like brake parts i'd prefer to spend a reasonable amount of money and get something i know is quality.

hopefully they both work great and the differences are merely cosmetic!

 

What matters most with calipers is the parts that do the work. If the piston bores are properly machined, the pistons and seals are of decent quality and the inside face where the pads go is square to the piston then they should work fine. You've spent the last few weeks with no brakes, anything is an improvement for you and everyone else on ther road in front of you.

 

I ran Autozone calipers on the RRC for 7 years and 80k miles no issues whatsoever. A decent rebuild is a decent rebuild no matter where you get it.

 

Some people have had issues with rebuilt calipers that were originally very rusty. After they are sand blasted, rebuilt, and sold to the parts store, sometimes the customers have issues where the brake pads won't stay in them.