Akebono Brake Upgrade - DEAL of the CENTURY!!!

Lvcky69

that surface should be flat, unless they sanded it down on the knockoffs but on the first couple pictures you can see the holes

cossie1600

I am sure they work fine, but that color job seems really ugly

dts3

I actually went to the seller's page, and they list the brand as "BrakeMotive" in the item details. The word "Akebono" does not appear on the page for the direct item. Maybe these are knock-offs afterall.

I stand by what I said about Napa/Rock Auto's calipers probably being authentic OEM, but it's like these may not be. Does that mean they suck/are unsafe/etc... who knows. OP please continue to update this post as you install/review them

TobinH

I was looking at these as well...

My concern is, coming from someone who works in manufacturing, is the QC process. We can generally trust a company like Akebono to be quite diligent, since a brake failure can lead to big lawsuits. Since these are cast aluminum parts, you have to be aware of potential voids - yikes.

I know that Akebono has manufacturing facilities in China, it's entirely possible that these calipers are made on the same tooling as the legit items. It's not unknown for old tooling to go missing, and show up in the factory down the road. It's pretty trivial to avoid the raised logo, these are often inserts anyways. Old tooling is okay, usually just leading to a heavier than ideal part, a problem for the factory but not really for the end user. But are they being checked properly? Is the rest of the process reliable?

Legit Akebono calipers aren't very expensive, and certainly cheaper than a crash.

Lvcky69

you know what they say, you get what you pay for. Same thing if you buy cheap tires, 200 miles on them and you might send a tire flying..it is not worth the risk. for the same price you could buy used genuine akebonos

dts3

That's a good point about missing tooling. When I was talking about the raised akebono logo, I was trying to say that it's harder to fake a raised logo than one that is actually stamped into the metal.

I was operating under the assumption that these were re manufactured akebonos, but maybe that's not the case

cossie1600

The design/cast are probably sold to different places and used on multiple cars. I would be tempted to use it too, but I already bought my new OEM ones from Nissan. A few years ago they were closer to $1K instead of $1500 like they are now

Spartan 1771

I decided to mess around with these a bit and discovered an issue. I tried to test fit a brake line and I had issues with one of the rear calipers. The banjo bolt wouldn't thread properly in to it. After the first few turns it became really tight. None of the others had this issue. I'm assuming the threads in the caliper are damaged. I didn't force it because I didnt want to ruin the banjo bolt or further damage the threads in the caliper. I've contacted the seller and asked for a replacement. I'm waiting for their response now.

__________________
~Rob

-DD Air Guide, Stillen G3 CAIs, 63mm Throttle Bodies, Motordyne M370, Berk HFCs, FI TDX CBE (non-res, CF), Sprint booster v3, Ecutek Dyno Tuned, and the list goes on...

Rusty

You have the cheaper Z1 lines?

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"The Difficult Anytime, The Impossible By Appointment Only"
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Spartan 1771

I do. Is there an issue with them?

__________________
~Rob

-DD Air Guide, Stillen G3 CAIs, 63mm Throttle Bodies, Motordyne M370, Berk HFCs, FI TDX CBE (non-res, CF), Sprint booster v3, Ecutek Dyno Tuned, and the list goes on...

Rusty

No. I have the Z1 premiums. There is no banjo bolts on them. The lines are all double flared fittings.

__________________

浪人 - 殺し屋
"The Difficult Anytime, The Impossible By Appointment Only"
http://www.the370z.com/members-370z-...o-journal.html

Spartan 1771

I picked them up brand new for $60. For the price I couldn't pass them up.

__________________
~Rob

-DD Air Guide, Stillen G3 CAIs, 63mm Throttle Bodies, Motordyne M370, Berk HFCs, FI TDX CBE (non-res, CF), Sprint booster v3, Ecutek Dyno Tuned, and the list goes on...

Spartan 1771

They responded apologized and will be shipping a replacement to me. They dont want the defective one back and didnt ask for any additional funds, so that's about the best response I could hope for.

__________________
~Rob

-DD Air Guide, Stillen G3 CAIs, 63mm Throttle Bodies, Motordyne M370, Berk HFCs, FI TDX CBE (non-res, CF), Sprint booster v3, Ecutek Dyno Tuned, and the list goes on...