Hello all,
Murphy's Law has handed me a bit of a strange situation regarding parts for our family hauler of an '03 Vibe base model. Back in the summer of '16, I replaced both front brake calipers while swapping pads and rotors. They were functioning fine, just thought it was time. I replaced them with Duralast remanufactured units from AutoZone, which carried a limited lifetime warranty.
Fast forward to about two weeks ago, and the Vibe started lurching badly at low speeds during city driving. Thought at first it was a transmission issue, then started looking into the possibility of a broken tire belt or separating tread. When I got both front wheels off the ground to examine the tread while spinning them, I found that the passenger side front wouldn't turn for anything. Caliper was frozen up hard. Checked for a failed rubber brake hose, but it was fine, caliper was definitely the culprit.
AutoZone honored their lifetime warranty, but wanted to swap me for new units. Based on my experience and some other reviews for the failed Duralast calipers on their website which indicated failures within 6-12 months of installation, I told them I wanted a refund rather than replacement. They gave me my cash back, but took the cores.
I purchased two remanufactured calipers from Rock Auto as replacements, complete with weather-proof powder coating to protect against rust (we're in Michigan). My problem is that I traded my original cores in '16 in to AutoZone when I bought the Duralast units, and AutoZone required the failed Duralast cores back in order to give me a refund under warranty. This left me without any way to satisfy the core charge for the new units from Rock Auto.
Rock Auto's core return policy simply requires that they match the make/model application of the originals purchased, that they include all hardware (in this case, mounting bracket, rubber boots, slide pins, bleeder screw, and banjo bolt), and not be a completely unusable bucket of rust. If anybody happens to have some calipers from a 2003 base Vibe laying about from an old brake job that they'd be willing to sell and which match the above criteria, comment here or shoot me a PM! You can find my eBay profile buyer/seller feedback at this link.