Rockauto ultra power new caliper

Joined
Jul 3, 2020
Messages
156
Location
Canada
Hi everyone, I've read on here that ultra power branded items on rock auto are generally liquated parts and the brand can be hit or miss... So with that said, has anyone here ever taken a chance on calipers? I need rear calipers for my 02 Jetta, and found brand new calipers labeled as ultra power... There aren't many manufacturers still making new calipers for old mk4 VW's, only one comes to mind which is TRW, a pretty good brand, but at the same time, I don't want to end with some crap brand, even if it's new, so I'm curious what people's thoughts are
 
I have had good luck with ultra power for some filters and other doodads. I would gamble on the calipers. Its not like its going to be some falling apart piece. Anyway rock auto customer support can issue a refund if you dont like them.
 
U-P is a liquidator based in Sugar Land, TX. Rock Auto seems to be using them as a house brand. Their site is surplusparts.com

Also, Rock Auto does have new Pagid calipers for your 2002 Jetta TDI. However, brackets are not included
 
I would be fine with it. They sell discontinued stock from real brands like Fel-Pro, Gabriel, Bosch etc but it is liquidation. They just repackage the stuff in their own boxes or often not even. I don’t see how you can go too far wrong with something like a brake caliper, because there is no use by date on it. For an older vehicle with hard to find parts that is because the liquidators have acquired those old parts.
 
Hi everyone, I've read on here that ultra power branded items on rock auto are generally liquated parts and the brand can be hit or miss... So with that said, has anyone here ever taken a chance on calipers? I need rear calipers for my 02 Jetta, and found brand new calipers labeled as ultra power... There aren't many manufacturers still making new calipers for old mk4 VW's, only one comes to mind which is TRW, a pretty good brand, but at the same time, I don't want to end with some crap brand, even if it's new, so I'm curious what people's thoughts are
I have done/do a lot of these rear brakes on the MK IV and have had the best experience with the Raybestos Elements 3 new calipers. On my own car I put them, the E3 pads and rotors on a few years ago along with OE cables and cable hardware and have no corrosion and still functioning perfectly. Highly recommend them for these cars.
Cardone is not an option, I have seen them fail right out of the box or within a few weeks or months, absolute garbage. The elements 3 is the only one so far outside of expensive OE that has a properly functioning hand brake that keeps working. Use only OE cables (easy job) on these cars, nothing else seems to work properly.
 
Ultra Power can indeed be hit or miss, but I've used several UP parts that were re-boxed Mopar (a clockspring and vapor canister, just to name two).

That said, I just don't get peoples' love affair with all the "new" brake calipers. Except for OEM, the vast majority of them are straight from China, meaning Chinese castings made from Chinese metals, stuffed with Chinese parts assembled by Chinese laborers. No thanks.

A quality reman caliper is generally one which was actually on a car before - not some Chinese facsimile. Proper fit and function should not be an issue.

My first course of action is to rebuild my own calipers. Unless the actual bore is rusted or gouged, caliper rebuilds consist of a good cleanup and replacement of seals and any other necessary rubber parts. Can be done for a few bucks in most instances.

And - swimming against the stream here - I've used dozens of Cardone reman calipers over the years. Had one bad one which seized up on the test drive. Rock Auto cheerfully replaced it. I have a total of eight Cardone calipers (and eight Cardone half-shafts) on four of my cars right now. Very happy with them, thank you.

Examine some good reman calipers for your car. I'll bet you most of them are stamped Lucas-Girling with the VW logo. Now examine the new ones. Are they Lucas? Nope.
 
Ultra Power can indeed be hit or miss, but I've used several UP parts that were re-boxed Mopar (a clockspring and vapor canister, just to name two).

That said, I just don't get peoples' love affair with all the "new" brake calipers. Except for OEM, the vast majority of them are straight from China, meaning Chinese castings made from Chinese metals, stuffed with Chinese parts assembled by Chinese laborers. No thanks.

A quality reman caliper is generally one which was actually on a car before - not some Chinese facsimile. Proper fit and function should not be an issue.

My first course of action is to rebuild my own calipers. Unless the actual bore is rusted or gouged, caliper rebuilds consist of a good cleanup and replacement of seals and any other necessary rubber parts. Can be done for a few bucks in most instances.

And - swimming against the stream here - I've used dozens of Cardone reman calipers over the years. Had one bad one which seized up on the test drive. Rock Auto cheerfully replaced it. I have a total of eight Cardone calipers (and eight Cardone half-shafts) on four of my cars right now. Very happy with them, thank you.

Examine some good reman calipers for your car. I'll bet you most of them are stamped Lucas-Girling with the VW logo. Now examine the new ones. Are they Lucas? Nope.

I don't particularly want new, but if new is a better price then reman, then of course i'll pick new. That said, I do agree with you that it's all chinesium, but then again, even some brand name stuff is as well (bosch rotors come to mind, have bought several in the last couple of years and they were all made in china)

Anyways, I was just curious on U-P, for the price difference i'll likely just get the pagids new, they're relatively the same price as all the reman stuff when you factor shipping and taxes (returning cores from Canada to rockauto is not worth it, there's basically no savings once you've paid return shipping)
 
The problem with rebuilt aluminum calipers with built in e brake function is bore corrosion which many times require an over bore and sleeve and the complexity of the e brake system. I have not seen a reman yet for these cars that was much good.
As far as being Chinese made you are barking up the wrong tree. Even Euro and domestic manufacturers are making their products including brake lines and calipers in China and why not they are the worlds largest car market so it makes sense to manufacture the parts there.

There are some excellent Chinese companies that make quality products, the E3 caliper castings are excellent and well finished the fit is spot on.
It would be no surprise if the Chinese produced VW cars were not using this or other high quality Chinese manufacturer. As far as labor goes their standards can be much higher than a minimum wage OJT US worker, not every Chinese manufacturer is a back street hell hole with coolie labor although I am sure some of those still exist.

Some of the best and biggest companies in the world produce products in China and pay their workers well by their standards, the good paying job is something their workers want to keep. No one is more pro western world produced product then me but the fact is sometimes the western alternative if it even exist is way too expensive, an almost $400ea caliper on a 2002 is beyond stupidity when a perfectly good high quality new alternative exist for under $100ea.

Cardone was never good quality but now it ranks among the worst crap money can buy, sorry but it is so. They regrind CV bearings which removes the heat treatment and make the joint unreliable. If you get a good one you are lucky, it probably was not reground.
 
Last edited:
For the 50ish dollar (CAD) difference, I went with pagid instead of a lottery. I'll definitely give ultra power a go one of these days, but on something a little less critical
 
I have a ultra power advanced corrosion protection caliper on the Altima that's about a year old. Still looks good no rust. No issues with it.
 
I have a ultra power advanced corrosion protection caliper on the Altima that's about a year old. Still looks good no rust. No issues with it.
It's funny you say that, because the pagid calipers said "NEW" when I ordered them, but it didn't say non coated... it only showed that after I paid and got my invoice "New - non coated", which is quite disappointing. Also, country of origin is China... well, can't say i'm surprised (not a knock, just an observation)
 
It's funny you say that, because the pagid calipers said "NEW" when I ordered them, but it didn't say non coated... it only showed that after I paid and got my invoice "New - non coated", which is quite disappointing. Also, country of origin is China... well, can't say i'm surprised (not a knock, just an observation)
And no bracket, you didnt expect German/Euro manufacture did you? For next time, E3 calipers pad and rotors on a Mk IV after a few years in the salt belt. Doing great after washing the salt you can see here, nothing.

IMG_0597.JPG
IMG_0598.JPG
 
And no bracket, you didnt expect German/Euro manufacture did you? For next time, E3 calipers pad and rotors on a Mk IV after a few years in the salt belt. Doing great after washing the salt you can see here, nothing.

View attachment 73692View attachment 73693
Actually I did, or US manufacturing or something western. As I said, I've had Bosch brakes made in China, so I can't say I'm surprised... After some searching on google, I found on some bmw forum that most German brands (brembo, pagid, textar, akebono to name a few) are all made in China now a days... Oh well, I will agree that it doesn't matter where it's made as long as they are made to a certain standard, now is it actually made to that said standard (whatever it is), I don't know. As for the element 3 calipers, I bought one for my other car, and would've aswell for my Jetta but when pagid came out to roughly 80 bucks cad cheaper it, it didn't make sense... Yea would've been nice to have new brackets, but they're not needed, can easily clean up the old ones myself and paint them, should I wish to go that far
 
That's right even a lot of VW OE stuff is coming out of China. At the German dealer it is mostly (Euro, Czech, Hungary, Poland, etc) made parts but the same in the US is probably China, like Hilti does. It seems China has greater capacity and can service the US, the parts as far as I can tell are decent to very good quality, no real trash.
For that kind of up charge I would probably have gone with the Pagid also.
 
Pagid, Textar and Mintex/Don are owned by Nisshinbo Brake, the company who supplies all the Japanese OEMs. Hella markets Pagid pads though. Conti’s ATE and Nisshinbo have an agreement for supply and marketing(hence why you see ATE calipers and ABS actuators on Hondas, Subaru and Mazda recently).
 
I'm a regular customer at Rock Auto & decided to give their Ultra-Power Caliper a try. I'm regretting the decision I gave them a chance. Should have known. It is made for an 2003 Acura CL but the bracket dimension was missed by 3mm. Acura's caliper bracket is 12mm thick & Ultra Power's bracket is 15mm thick. Impossible to jam their bracket between the dust shield & hub. NO MORE ULTRA POWER Products for me. JUNK!
 

Attachments

  • UPower bracket.jpg
    UPower bracket.jpg
    160.5 KB · Views: 73
  • Acura bracket.jpg
    Acura bracket.jpg
    184.9 KB · Views: 73
Back
Top