mgd109

Member
Looking for advice on replacement brake cylinders (slave and master) for my series 3 rebuild. Whats considered best price against quality these days. Back in the day Britpart was all that seemed available and the quality never felt that great. Is there anything else available.
 
Not sure. When I did mine I opted for cast iron slave cylinders as my thinking was based on hardness/longevity. The near side front corroded and seized within 12 months. The only local supplier sorted me with an alloy one and that’s been fine for two years. In the mean time the other front iron one began acting up and I’ve had to strip that.
As suggested countless times on ere, make sure you pack the dust covers with pink grease once fitted. Helps keep that salt spray out.
 
I usually go with Delphi Lockheed. Britpart cylinders have an evil reputation, I suppose you have to be lucky and not get some from a duff batch. BP shoes however seem to be ok.
 
You should be fine with Delphi or TRW. Just personal preference but I've found Delphi to last a little longer than TRW. For clutch master cylinder you can by genuine green and white box LandRover. They are actually made by TRW but I was assured by a reliable source that the Land Rover Branded ones are fitted with better quality seals that TRW own.
 
I've had the alloy one and the cast iron ones. I personally preferred the iron ones but you need to look after them
 
Some of the BP ones have very poor quality fixings for the studs. I went for TRW iron ones but the seals only lasted 3 years. All 4 failed (front TLS) so its wasn't an isolated fault. Honed them in-situe and fitted new seals but not happy as they should have lasted much longer. The rear BP ones (alloy) were replaced at the same time as the TRWs were fitted and are working perfectly so there really is no reliable answer. When I fitted the BP ones I was unhappy with the quality so I bought TRW for the front and a TRW (iron) set for the rear as the BP (alloy) ones were sure to fail. Well now 3 years on its the TRW ones that failed not the BP. I have now packed the fronts with red grease.
 
When it comes to parts these days its a lottery, had to fit a new rear brake cylinder for MOT this year and when I took it in the new cylinder promptly failed leaking all over the shoes.
Came in a Bearmach box [ can not remember where from as had been in spares drawer a bit ] But later examination of cylinder and box had my suspicion that neither item's were actual Bearmach. Piston fit was rubbish.
 
When I honed and fited the new seals the differnce in size was really noticable. The failed ones had worn a lot. I was expecting a lot of rough corrsion in the bores but they were hardly marked, I just smoothed them. Either the seal material was very poor or the bores poorly finshed or both. The seals had reduced in dia by about 1/8" in 4 years use.
 

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