One of the members here mentioned he had good luck with Pep Boys brake calipers on his (I believe) 1981 300SD. So....I took a look at their web site; they offer extremely competitve pricing on their brake calipers for a 1991 560SEL. That said, I have the rebuild kits and am thinking of going ahead and rebuilding the ATE and Bendix calipers that came with the car.

Any thoughts on this important decision?

Here's a bad review of the PepBoys calipers: https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-civic-del-sol-1992-2000-1/pep-boys-pro-stop-calipers-complete-junk-3172144/

I would rebuild them, esp since you have the kits. I would also paint them (they have metal color paint if you want to stay low key). Here's a walk-through: http://www.*********.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3630

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Prost!

stick with the originals. pep boys stuff is junk. i hate putting chinese garbage on a mercedes made in germany. it doesn't seem right.

Now that I think about it, it was not a Pep Boys caliper that they put on my 1981 300SD. They tried two calipers and both rubbed. Then they went to Baker Auto Parts in Atlanta and got the caliper - both times I had them replaced.

So I take it back. The Pep Boys calipers did not work on my SD; they had to go out to a real foreign parts supplier. Pep Boys did the labor but did not use a Pep Boys part.

almost all aftermarket (even MB branded) is now made in China. This includes Bosch among almost all others. Chinese or park it forever.

I will admit, with no pride, that I have used various McParts store brake calipers on more than a few old european(and otherwise) cars just because I didn't have the money to buy new OE and the stock one's were beyond resealing, or the car wasn't worth the effort/cost, and it was faster than locating good cores(which nobody understands the meaning of anymore).

I have had to go back more than once to exchange more than a few of them, bad seals out of the box, stupid rebuild mistakes mostly. Different sized bleeders from one wheel to the other are common(they come in seized or broke, they drill out and go next oversize), visual differences between suppliers but still bolt on and work, all sorts of odd generic parts crap. But, when I got a set I was satisfied with, I had zero issues for as long as I had the cars. No doubt at all they aren't the equal of new OE, or rebuilt originals even if they are in good enough shape to do it, but they have been a viable option with a few caveats. Considering the volume of calipers those guys rebuild, think truckloads of cores coming in and going out, they do know how to do it fast and cheap with a reasonable success rate.

I have NOT had good luck with master cylinders and clutch master/slaves, and learned from experience to suck it up and just buy OE and be done with it. I do the same when the budget time and condition of the car justify it for calipers too. My .02c.

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One more Radar Lover gone...
1982 VW Caddy diesel 406K 1.9L AAZ
1994 E320 195K

I've decided to rebuild the original calipers. It is getting more difficult to source quality parts for these older Mercedes.

Not just Merc, all euro cars, and quite possibly others as well.
The actual OE stuff was so expensive, or unavailable in a lot of cases, the market was apparently demanding cheap stuff, so cheap stuff they got.
And I suspect as sales trickle off on "good" parts, they just cease to bother making them, and we're left with iffy parts. Real pain in the rear. Better than not being able to get, or afford, anything(I owned an Alfa!), but it's still a bother.

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One more Radar Lover gone...
1982 VW Caddy diesel 406K 1.9L AAZ
1994 E320 195K

I had luck with Advanced calipers,alternators,and starters.

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1999 w140, quit voting to old, and to old to fight, a god damned veteran

I've used some of their stuff with success. That said, I purchased rubber coolant hoses for the 1984 300DT from them. They said "made in mexico" and rubbed against other moving parts in the engine compartment. Fortunately I had kept my purchase receipt and was able to return them. I then replaced the hoses with Gates radiator hoses which FIT PERFECTLY.

Buy rebuild from online. They'll be original with new parts. Better than pep boys.