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Context

I am still on my quest to safety my car. I am very thankful to this community for all the feedback and support. Here is some previous questions I posted.

Quick story

I bought online rotors and callipers according to the safety inspection I did in a local shop. I fully trusted on that parts list to the point I didn't measure the actual rotors size in my car, as suggested in one of the questions above. I never occurred to me they would list the wrong part, after all, these inspections are very expensive. In this quest, I face these three problems.

  1. Ended up ordering rotors and matching callipers that are bigger than the originals.
  2. Destroyed the backing plates "tabs", they were very rotten. At that moment I didn't know it would be impossible to get new ones. Plus, now I realized the rotors would not fit them anyones.
  3. Despite ordering left and right callipers, what I got in the box was two callipers that were identical.

Problem

This is the Rear-Left calliper FRC11959C. This is the Rear-Right calliper FRC11960C

When getting them at home I didn't notice that what I had inside both boxes were exactly the same.

Now the issue is the following. I installed the left first. When I was about to install the right side I notice that the remain calliper would have the valve on the top and the old one has. Here is a picture.

In the Rear-Right picture you can still see the dust shield, but that is just hanging there. I would try to do some welding on it to avoid it falling, but again I got bigger rotors, so I will just take it out. If I had the right rotors it would eventually fall out when driving.

FRC11959C FRC11960C

It seems they have Right and Left backwards. I say this cause I ordered another Right FRC11960C and I just got again the same calliper in the mail. So I am about to order another Left FRC11959C, so that I can install it on the right, which is silly.

First I thought I got two Rear-Lefts, but according to the pictures on the manufacture's page, and comparing to what I got. It seems I actually got two Rear-Rights

Questions

  1. How come the manufacture got these parts backwards FRC11959C FRC11960C? I mean, checking from their pictures, the Rear-Right seems to fit nicely on the Rear-Left mounting plate. The opposite also seems to work too.
  2. Could it be the case that most cars have the calliper towards the front and in my car it is towards the back, rotating almost (but not quite) 180 degrees on the knuckle?
  3. Is it possible I mounted the calliper wrong, given the Rear-Left picture above?
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  • Usually the left and right are exactly the same, save for where the bleed is at. The bleeder needs to be above the piston, which it appears it is in both images you showed. The reason for this is so the caliper can be bled properly. Other than that, you could actually fit the same one on either side.
    – Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 ♦
    Aug 13, 2021 at 20:20
  • If I install the ones that I got into the mail, the bleeder valve will be on the bottom of the piston chamber, not on the top. So, it seems that the pictures for the Rear-Left calliper would fit the Rear-Right side so that the valve is at the top.
    – Eduardo Reis
    Aug 13, 2021 at 23:21

1 Answer 1

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Examine your original right rear brake caliper. Do you see the bleed screw on top? The replacement should have the exact same configuration. If you try to mount the other caliper and its bleed screw is on the bottom, you'll never be able to bleed it since air floats to the top with only brake fluid coming out. Whatever mistakes in stock numbers are made, calipers are mirror images of each other but not interchangeable from one side to the other relative bleed screw mounting. Examine both rockauto images. Both have bleed screws drilled and tapped on one of two casting bosses. Each one to fit only one side relative to bleed screw position.

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