When driving home from St Neots on Saturday, the nearside brake started squealing and was extremely hot. The diagnosis is a seized caliper seal, and so a new caliper is needed. My local garage are saying they can't easily source a single piston caliper, and want me to confirm that is what I need as opposed to a double piston caliper. I am almost certain it's single piston, but I'd be grateful if someone with greater mechanical confidence could confirm.

Does anyone have a preferred supplier for them?

Whip the wheel off and confirm it's indentity for sure. (Post up a pic, in fact do both sides in case someone has been at it. You never know sometimes!)

I would rebuild/replace in pairs. Years ago, I replaced front wheel cylinders on one side of a Wolseley and it pulling far better on the new side so the balance was out by more than 25% for the MOT. Left it with the garage and they didn't have much luck with the balance...but it got me the ticket in the end.

Preferred supplier, once you know for sure, (something tells me the 80MY is the twin floaty type, but I'd need to check) for me is Brakes International. Just phone up the Rochdale number. The online catalogue is good, but not exhaustive, so just get on the blower and they can check the shelves.

Is a refurb or rebuild out of the question?

I'm not sure to be honest. I'm ashamed to say that I called the AA out to see if they could adjust the brakes to stop the squealing and heat, because I didn't fancy my brake burning off on the dual carriageway on the way home. He played around with the piston, but it just kept sticking slightly on after the brakes were applied so he concluded that the caliper seal had seized up. He suggested either a refurb or the safer option of a new caliper.

The caliper looks exactly like Andy's on his XKW thread from my memory of it since Saturday. I haven't looked on the driver's side.

macplaxton wrote:(something tells me the 80MY is the twin floaty type, but I'd need to check)

Here's the early one. Fixed, two opposed pistons. Little square pads. Crap. Used to MY79:

300_early_front_caliper by macplaxton, on Flickr

...and the late one. Floating, one piston. Larger pads. Better. Used from MY80:

300_late_front_caliper by macplaxton, on Flickr

S10NPH wrote:My local garage are saying they can't easily source a single piston caliper, and want me to confirm that is what I need as opposed to a double piston caliper.

I would have thought it the t'other way round?

Shove "volvo caliper 340" into fleabay and loads of single floaties turn up. Shove in 343 instead of 340 and I see one remanufactured pair of oldie calipers for 130 quid.

That's exactly what I was thinking Rich, how strange. I'll give them a call later to confirm. It's definitely the single piston floating type that my '80 has. The difference in brake pad size does explain why my '79 has terrible brakes in comparison to the '80!

RJ mentioned, with the older brakes, use OEM Volvo asbestos pads. I think the idea of that is to make the best of a bad job

As you can see, they are 20 quid upwards.

I keep late type single piston calipers in on exchange basis. If anyone has some early calipers available for rebuild I would be interested in them