Recently I went the risky route and went shopping for refurbished Akebonos from eBay. After clicking “commit to buy” on one pair, the owner contacted me and said I would have to purchase them from his site, RC Tuning Shop. I decided to risk going for it even though this would take it out of eBay’s jurisdiction if things went awry.

Recently got the calipers in the mail and noticed they are much lighter than a separate set of refurbished Akebono calipers I once owned. Did some digging to find only one site that says the weight of the Akebono OEM’s, which is 10-11 lbs. These come in below 9 lbs.

Here are pictures of front and rear calipers up-close

My other concern is that another brake manufacture, Power Stop, sells calipers which use pictures very reminiscent to Akebonos. The PS pictures even use the same product number on the back of the front calipers, 4502.

I’m really worried that’s what this guy sold me.


One of the front calipers I bought.

Set for sale on Power Stop’s official site

Any way to prove once and for all that these are real?

 

Calipers missing the pads. I can see a set of pads adding up to a lb or more.

 

If ur concened about brand powerstop probably just rebuilds used akebonos and resells them. Hopefully you paid with payal cuz if it really bothers u then just file a claim n give him a bad review to call it a day. I agree with jsolo i was gonna say the pads are probably worth a few Lbees

 

I saw this on eBay as well. I was about to pull the trigger on it but scrolled down to some feedback from a buyer that said they were Powerstop remanufactured Akebonos. You could have saved some cash and got the same exact calipers from Jegs. That's what I ended up doing. Don't worry they're legit Akebonos. The only issue is that the powdercoat isn't the best.

 

Pays to do more research. This seller had no feedback on them but had solid eBay reviews and a decent price.

Also just trying to understand the comment better... did you mean I could have gone to Jegs for Power Stop, or just that the genuine Akebonos they have don’t have the greatest powder coat?

 

Yep, those would be legit, and from the pics the finish looks better than a few others I've seen.

Enjoy your new big brakes!

 

Thanks for the reply! Not to probe, but could you share the signs you saw that told you these are legit?

 

Yeah, I meant to say you could have gotten the exact calipers you have from Jegs. Check out the part numbers 419-S6182 and 419-S6232. My total came out to $283.61. And yes, as you can see, the powdercoat isn't the best.

 

All castings are proper and powerstop only sells remanufactured calipers, they don't manufacture their own. Fakes are everywhere these days but haven't ever heard of any fake Akebonos, I wouldn't concern myself with that here.