Front Caliper for 2020 JT Sport S - I was "sold" a JL Rubi caliper, bleeder in wrong location?

[kd1yt]

Hello all-

I have a 2020 JT Sport S MT, owned new since 9/2019.

Due to the general cluster_ _ _ _ of the last few years, and some specific clusters in my own circumstances, I have not been driving much. Only about 22.000 miles.

I live in Vermont, land of heavily salted winter roads and lots of unpaved roads with gritty fine dust year-round. This environment trashes disc brakes.

I could tell a few months ago that I had some brake issues (never heard the wear indicator squeak, just gritty sound at low speeds).

So I ordered a set of PowerStop pads and rotors for all four corners from Rock Auto. i know that I shouldn't need full replacement pads and rotors at 22k miles but I didn't want to get it apart and find out that I was missing something. Just start 100% fresh and, going forwards, try to do preventative clean and lube of the brakes more often due to my severe conditions.

About a week ago my front driver's side wheel went rapidly from bad to worse, sudden pronounced dragging.

Parked the truck and also ordered from Rock Auto the front "left" caliper - from what Rock Auto listed as the proper part for a 2020 Gladiator front left:
PowerStop L15100

As far as I knew/ know, left = driver's side.

Was working on the truck today and opened the box of the new caliper.

Looks "almost" right except the bleeder is in the wrong location. If I put the caliper on, on my front driver's side, the bleeder would be on the bottom, which obviously = no-go to be able to bleed air out. I didn't try to put the caliper on because of the bleeder being in the wrong spot, but it looks, by eyeball, otherwise like it'd fit up.

I'm attaching a photo of the original/ still attached caliper in the background (bleeder to the left) and the "L15100" new caliper (bleeder to the right)

I called PowerStop tech support and they say that they list the L15100 as being for 2018-2021 Wrangler Rubicon, front driver's side. Power Stop says that they do not list the L15100 for Gladiator. Power Stop said on the phone that they have no calipers yet for a 2020 Gladiator.

I don't have any firsthand experience with the JL Wrangler's brakes.

If I need to just _now_ get a JL Rubicon passenger side front caliper for it to somehow fit my JT front driver's side wheel, that won't be the worst thing in the world. And at that point, if things fit, I may just replace both front calipers to have it all same.

But I don't want to start just randomly ordering more parts.

Anyone familiar with both the JT Sport S brakes and the JL Rubi brakes able to tell me what is going on with bleeder location and whether there is, in fact, semi-compatibility ?? but with swapped sides (to get bleeders in correct up/down position) ?? of the JLR/ JT front calipers?

Thanks very much in advance!

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[Hootbro]

Well, the bleeder location has to be on top regardless when installed. Obviously you got a mispackaged RH caliper. Me personally, I would go for the return with Rockauto and just source locally so you can put eyes on it at the counter. My local Advance auto carries both sides.

I generally have good luck with Rockauto but I never buy items like this if on a time crunch because of possible mix ups like this.

 

[Rusty PW]

Well, the bleeder location has to be on top regardless when installed. Obviously you got a mispackaged RH caliper. Me personally, I would go for the return with Rockauto and just source locally so you can put eyes on it at the counter. My local Advance auto carries both sides.

I generally have good luck with Rockauto but I never buy items like this if on a time crunch because of possible mix ups like this.

Agree.

 

[kd1yt]

Thanks for the responses. Thankfully I'm able to borrow a different vehicle.

Since starting this thread I also looked up the PowerStop calipers (L15100/l1501) on Summit and Summit lists these same calipers as fitting both a 2020 JT and a 2020 JLR - and the Summit photos for the L15100 which Summit shows as going on "front left" look identical (in bleeder position) to the L15100 that I got from Rock Auto. And Summit's photo of the L15101, which is supposedly the passenger side, looks exactly like what I need for the driver's side.

I am left wondering whether there's something mixed up in how Power Stop has these identified as L/R. Seems bizzare that could happen, but???

I have just been looking online and nobody but NAPA anywhere near me seems to have anything in stock and I kind of don't trust that the NAPA website matches what's really on the ground (ran into that recently with a tool I needed from NAPA) unless I call.

I think tomorrow I will see if the caliper that I already got from Rock Auto will fit up on the passenger side. I hadn't planned on putting a new caliper there but at least that will validate whether these JLR calipers fit up on the JT, and at least while I am fooling with this I will know that the whole front systems on both sides are all new. Then maybe order the "other side" from Rock Auto and see if it fits on my driver's side.

I'll report back, in case whatever I continue to find spares someone else from this goofy and frustrating situation

 

[Hootbro]

I would not put to much into the pictures being correct. The Advance Auto ones I mentioned being available locally to me used the same picture for both part numbers for left and right. Just lazy website work.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I only order from RA if I can't get a part any place else. I've been screwed over by mis-boxed returns and so on. And you can't go by pictures - they are often stock photos or drawings. RA doesn't stock, they rely on the suppliers to tell them what a part is for and what it looks like.
I ordered a steering stabilizer from them a while back - and it was huge, way wrong. I contacted them with pictures of the original, pictures of what they sent me, as well as a picture of me trying to get the new part in place and how it was way too big to fit.
The response was "our supplier says this is the correct part" - they'd issue a refund of the price of the part but I had to eat shipping to me and back to them. That meant I was out their stupid excessive shipping cost plus me shipping it back (which cost almost as much as the part)
Ran into that with MOPAR TF727 selector shaft seals - wrong, but because their supplier said it was correct, tough.

IF RA themselves screws up, that's one thing, but that hasn't happened too often, I stopped buying from them.
I can get almost any parts I need from either local sources, or Amazon. In fact, every part I needed to completely rebuild the steering and suspension on my 73 Javelin came from Amazon - for cheaper than Rock Auto. .

I would not put to much into the pictures being correct. The Advance Auto ones I mentioned being available locally to me used the same picture for both part numbers for left and right. Just lazy website work.

Often supplied to them by the parts supplier themselves. I've run into this multiple times where the maker of the part supplies the pictures and information - and if they have it wrong, it's wrong for every one. This happened to me with seals, bearings and other parts - Timken was wrong, National was wrong. Both in pictures and the parts associated with the number and fitment.

 

[MCATDT]

The part is definitely wrong but the other thing no one has mentioned is that you said you had a max tow which may be rolling on a different set of brakes than any other Gladiator model. Lots of talk on if there is a true difference. Most believe its larger rear rotors and dual piston calipers up front, but I have never seen it confirmed. I haven't had to spec them yet for my MT and looking up parts on line hasn't really confirmed a difference. Ill be curious to see what you end up with. I do tow with my Gladi and have been worried that I could end up with less stopping power when the time for new brakes comes. Keep us posted.

 

[Gordo]

Hello all-

I have a 2020 JT Sport S MT, owned new since 9/2019.

Due to the general cluster_ _ _ _ of the last few years, and some specific clusters in my own circumstances, I have not been driving much. Only about 22.000 miles.

I live in Vermont, land of heavily salted winter roads and lots of unpaved roads with gritty fine dust year-round. This environment trashes disc brakes.

I could tell a few months ago that I had some brake issues (never heard the wear indicator squeak, just gritty sound at low speeds).

So I ordered a set of PowerStop pads and rotors for all four corners from Rock Auto. i know that I shouldn't need full replacement pads and rotors at 22k miles but I didn't want to get it apart and find out that I was missing something. Just start 100% fresh and, going forwards, try to do preventative clean and lube of the brakes more often due to my severe conditions.

About a week ago my front driver's side wheel went rapidly from bad to worse, sudden pronounced dragging.

Parked the truck and also ordered from Rock Auto the front "left" caliper - from what Rock Auto listed as the proper part for a 2020 Gladiator front left:
PowerStop L15100

As far as I knew/ know, left = driver's side.

Was working on the truck today and opened the box of the new caliper.

Looks "almost" right except the bleeder is in the wrong location. If I put the caliper on, on my front driver's side, the bleeder would be on the bottom, which obviously = no-go to be able to bleed air out. I didn't try to put the caliper on because of the bleeder being in the wrong spot, but it looks, by eyeball, otherwise like it'd fit up.

I'm attaching a photo of the original/ still attached caliper in the background (bleeder to the left) and the "L15100" new caliper (bleeder to the right)

I called PowerStop tech support and they say that they list the L15100 as being for 2018-2021 Wrangler Rubicon, front driver's side. Power Stop says that they do not list the L15100 for Gladiator. Power Stop said on the phone that they have no calipers yet for a 2020 Gladiator.

I don't have any firsthand experience with the JL Wrangler's brakes.

If I need to just _now_ get a JL Rubicon passenger side front caliper for it to somehow fit my JT front driver's side wheel, that won't be the worst thing in the world. And at that point, if things fit, I may just replace both front calipers to have it all same.

But I don't want to start just randomly ordering more parts.

Anyone familiar with both the JT Sport S brakes and the JL Rubi brakes able to tell me what is going on with bleeder location and whether there is, in fact, semi-compatibility ?? but with swapped sides (to get bleeders in correct up/down position) ?? of the JLR/ JT front calipers?

Thanks very much in advance!

Wrong side caliper.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

The part is definitely wrong but the other thing no one has mentioned is that you said you had a max tow which may be rolling on a different set of brakes than any other Gladiator model. Lots of talk on if there is a true difference. Most believe its larger rear rotors and dual piston calipers up front, but I have never seen it confirmed. I haven't had to spec them yet for my MT and looking up parts on line hasn't really confirmed a difference. Ill be curious to see what you end up with. I do tow with my Gladi and have been worried that I could end up with less stopping power when the time for new brakes comes. Keep us posted.

Every time there's talk of that, it's speculation. It's like other parts - someone reads somewhere someone said "these have bigger brakes" and so it sticks, that person repeats the claim in other forums and places, and other people see those posts and repeat them and suddenly, because it's been said 100 times, it must be true. Still, so far, unless there's a real comparison of same model year various Gladiator brakes, I submit - it's speculation.
To my knowledge, so far, no one has shown actual differences. They all have "heavy duty brakes" listed on the build sheet - be it max tow or Rubicon or Overland or a Sport without max's toe.

If Benny was willing, there's a really simple way to prove or disprove, either way, any real differences -
I'd submit my VIN to him, have him look up rotors, pads and calipers.
Then someone with a 2022 Sport with max's toe send him their VIN and get the same info.
They'd have to be the same model year because you need to rule out either model year changes or even mid-year changes. Yeah, it's possible that the brakes on a 2023 Gladiator may have different part numbers than the brakes on a 2020 Gladiator - due strictly to changes in production if nothing else.

In this case, it's a company that sells stuff they don't stock, drop shipped from real vendors, and the real possibility of a return that never got checked being put in the wrong box and sent right back out.
Customers don't give a rip - they grab a box and send stuff back and no one bothers checking the part against the number on the box. Look at store shelves - people just don't care. They grab stuff, and stick it back where-ever. Same for returns. I've received items from a number of sources that were obviously something someone stuck back in "a box" and returned it. And they look - yup, it's a caliper, stick it back in stock and that's that.
It's hard to say it's 100% the seller when their customers suck just as bad in many cases - returning wrong parts in the wrong boxes or trying to screw over the business.

 

[kd1yt]

Update....

Got a NAPA caliper this morning, ordering it online for local pickup with a 20% NEWYEAR discount through 1/7. Ordered it this AM and picked it up midday. As some of you suggested, this way I was able to eyeball it to make sure it was the right one. Looked in the box before leaving the store and it was correct.

Using NAPAonline to look up calipers for a 2020 Gladiator and a 2020 JL Rubicon both point to the same part for both vehicles. Rotors may, I think, be different.

Casting on the NAPA rebuilt caliper has same number in it as my original JT caliper.

Nicely coated in some sort of baked black ceramic coating that is supposed to be more durable/corrosion resistant than the plated ones.

Overall the NAPA caliper seems to be very well made/ refurbished. Pistons look like metal, or at least have some kind of metal face, which seems better than the phenolic OE pistons.

A few things on the NAPA caliper seemed a bit cheesier than OE. Banjo bolt and bleeder were both just kinda wimpy looking compared to OE so swapped over and re-used OE parts for those.

Slider pins on the rebuilt caliper were odd. The two pins in the rebuilt caliper were noticeably not alike - one shiner but flimsier looking. Removed them and compared to my OE pins. Photo attached. OE pins are better made and have some sort of composite sleeve section near the inner ends. My OE pins are still in good shape so I cleaned everything and reused my old pins with the new boots and I am sending the 'new' pins back as part of my core return on my old OE caliper.

Got everything back together on the driver's side, with new PowerStop rotor and one-notch-up Z17 Ceramic pads. Have to take care of some other stuff tomorrow but ordered a second NAPA caliper for the front passenger side that I will pick up Monday and use as part of re-doing the front passenger side. Want the full everything in the front brakes to be fresh and matching. The 'wrong' caliper is going back to Rock Auto this week.

In attached photo, bottom two pins that look identical to one another, and have the black section, are the OE pins. Two mismatched pins in upper part of photo are the pins that came in the rebuilt NAPA caliper. Quality of design and manufacture on the OE pins is substantially better than either of the 'rebuild' pins. All of the pins have some relieved areas to allow room for grease to move but OE pins have larger and more consistent surface area where their pin OD meets the caliper bracket ID.

Hope some of this info is useful to anyone else that needs to go in a similar direction - and thank you all for your suggestions, above

 

[Rusty PW]

Do you use a white grease on the slide pins when you installed the caliper?

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