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Urgentemente

Posted 20/2/2006 6:12 PM (#111712)
Subject: Brake pad prices?

Member

Posts: 32

Just a quickie..
After my g/f's car developed a horrible grinding noise that could be felt through the pedal....my suspicions were confirmed on saturday when I took the offside front wheel off and found.......no brake pad material left on the outside backing plate (couldn't see the inside pad clearly enough)
Very fine metal filing type dust as well, kinda made it obvious, but I took the nearside wheel off to compare and sure enough there was some pad material left.
Gonna get a set of front pads this week, it looks fairly easy to do the pads according to the Haynes manual, is there anything I should be wary of ? Just need to get myself a G-clamp or something to compress the piston. The discs look OK at the moment, are they hard to change when the time comes? (aside from the usual brute force & ignorance approach when trying to seperate something attached with 10000's of miles of rust and heat..!)

What sort of price is the norm for a set of front pads? The discs are the solid type (1.4 8V Sli).
Local motor factors (Culmacs in Liverpool for anyone local to me..) have front axle set for £15, which is £5 less than Halfrauds.

thanks

Edited by Urgentemente 20/2/2006 6:13 PM

Metro_Si

Posted 20/2/2006 6:38 PM (#111715 - in reply to #111712)
Subject: RE: Brake pad prices?

Elite Veteran

Posts: 872
500

Location: Wiltshire

I have just changed my pads as mine had seized in the calliper body causing them to be constantly applied.
The job itself was very easy despite this and the guide pins came free easily with the torque wrench. I used a small vice to push the pistons in - remember to keep an eye on the brake fluid level or it may overflow!

Its worth the time to give the area a good clean with brake degreaser and an old screwdriver to remove baked on rubbish. I used coarse sand paper to clean all of the rust from the surfaces where the pads sit in to make sure that they are free to move.
I also removed both of the guide pins and applied a generous coating of copper grease.

On reassembly put a thin smear of copper grease on the guides that the pads sit in, also apply the grease to the backs of the pads and all around the edge where the metal backing of the pad touches the calliper.

Other than that, follow the Haynes and you can't go wrong.

I shelled out for the Halfords pads as I was desperate, but about £15 sounds the norm.
Cannot comment on the discs as I haven’t changed them before, but it looks simple enough.

Alex.

Urgentemente

Posted 21/2/2006 3:15 AM (#111738 - in reply to #111712)
Subject: RE: Brake pad prices?

Member

Posts: 32

Thanks for the quick reply and the tips , it does look straightforward, but then I've fallen into that trap with the Haynes on my own car before ("oh, that'll be 30 mins tops".......5 hours later you're sat in the dark, freezing cold with a car that can't move...LOL)

Think I'll try and get to the motor factors at lunch time, then I can have a go at the pads this week (hopefully..).
Was already thinking about trying to clean them up a bit, LOTS of rusty bits (the 'guard' behind the disc was coming off in my fingers..)

Do they take long to bed in on a metro? g/f doesn't do that much drivin, just 15 mins to work , back again, and some runs to my house, mainly A & B roads..

harry

Posted 21/2/2006 5:16 AM (#111781 - in reply to #111712)
Subject: RE: Brake pad prices?

Veteran

Posts: 443
100

if the disks havent been off in a while, be warned! they might be a tad tricky!

in thearoy you just undo a couple of screws and off it comes. in reality the screws will probably be tight and the disk rusted to the hub. i would suggest using an impact driver on the disk screws, with a proper size phillips bit before even attempting a normal screwdriver. then youll more than likely have to bash the crap out of the disk with a big hammer to get it off!

make sure the hub face is clean and put a smear of copper grease on it before putting the new disk on. same with the disk screws.

a pad and disk swap should be easy to do in under an hour, just depends how stuck things are! use a proper 6 sided 12mm socket on the slide bolts too as theyre quite easy to round off.

remove the brake resevoir cap before trying to push the pistons back in. makes it a lot easier!

bedding in, most pads will come with an advice leaflet. usually just gradually increase the braking pressure, but dont brake for long periods. a few miles is usually enough to get them working properly assuming its not going to get any abuse

Urgentemente

Posted 21/2/2006 9:16 AM (#111893 - in reply to #111712)
Subject: RE: Brake pad prices?

Member

Posts: 32

Just doing the pads for now, nipped out at lunch time to get them, (damn cash machine was out of order, only had just enough for the pads, gotta go out again and get some copper grease..grrrr - I've only got a tiny sachet at home for spark plugs).

Thanks for the tip on the slide bolts, I'll use my socket set rather than spanners if they're that easy to round off (because knowing my luck they would, and then I'll have an unhappy g/f - not good !)

Did you need the bleed the brakes afterwards (with taking the cap off)? I doubt they've been done for a loonnngggg time, but I've not got myself a bleed kit yet, so that's another job for another day

I've already told the g/f not to hammer the brakes at first, but she's a careful (slow...! LOL ) driver anyway, doesn't rag it or anything.

Edited by Urgentemente 21/2/2006 9:18 AM

harry

Posted 21/2/2006 5:06 PM (#112048 - in reply to #111893)
Subject: RE: Brake pad prices?

Veteran

Posts: 443
100

no, you wont have to bleed the brakes. removing the cap just makes it easier to push the piston in as youre not trying to compress the air / fluid in the resevoir.

wormy

Posted 21/2/2006 10:12 AM (#111915 - in reply to #111712)
Subject: RE: Brake pad prices?

Veteran

Posts: 418
100

There is one bolt that goes from the back of the caliper at the bottom straight through into the other half of the caliper. take this out completely and pull the bottom of the caliper towards the front bumper and it will pivot up and pads will prob fall out. this is the quick way to do it.

metrocedes

Posted 21/2/2006 10:17 AM (#111918 - in reply to #111915)
Subject: RE: Brake pad prices?

R116GTa

Posts: 3823
2000

Location: Bridgend S.Wales

wormy - 21/2/2006 4:12 PM

There is one bolt that goes from the back of the caliper at the bottom straight through into the other half of the caliper. take this out completely and pull the bottom of the caliper towards the front bumper and it will pivot up and pads will prob fall out. this is the quick way to do it.

quick and saves you bleeding the brakes.for the discs,take out both bolts and just move the caliper out the way.

Urgentemente

Posted 21/2/2006 6:06 PM (#112076 - in reply to #111915)
Subject: RE: Brake pad prices?

Member

Posts: 32

wormy - 21/2/2006 4:12 PM
There is one bolt that goes from the back of the caliper at the bottom straight through into the other half of the caliper. take this out completely and pull the bottom of the caliper towards the front bumper and it will pivot up and pads will prob fall out. this is the quick way to do it.

Saw that in the Haynes and was suprised how easy it looks... Kept re-reading thinking I must be missing something

Harry
no, you wont have to bleed the brakes. removing the cap just makes it easier to push the piston in as youre not trying to compress the air / fluid in the resevoir.

Yeh, I figured removing the cap would make it easier for that reason, just didn't know wether it would let air into the system.

Cheers for the tips again guys.

Urgentemente

Posted 25/2/2006 11:25 AM (#113087 - in reply to #111712)
Subject: RE: Brake pad prices?

Member

Posts: 32

All done, wasn't anywhere near as bad as I expected. Most I had to do was clean up the drivers side caliper mounting a little,as the pad was tight to fit in otherwise.
One thing tho, the thin metal 'covers' that were between the outside of the caliper and the backing of the pads, well 3 out of the 4 were pure rust, 4th was salvageable, but I haven't refitted them , nor did the replacement pads have any with them (they did have the anti-rattle springs already fitted tho.)

Were these anti-squeal shims by any chance? Not had a road test yet, so have to wait and see if it squeals like a pig when braking under load. (did a quick test while car was still on axle stands and couldn't hear anything horrendous , perhaps a slight rubbing but I guess that will go once the pads settle in)

Metro_Si

Posted 26/2/2006 5:04 AM (#113327 - in reply to #111712)
Subject: RE: Brake pad prices?

Elite Veteran

Posts: 872
500

Location: Wiltshire

Mine were scrap as well, under advice I left them out and applied a generous coat of copper grease to the backs of the pads - no squealing for the past 120 miles.

Alex.

Urgentemente

Posted 26/2/2006 7:11 PM (#113712 - in reply to #111712)
Subject: RE: Brake pad prices?

Member

Posts: 32

Took it out for a about 50 min run today (g/f's house and back) and everything sounds and feels OK , touch wood. There was a very minor squeak once or twice when almost coming to a stop, but hopefully that will go once they've settled in. I put a fairly decent layer of copper grease on the back of the pads, worst case I'll take em out and put some more on.

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