I'll be fitting the winter wheels/tyres soon, so an ideal opportunity to check out the calipers. I usually pull back the main dust seal on the piston and fill with rubber grease (of which I have plenty).
But what about the sliding pin assembly? These are usually pretty good if the rubber hasn't rotted, but there's usually some corrosion where the rubber bellows sits, letting in moisture. In the past I've filled with copper grease, despite comments that it will swell the rubber and cause problems, but never had any problems. So maybe the same rubber grease will work better, at least to prevent the ingress of moisture?
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If i've got some brake grease to hand i'll use that on the pins, but like you have put coppaslip in before without any problems.
Will you pump the pistons out and push 'em back in a few times whilst there, make sure all is well?
Quick bleed though too?...get wifey in the driving seat, call ''in'' ''out'' ''hold it'' ''thats good'' as required in a loud voice, give the neighbours something to smile about..;)
At least you've got sliding pins (though i prefer 2/4 piston fixed calipers that don't slide, ISTR some Pugs and possibly others where the caliper slid against its bracket with a spring clip to hold it in place, those blinking things always seized up.
Just finished daughters Civic service, that needed front discs and pads, but everything else good.
Had a sticking rear caliper on the Outlander too, a new piston and seals during the week, thats all good now too.
Last edited by: gordonbennet on Sat 26 Oct 13 at 14:56
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Rubber grease will be fine on the pins. If you really want to go for it remove the pads and clean the contact areas with a needle file or even a screwdriver then a smidge of copperslip. Thats where the castings start to corrode, swell and then tighten up the pads.
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I believe it's got the sliding pins. My Land Cruiser has 4 pots, and they're stainless steel, so last a long time.
I did think about the fluid, but have no-one to pump, so to speak. Big warnings in the haynes book about using pressure bleeder (it says Don't) - another french foible, it seems. It had a couple of rear cylinders last year, so one assumes freshish fluid at the time.
I'm trying to resist the urge to 'check things out and tinker' as it's French, which means 2 things get broken while trying to fix something else that wasn't broken in the first place.
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Rubber grease should be fine - although, if the seals are OK, so should clean and dry.
I have had to replace caliper slides where people have used copperslip and the rubber swelled up - although more modern collette types of caliper aren't as susceptible.
For renewing fluid on your own, just open the bleed nipple and let gravity pull the fluid through.
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You can bleed brakes on your own without a pressure system. Just get a block of wood of the appropriate length, push down on brake pedal as often as needed.. then press down and use wood to keep the brake pedal wedged down by placing the other end of the wood against the seat.
Easy peasy: done it for 40 years..
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The slide pins under the rubber bellows on the Lancer are fine. The covers work and the grease stays in.
However the calliper is aluminium, corrodes a bit and swells the guide shims out. The pad gets stuck at an angle and only wipes two thirds of the disk.
Whole lot needs to come out every year, and thoroughly cleaned out.
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For bleeding brakes on my own the gravity bleed is good but slow, i use a syringe and suck it through speeds things up on a cold day. :-)
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You've just given me an idea Bigtee - thank you - I'm going to need to bleed some brakes tomorrow, and I might try the Pela, put a short length of flexible rubber tube over the end of the "curtain wire" and suck the fluid through.
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Never thought of using pela for this, would be interested to hear how you get on.
I have a vacuum brake bleeder that I share with my mate, really excellent bit of kit. A trick he told me was to put some plus gas on the nipples a few hours before doing the job. Reduces the chance of them snapping.
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I've never understood the problem with single-handed bleeding. I have always just connected the tube, dipped in a jamjar with a bit of fluid in the bottem, opened the nipple half a turn, and then pumped the pedal slowly but firmly a few times.
If bleeding out a lot of air I lie on the ground so that I can see the air bubbles and pump using my hand.
Then nip round and tighten the nipple. If the tube is below the fluid level in the jar it can't suck air back in, even if it wanted to.
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I agree Cliff, I've used exactly that technique for years, but having a pela sitting in the garage anyway, thought I might try a different method.
The pela worked very well, and generally involved a lot less toing and froing than the traditional method - topping up the master cylinder was the only interruption.
I could have done better with my choice of flexible rubber pipe between the end of the curtain wire and the bleed screw, which didn't fit brilliantly, and sucked in some air, so even when the brakes were bled, some bubbles still came through - confirmed by bubbles still coming through after I had closed the bleed nipple.
I think this is how I'll bleed fluid through and do brake fluid changes from now on.
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>> If the tube is below the fluid level in the jar it can't suck air back in, even if it wanted to.
Once the nipple's undone what's to stop air being drawn in through the thread?
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Put some grease around the base of the nipple.
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>> Put some grease around the base of the nipple.
None of your dirty girlfriend talk here please.
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Renault Megane - For GB - Brake caliper maintenance - -
