Got a sporadically binding front brake caliper, something the jalopy is prone to... the slides stick and the brake pads remain in contact with the disc. Sometimes can free it by braking very hard and coming down violently on the pedal with the car at rest, but that isn't reliable.
Anyway when the car seems strangely reluctant and the affected wheel becomes too hot to touch, it's a problem. I used to take the caliper out, free the slides with a big hammer and grease them, but I can't do that sort of thing any more without being severely pressed.
With the hub getting hot like that there are secondary effects, the grease melting in the bearing and doing it no good.
Strangely, it freed just before I reached home today. Tomorrow I will take it to the geezer, at least to make an appointment, while Herself is going about some business she has. But damn damn damn all the same, what a pain cars can be.
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Might be the piston. I have one on the MX5 that's prone to binding a bit, not to the point of melting the grease out of the hub just making lots of dust. That turns out to be the piston, not much to be done with it other than working it back and forth which is working for now.
Hope you don't have to cough up for a caliper.
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I can't recall your car, Armel, but can you not take it to an indy brake specialist, and have the whole gig serviced.
I don't scrimp and save, or DIY fix - on brakes especially.
I can change pads, discs, drums etc on the average car, but when it comes to a binding situation, I use a chap who pushes fluid though with forward and backward hydraulics, and looks for leaks.
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I had a similar thing with my old Megane. Ignored it for a long time, until the day I came back from town and it got slower and slower, until I could smell that pungent burning smell. After pulling over, I could see the smoke from the wheel before I even got out. Fortunately after a few minutes it released enough to continue home using the hand brake.
On closer inspection the whole thing was solid, piston and pins, and one pad was worn at about 15°. So ordered a new pair of calipers, working on the theory the other side wouldn't be far behind, and I could do without that one locking up and leaving me stranded.
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You need to use some sort of bent lever, like a wrecking bar, remove the pads, and lever the pistons right back into the caliper (protect the disk surface with a shim or similar).
Then pop in some kind of temporary pads, eg old worn out ones, to stop the pistons coming out to far, and press the brakes hard. Then lever the pistons back in again.
Repeat as many times as necessary to the point that the offending piston slides as freely as a good one.
It's especially likely to happen soon after fitting new pads, because the pistons will not have been accustomed to moving over that part of their range, and dirt will have built up.
Ideally you would have opened a bleed nipple to let the expelled fluid drain out, rather then pumping possibly dirty fluid back up the system.
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Good point about the new piston position Cliff. I first noticed the binding soon after putting new pads in. Freed the slides, didn't stop it, then found it was the piston.
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Whether piston or caliper slides, the spontaneous cure seems to be permanent, and the jalopy behaved impeccably today, not a hint of brake binding and I didn't even bother to feel the wheel. Just as well I didn't take it to the geezer after all, just inflated the tyres (all but one of which needed it... the jalopy tracks straight again now without that very slight tendency to wander one way or the other. Any driver will compensate unconsciously but it's slobbish driving really. Of course you won't get really out of shape until it really matters, and then you will need to be very quick and on the ball).
But there was a bit of front shimmy at speed. Wheel balance, or perhaps something worse.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Fri 8 Jan 16 at 19:03
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People often let their discs get very thin and scored, so that they shred pads, warp, become noisy and provide lousy braking. I've done it myself often enough.
Discs aren't all that expensive though, and new pads plus discs are often a good idea. They soon get worn but they're great while they last.
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I had to make a 3 mile trip into Salford (dump) in November in the Suzuki and became aware, after a couple of miles, of the car not going as well as it should. When I parked, I inspected the front and nearly burnt the end off a finger on the o/s disc. It had cooled before I went home and all seemed well for a week until it happened again.
I stripped the brake down, cleaned everything up and re-assembled with brake grease. It's been ok since. The pads were quite worn and I've made a mental note to do them soon. I had a slow flat on that tyre and the man at National, who couldn't find a leak, said the discs were getting low.
As long as she's stopping quietly it can wait 'til it's bit drier/warmer, but I'll get the bits in stock next week. Must check the Note as well.
If you can't get a piston to move, beg or borrow a welder's 'C' clamp...put one hell of a pressure on the piston.
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....the last but one change of motorhome motorcaravan campervan (..god, this is getting tedious :-) ) I'd agreed a p-ex value with the dealer, but wanted it absolutely tying down before exchange, so took the vehicle to them a week in advance for inspection.
All fine, but on the way home there was an ominous grinding from the front n/s brakes. It transpired that this had been binding (for some time) and one of the pads was down to the backing (and the wear-indicator was on the o/s pads).
I considered ignoring it, but conscience won out, and I replaced both front sides (not a simple job on a 4 tonne motorhome). The existing pads were a very tight fit in the guides (the source of the problem, I think), and I had to do a good amount of cleaning away of embedded debris before the new ones felt right.
Of course, I don't know the history beyond that point, but the self-righteousness index went up a bit.
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>> the man at National, who couldn't find a leak, said the discs were getting low.
I had a similar problem back in the '70s. Bombing down the A2, I lost all brakes approaching a roundabout. Managed to get round it and pulled into a lay-by on the far side. One front wheel was smoking and upon removing the wheel, it appeared to be wheel bearing grease.
A front calliper piston had pushed out so far it had canted over, locked and was applying light pressure to the pad on the disc. That had produced enough friction to heat the brake fluid to boiling (hence no pedal) and start melting the bearing grease, without me noticing.
I knew the front pads were getting low and had decided to do them the next weekend. Managed to get some new pads and fluid. Fitted them, bled the system and was on my way within an hour.
Subsequent investigation appeared to show the discs had been skimmed at some time previous to my ownership, resulting in the piston pushing out beyond limits with the worn pads.
I now measure disc thickness with a micrometer whenever I have a wheel off!
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>> I now measure disc thickness with a micrometer whenever I have a wheel off!
Shirley the lip on the edge of the disc will give an inaccurate reading?
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>> Shirley the lip on the edge of the disc will give an inaccurate reading?
You can close it on the disc inside that lip and get a reading in situ, surely (or Shirley)? A bit of a hassle to take the disc off and grind the lip off with lathe, angle grinder and what have you...
Brakes are brutal things. They have a rough side for most of us.
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>> Brakes are brutal things. They have a rough side for most of us.
And don't get me started on the asbestos and sintered-metal dust all urban drivers, and all proper mechanics, breathe daily... makes tobacco and weed look pretty small beer if you ask me.
A lot of techies wear dust masks these days.
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I think the asbestos disappeared years ago.
Last edited by: smokie on Sat 9 Jan 16 at 23:59
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>> I think the asbestos disappeared years ago.
It did. I can remember when they often used to blow it out with the air line.
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>> I think the asbestos disappeared years ago.
Yes... pity really, because it was good stuff for bakes. These modern pads eat through discs much faster.
I've said before that I once witnessed two navy firemen striding into a petrol blaze wearing white, dust-shedding asbestos suits with special helmets (a demonstration I was privileged to witness as someone's nipper). Dusty white asbestos, shedding carcinogenic particles in all directions, used to be a feature of navy life as I remember. And asbestos brake dust is something I had a lot to do with in my early car days.
I'm still here, but I sometimes wonder about those navy firemen. Of course they were older than me. But there was something sinister about those suits, they sort of boded ill.
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Asbestosis was known for a long time. The deadly mesothelioma connection not recognised until later.
At my school the third form every year would be taken on a trip around BBA in Cleckheaton, about a mile down the road. We all trouped around in a fug of dust and fibres. I often wonder how many, if any, of the grammar kids suffered as a result.
My uncle's father in law worked there for a lifetime. He died from "lung cancer". Lived in a BBA house by the factory. Not that many years ago it was discovered that the roof spaces in those houses were full of the dust too.
Sorry, I think I have probably said that before!
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B-i-L died a mesothelioma age 48 some 25 years ago - worked in a shipyard 5/6 years & BP for 25 years.
Former neighbour, a pharmacist, died of it aged 75 - he caught it in his childhood living in Southern Rhodesia near the mines!!! Asbestos blew around his town/village. He came here to study in Edinburgh & never went back there.
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My maternal grandfather died at 48, of heart failure resulting from kamikaze alcoholism though. I imagine he had a better time while alive than those shipyard workers.
He was a very small man. I have an old photo of him with two taller friends, holding in his arms a bottle of wine almost as big as he is. He was a terrible old reprobate and a great trial to everyone around him, apart perhaps from his fellow drunkards, irresponsible, spendthrift and intensely caddish. My mother claimed to adore the old beast but not many other people did. Never met him myself but I doubt that I would have taken to him. Had an uncle a bit like him and I didn't take to him at all.
I worry a bit sometimes about having bad blood.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Sun 10 Jan 16 at 15:21
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>> Former neighbour, a pharmacist, died of it aged 75
Ex neighbour of my parents' died Asbestos related lung cancer shortly after retirement. He'd worked for one of the big firms, possibly Turner and Newall, pretty much all his life. While possibly starting on the shopfloor he'd been in sales/management for at least thirty years,
If got his wife too - stuff came home on his clothing.
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Yes, pity really... because [asbestos] was good stuff for bakes.
"Mmm, Mary, this asbestos brioche is simply delicious. Best we've ever had in the tent. How did you get it so crisp without burning...oh, I see."
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>> You can close it on the disc inside that lip and get a reading in situ
For some reason I read it as Vernier, not micrometer. Best I join the queue for Specsavers along with Basil Fawlty.
>> A bit of a hassle to take the disc off and grind the lip off with lathe, angle grinder and what have you...
Easier to do it on the car. Jack car up, remove wheel, start engine, engage 1st gear and hold the angle grinder gently up against the disc while it is rotating.
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>> Easier to do it on the car. Jack car up, remove wheel, start engine, engage
>> 1st gear and hold the angle grinder gently up against the disc while it is
>> rotating.
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What do you do about the un-driven wheels?
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>> What do you do about the un-driven wheels?
Buy new discs ;)
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>> >> I now measure disc thickness with a micrometer whenever I have a wheel off!
>> Shirley the lip on the edge of the disc will give an inaccurate reading?
That's why I use a micrometer rather than a vernier gauge, the horseshoe shape of the micrometer overcomes that problem.
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>> That's why I use a micrometer
Yeah, like I just mentioned to Lud, I misread your post.
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>> Yeah, like I just mentioned to Lud, I misread your post.
I suppose the mods are decrepit and ageing like the rest of us.
In future I'LL HAVE TO SPEAK SLOWLY AND CLEARLY.
;>)
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Oi!! Not all of them are!!! :-)
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It wasn't binding today or hardly. The wheel was decently cool when I got back from delivering grandnipper to station and stocking up on toxic legal supplies. But it has to go to the bloke next Monday because (the bloke agreed) it's only too likely to start being tiresome again.
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Oh damn... new caliper, two discs and pads, damage will be a not unreasonable, but not welcome, £430-odd. I doubt that the car itself would fetch that at auction in its slightly battered condition.
They are being very quick though, promising to be through tomorrow morning.
Perhaps the jalopy is getting past it. But engine and transmission are still good and it goes against my grain to junk a car whose main running gear is OK and whose interior is pleasant.
The garage bloke's BMW-like thing (but it has a 5 cylinder engine so perhaps some other marque) is quiet and refined, but has runflat tyres which he was grumbling about. It's true that they were very harsh on our still-potholed drive.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Mon 18 Jan 16 at 17:20
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>> The garage bloke's BMW-like thing (but it has a 5 cylinder engine so perhaps some other marque)
Some sort of Nissan I think. But the garage also has a very nice 3 series BMW.
Both cars are very low by my standards. A bit awkward to climb out of early in the day, somewhat easier to collapse into.
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Binding brake - Manatee
