Brake Problem

[hexhamstu 9]

background of car

 

car had fairly new 307 brakes fitted 3 years ago, did a few miles then went off the road, and sat on a drive for 3 years. it is now back on the road, the brakes passed the MOT but one of the rear calipers (1.9 brakes) was under braking but the overall braking passed the MOT, cant find the slip as my dad picked the car up and is now giving me the run around for the papers (your mams got it......mam: why would i have it).

 

anyway apart from this problem when you brake the car pulls to left sometimes just slightly sometimes a bit more, you can easily control it, but its still there. why would this happen? is this a suspension problem or a brake problem?

 

common sense leads me to think that the left brake must be braking earlier than the right? so would fitting new pads and discs solve this? as i have some brand new ones in the garage i guess this is the first step... but can i service the calipers, if so how?

 

also the handbrake was an advisory on the MOT, "parking brake performance poor" how can i fix this?

 

dont have much experience with brakes so any help would be great.

[Rom 0]

Its possible the brakes are causing this yes.

Ive seen calipers which are almost siezed cause similar effect, due to lack of movement / force to that piston. Meaning one side is braking harder.

A collapsed flexi hose might cause similar problems.

 

Its worth stripping it down, checking the pistons and sliders are all free. Check fluid comes through fine. Hopefully any problem should be spotted during this.

I doubt the calipers need rebuilding, (fronts) they just might need freeing off and some use. Rears are obviously much older, and if your using standard MC, then the rears are now doing less work, so the brakign force will be lower.

 

As for the handbrake, the rears have wind out pistons, with 4 indents which align with a bit on the pad. Just 1 quarter turn made my handbrake really bad. So i had to strip and adjust up that extra quarter turn.

With pedal pressure the piston can move quite far. With the handbrake being mechanical, theres only a very small movement, so it has to be spot on.

 

I cant remember if theres an adjuster by the handbrake... That would tighten both cables, but ideally you should always adjust at the brake with the cable slackened off.

Edited January 23, 2009 by Rom