I hate working on brakes

DXP55

DXP55

DXP55

Soldato
Joined
5 Aug 2013
Posts
6,946
Location
Shropshire
Since I have had my Focus I have taken it to the ford dealers for a service - I ask them to renew brake fluid and that's it. - Now I have been having a bit of brake judder when braking slow and smooth or hard from speed so the other week I took out pad and discs and cleaned them up. - didn't help much then I thought i will bleed them - That''s when I noticed one of front bleeders has been snapped off.- It wasn't me so who could it have been ?? -
Should the dealers have told me and fixed it at their cost or would I have had to pay ? -
Today I took the caliper off thinking I would just drill the old one out and replace it. - Who was I kidding - £83 lighter I have a caliper that can be bled. - My next job is to check the other wheels and see if I can loosen the bleed nipples. - I took it round the block and didn't notice any judder but perhaps I need to get everything warmed up.
Never had this problem on Japanese cars - Takes me back to my old Ford Zodiac days - rust and rot and every bolt rusted solid.

ps - Discs were replaced about two years ago along with pads but I have replaced pads last year with Green pads. - If problem is still there then another set of discs .
 
Unless you have some sort of proof they broke it I think you would have ended up paying up as they'd just argue it was broken when you handed it in.

I hate working on brakes too, what should be a simple job never is. Changed the discs and pads on the Mrs' Mazda 2 a year back, absolute pig of a job. I've since had 2 goes at getting the ******s to stop squeaking but they won't. Nothing wrong as far as I can tell, but the misses insists its something I've done it, not fussed enough to waste her money to get someone else to go at it though.

As for my previous Mito, well there's a special place in hell for the person who made the rear brakes on that!
 
I hate garages...

Took our car in, they refreshed the brake fluid.

Next two weeks it had brake warnings on the dash. Low fluid.

Turns out they didn't tighten a nipple up....
 
Yep, the majority of garages work on the principle that every corner should be cut because it's a win win, if they break the bleed nipple, if you ever go back in they'll charge extra labour due to the broken bleed nipple!

I thought I'd do the front discs/pads on the M3 about a year after I bought the car, due to some worrying comments when I had it MOT regarding the front brakes, it ended up being a complete pig of a job.
- Wheel bolts so tight I bent every tyre brace I had (some of them where quite meaty X shaped braces).
- Both alloys oxidised badly and stuck on the hub.
- All 4 hex head retaining screws rounded off (and 1 metal weld adhesive used to keep it in place)
- passenger side caliper had a kinked hose (clearly was twisted 180 degrees then fitted), I only knew this when it went in for an MOT
- Corrosion on the top of the pistons contacting the pads (no grease used)

It took an entire day, I bought a mains powered impact driver to undo the wheel bolts, then had to use some 3" x 2" wook on the edge of the tyre, lowering the car on this to dislodge the wheel.
The retaining screws I had to dremel the heads for two of them to get enough purchase to remove them, the other 2 I drilled and re-tapped.
The caliper hose needed replacing
The piston tops cleaned thoroughly and greased
The hub greased and the alloys cleaned with a splash of grease as well to ensure they come off easily next time.
Used an actual torque wrench when doing up all the bolts/screws etc.

Even now, if it goes in for tyres, the first thing I do at home is remove the wheel, check it's got a small amount of grease (lithium for alloys, copper grease will cause issues) and reassemble with correct torques.
 
Demon said:
Even now, if it goes in for tyres, the first thing I do at home is remove the wheel, check it's got a small amount of grease (lithium for alloys, copper grease will cause issues) and reassemble with correct torques.
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Since I once had to jump up and down on a wheel to get it off a car once, I always put a bit of grease on there too. Didn't know about not using copper grease on alloys though, what sort of problems can it cause? Some corrosion related issues I assume?
 
If you use copper ease on the wheel nuts you will over torque them as the torque figure includes the friction. This can lead to the alloys cracking.
 
Don't ask me how bleeding the front near side brake caliper (broken nipple ) cured my brake judder but it has - no sign of it now after a run out this morning - Next job is to go round the other three wheels and undo nipple (if I can) and replace each one - To be honest thinking about it now for £5 for four nipples it's a easy job to do once a year.
 
I need to bleed the brakes on the weekend as i'm changing a caliper, they're all aluminium calipers with steel bleed nipples so that's going to be fun... I've sprayed them all with WD40 a week ago to give me a chance.

Why don't manufactures realise that different metals next to each other can corrode and cause problems!
 
Hmm, perhaps I should've had the brake fluid changed on my old car. I had an issue with that where I had brake juddering when slowing from speeds over 50mph or so. It got worse over time but I changed discs and pads all round and it went away but only for something like 2 or 3 months, about 4-5k miles. Changed discs and pads again (luckily kept the 'old' ones' which are barely worn and will fit my current car) and again it was ok for a while but came back. At that point I simply took the pads off, pushed the caliper pistons back in and then put everything back together again and the problem went away. Didn't have the car for much longer after that but I assume it would have come back.

Because it clearly wasn't related to discs or pads I just assumed it was a caliper issue, but in hindsight, having the brake fluid changed would probably have been a good thing to have tried earlier on.
 
Phemo said:
Since I once had to jump up and down on a wheel to get it off a car once, I always put a bit of grease on there too. Didn't know about not using copper grease on alloys though, what sort of problems can it cause? Some corrosion related issues I assume?
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I only use grease on the hub face, and the only reason I use LM grease is simply that in theory aluminium alloys can galvanically corrode with copper although little evidence exists, why chance it.

I don't use grease on the bolts, other than if just cleaning them, I'll put hte merest hint of grease and immediately wipe it off with a cloth, so as not to mess too much with the friction levels.
 
Had a go at the drivers side caliper nipple - half is on the work bench and rest is in caliper - didn't take much to snap it off - I have weak hands and arms - I am now beginning to think the garage broke first one off then just tried the rest and found them tight so didn't in the end change the brake fluid.
Mate over the road came over with a scrap caliper so put it in vise and tightened up nipple - we could not break it so loosened it off a bit - cut nut bit off and did a practice drill out - We did it in the end by just drilling down with bigger and bigger drill bit's till we exposed thread in caliper. -
Then ran a tap down it (needed a flat face one really) - got all the swarf out - tipped it upside down and end that seals nipple fell out.
Now the odd bit and I bet it's due to bean counters cutting back - The front nipples are 8mm and rear 10mm. We were wondering if because its from a old Mondeo the nipple was made from better steel or was it just because it was 10mm we couldn't snap it off. -
Going to attack it next week so if all else fails it's another 86 quid. - Don't you just love Fords - always known for being rot boxes.

Phemo.
Mine was like yours - these discs are EBC grooved - not cheap so I didn't think they were warped as I don't brake like a racing driver to get them really hot. -
 
Alibaba99 said:
If you use copper ease on the wheel nuts you will over torque them as the torque figure includes the friction. This can lead to the alloys cracking.
Click to expand...

Putting a little copper grease on the mating surfaces between wheel and disc/hub and avoiding the threads won't affect the torque on the roadwheel bolts
 
I did use heat on my nearside caliper - it was so hot the penetrating oil bubbled each time I squirted it on but it still never moved. Also used those left hand thread easy outs and that broke off - it was a monkey metal one from China though- I was trying to be careful with heat because of the rubbers in calipers.
One thing I notice on new one is the piston and housing is all plastic - Looks like whole unit is pressed into the caliper.
 
DXP55 said:
...these discs are EBC grooved - not cheap so I didn't think they were warped as I don't brake like a racing driver to get them really hot. -
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If you want quiet brakes, probably best to save your money for better quality pads on standard discs, you’ll not only save a decent chunk of cash vs EBC grooved, but get better performance, longer pad life and less judder/vibration when the grooves fill with crap/corrosion. Copper-slip is going out of favour, current logic is silicon grease, galvanic corrosion is often cited as justification, but someone always moans about it contaminating ABS sensors which seems a stretch.

A BFC is one of those garage jobs that is often overlooked for exactly the reason you describe, it’s labour intensive when something goes wrong, also most garages will use a pressure bleed system and that can also cause issues and modern cars need to the ABS unit to be triggered to fully flush through the system which often requires brand specific kit.
 
Just changed the two rear bleed nipples - Only needed a bit of a tug on small spanner and undone - changed them for new ones- bled the calipers while there - Got a nice hard pedal and a bit of bite in the brakes -Had this car ten years and never been happy with brakes even after I renewed discs and pads.
Comes Monday I will take off front right and try to drill out the broken nipple - That's providing local europarts has one in just in case.

I hate messing with brakes -nasty dirty job.
 
Diagro said:
I hate garages...

Took our car in, they refreshed the brake fluid.

Next two weeks it had brake warnings on the dash. Low fluid.

Turns out they didn't tighten a nipple up....
Click to expand...
That happened to me when I replaced the rear callipers on my car.

It’s a fine line between tight and snapped on a little bleed nipple. I also watched my boss snap my 7mm spanner trying to remove a bleed nipple on a different set of brakes.
 
Alibaba99 said:
If you use copper ease on the wheel nuts you will over torque them as the torque figure includes the friction. This can lead to the alloys cracking.
Click to expand...
Never had an issue my self I have over tightened a locking wheel but though which was much fun getting it off.
 
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