Changing brake pads

Should be quite straight forward. You take the wheel off undo 2 nuts to remove the calipers, whip the old pads out then push the piston in to make room for the new pads.

Only the piston wont push in. After trying bigger & bigger G cramps & bending metal, taking the piston right out to check for obstructions & getting covered in brake fluid, I looked at other forums & yes, other people had the same problem, the piston will go so far but then stop.

Many people were saying an expensive bit of electronic kit was needed, but no one seemed to be able to address the problem.

Till I noticed one forum where they mentioned an electronic parking sensor, a thing that would keep the brakes on if parked up.

The Answer........

Take the hand brake off. :dh::dh::dh:

Pushed the piston straight in.

It now means i've got to bleed the brakes but at least i'll get one car going tommorow.

Many Many thanks to Chopper this morning, without whom, I would never have got the calipers off in the first place. :gnthb:

I owe you one there Mate.:thumb:

 

Will be doing that tommorow Marley.

Choppers been a star. And we had a good woffle about veg growing too :gnthb:

 

Glad you got the job fixed zig , will have to look at the book for my vectra I have a light on the dash coming on orange something to do with engine electronics all about happy motoring :thmb:

 

Cheers Nathan, im sure they make these things more user unfriendly to keep the trade in work. Most things you used to whip off with a spanner and replace you can't even get to now.

The engine in my Nissan Airbag is actually under the seats :dh:

 

Reading that made me break out in a cold sweat! Memories of a day (back in 1900 and blankety blank) when I decided to dismantle our only operating table to clean the worm screw that made the table tilt. It wouldn't come apart very easily so I used a mole wrench on it - totally destroying the thread in the doing of!

Luckily there was a British Oxygen engineer there, servicing the anaesthetic machine. In his kit he had a set of thread dies and spent a happy afternoon trying to repair the damage I'd done! He succeeded, thank God, else next morning I'd have had to tell the matron and the surgeon that the operating list would have to be cancelled!

Taught me to mess with things I didn't really know about!

 

I know how you feel Dasiees, spent a solid 24 hours leaning over the bog in Wales, the incoming water supply came in behind the loo, the water board had replaced the old lead pipe with a new 25mm alkathene pipe.

No one in North Wales had the fittings for the new pipe. I had to build a connector from scratch, using whatever I had in the house, otherwise no water for me and the baby.

I had bruised ribs from leaning over the loo seat for so long.

 

Took more forum searching that I could of imagined to find out what was going wrong.

Hopefully, when someone has the same poblem next time, their search will bring them straight here and they will start gardening.

 

More than happy to help you out Ziggy. Good cuppa as well mate and by the way. You do not owe me anything for helping you. Had lots of help myself in the past. Your very welcome.

I know I was busy but you should have called me if you were still having trouble. I could have come back later. I have all the kit for sorting out brake caliper pistons.

Hope I am not teaching my grandma to suck eggs here. Remember I told you about all the brake fluid on the wheel and the hub? Very important that you clean all the muck off before you put the new pads in, or they will very quickly become contaminated with the old fluid and you will lose the new pads. Always make sure you clean the caliper thoroughly BEFORE you take it apart.

Easy trick when bleeding car brakes. Use some molegrips to block the pipes to three wheels. Only clamp them on the flexible hose, tight enough to stop the fluid getting through. All the pressure then goes to one wheel. Start with the wheel closest to the master cylinder.

Clean the master cylinder before you take the cap off. Use a spray brake cleaner after, to clean off any spillages. Don't forget to use some copper grease on the BACK of the pads before you fit them, or they will squeal like a pig.

Remember to check your brake fluid levels after you have done the job. Check that all the bleed nipples are fully closed as well. Brake fluid does NOT evaporate, so if your fluid is going down in the master cylinder, you have a leak and you need to sort it out ASAP, before you have an accident.

Call me if you are still having trouble mate.

Good to see you again.

Chopper.

 

Ziggy, have you ever watched the movie "Apollo 13"? :hehe:

 

:D It was very much like that Daisees, I even ended up using bits of the working steam train I was building at school.

I reasoned that if I can make a 2inch long pump that will pump water into a boiler at 140 PSI, then a conector should be a doddle, oh no.:dh:

 

I did find some very rude replies during my search, another problem i'd had was my Nissan kept stalling, other people were having the same problem & some little snot came back with, "Are you sure you've passed your test ? Can't you even balance a clutch ?"

No need for that sort of response to a legit question.

After all that, cars a write off, took the other wheel off & the disc was like a CD. Not worth the money to fix.:(