xantia handbrake question

_kid_ · Post by **_kid_** » 11 Jul 2006, 01:08

My mot it due soon and i know it will fail on the offside handbrake. It has failed on this item only on the lat two years. The mot station have 'cleaned the caliper' on both occasions and it has passed the test.

So it looks like as the months go by the offside h/brake becomes less and less effective.

I have looked in the Haynes manual; i can a pic of the cable clipped onto the side of something (is this the adjuster) which is held into the caliper.

Could it be worth pushing the piston back into the bore, to unfree it?
surely if its passing the mot something is seizing in the preceding months prior to the mot.

The nearside is fine, it click on around 3/4 click tight on a level surface. if it helps i took the car for a quick check on a rolling road, the n/side was 250kg, offside 5kg, pass was 150kg (quoting from memory so may be wrong)

Post by **RichardW** » 11 Jul 2006, 08:16

It's most likely that water has got in under the rubber boot on the back of the caliper and seized it up. You can get a repair kit from Citroen, remove the boot, clean it all up and fit new bits in the back as necessary. Should see it working nicely again.

_kid_ · Post by **_kid_** » 11 Jul 2006, 20:34

RichardW wrote:It's most likely that water has got in under the rubber boot on the back of the caliper and seized it up. You can get a repair kit from Citroen, remove the boot, clean it all up and fit new bits in the back as necessary. Should see it working nicely again.

Ive taken the rubber boot off, and sure enough its all rusted together, spayed wd40, and the lever which the cable connects to is moving freely, but its does not appear to be exerting any force on the disc. Why is it doing this?

What’s in the repair kit Richard? Would i need to undo the brake pipe to fit it?

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » 11 Jul 2006, 23:36

The overhaul kit will contain the appropriate bits to overhaul the cam and lever mechanism that operates the handbrake. From looking at Haynes I don't think its an on car job and is probably one of those jobs you'd wish you'd never started.

I'd start by looking at the price of recon ones on GSF and Euro car parts on-line shops.

bxbodger · Post by **bxbodger** » 11 Jul 2006, 23:53

WD40 won't do anything to free seized parts-give it all a good soaking in plus-gas or paraffin and see if that helps before doing anything else.

Post by **RichardW** » 12 Jul 2006, 07:37

Here's a link to the pic of brakes from pr.net. Not sure it's exactly the right one - you'll need to go through that with the dealer.

Brakes pic

The bits you want are 6 "KIT EMERG BRAKE", which lists at £53 or £59 depending on which you need. Not sure what's involved in fitting it, but my Dad had one done a couple of years ago, and it didn't cost too much. If you pivot the calliper up, pull the brake hose out of the strut, you can quite easily remove it from the pivot shaft, and then sit it on top of the disc to work on it.

New calliper from GSF is £76. I think I might be going down that route!

_kid_ · Post by **_kid_** » 12 Jul 2006, 14:06

thanks all

ive got the mot on friday its £40 plus a free retest within 7 days, so ill take the test then see whta needs doing.

_kid_ · Post by **_kid_** » 14 Jul 2006, 20:21

_kid_ wrote:thanks all

ive got the mot on friday its £40 plus a free retest within 7 days, so ill take the test then see whta needs doing.

well good news and bad.

The good news is the mot only failed on the handbrake. the bad news is its the caliper at fault. Gsf sell a recon for £70, someone to fit for another £30-does this sound about right?

Bananaman · Post by **Bananaman** » 15 Jul 2006, 10:45

_kid_ wrote:Gsf sell a recon for £70, someone to fit for another £30-does this sound about right?

Sounds about right, though fitting one isnt that difficult if you have a little bit of time and patience (and some axel stands) and would save you the £30 - the nice thing about Xantia (and BX, XM, GS, CX etc) brakes is they are easy peasy to bleed - no buggering about with a jam jar full of DOT4 like you have to do with a Fraud Disasta

_kid_ · Post by **_kid_** » 20 Jul 2006, 18:34

Bananaman wrote:
_kid_ wrote:Gsf sell a recon for £70, someone to fit for another £30-does this sound about right?
Sounds about right, though fitting one isnt that difficult if you have a little bit of time and patience (and some axel stands) and would save you the £30 - the nice thing about Xantia (and BX, XM, GS, CX etc) brakes is they are easy peasy to bleed - no buggering about with a jam jar full of DOT4 like you have to do with a Fraud Disasta

Good news

Fitted the caliper myself and passed the mot today. The handbrake is now rock solid. I bled the brakes and was surprised at how clean the LHM was. The brakes have not been bled the 2 1/2 yrs i had the car but the fluid was like new, all ive done is change the LHM recently and clean filters, so maybe the fluid does mix around quiet well in the dead ends.

All in all £40 for the mot and restest and £70 for a new shiny gold bosch caliper.