Rear wheel grinding on the brake caliper ?????

JonWill · Post by **JonWill** » 26 Apr 2010, 16:09

Hi, I'm the owner of a Citroen C5 Mk1 (2001) and have had to take it off the road due to the inside of the rear wheel rim grinding on the brake caliper, as any one come across this before and how can I fix it.

Post by **RichardW** » 26 Apr 2010, 16:28

Hi Jon, welcome to the forum

'Tis a common problem on the C5, but to be bad enough for the caliper to be rubbing on the wheel is pretty far gone

The problem is corrosion build up between the (aluminium) caliper and (steel) radius arm. The cure is to remove the caliper, clean the rust off the back and refit it. Trouble is, the bolts are a royal pain to get out without breaking them (go steady, use Plus Gas on the back, and heat if possible) and to make matters worse, on the C5, Citroen saw fit to drown the bolts in thread lock, so heat all along the bolt is required. The C5 calipers seem to be made of a particularly soft alu as well, and corrode like nobody's business, so new calipers may be in order....

JonWill · Post by **JonWill** » 26 Apr 2010, 17:43

RichardW Hi,
Thanks for the quick response and info, The one thing Im more than happy to do is get my hands dirty, I'll keep you posted as to the progress.
The way my luck is going those bolts have snapped just thinking about them. Once again
CHEERS.

Citroenmad · Post by **Citroenmad** » 26 Apr 2010, 17:51

Yes very common problem, first sign is rear brake pads wearing like a wedge.

I had mine to bits a couple of weeks ago to grease behind them, though it had new calipers about 6 months ago i thought id see whet they were like now. All was good and should be for a good few years hopefully.

Quite a common thing to have to replace the callipers when this happens, and yours does sound quite bad. You will also be needing new pads as they will have worn very odly and wont fit to the disc once the caliper is back in its normal place.

Callipers are about £70 each from aep-parts online.

Pleiades · Post by **Pleiades** » 26 Apr 2010, 17:53

Yes t'is a very common sight on the C5 and also on the Xantia.

As part of a service now, we allways remove the calipers, clean the backs and grease em up.

As Richard says, Citroen did drown these in loctite before fitting them, so removal does require heat, patience and good quality tools, (cheap sockets will not fit right and round off the heads)

To the extreme, I have had these in when the corrosion had built up so much, it had snapped a bolt in the caliper.

Anyone that has a C5 or Xantia that has not had this problem, I would suggest fix it noe before the problem exists.

You can remove the calipers without losing fluid and without the need for bleeding, my way is this...

Remove the bolt / pin that holds the pads in, (8mm)
Remove the pads and push the pistons home.
Put the bolt back in to hold the caliper halfs together.
Remove the 2 x caliper bolts.
Do the big clean up and put all back together in reverse order.

Regards
Martin.

Citroenmad · Post by **Citroenmad** » 26 Apr 2010, 17:55

Thats exactly what i just did last weekend with mine, though i need to do the other 2 C5s too. Easy enough as long as you can get the bolts out.

Xantidote · Post by **Xantidote** » 26 Apr 2010, 20:20

Are the (rear) caliper bolts on Xantias supposed to have loctite applied to the threaded parts?