106 diesel brakes

droylsden dave · Post by **droylsden dave** » 03 Oct 2006, 13:05

Hi Gents

Mrs owns r reg 106 1.5diesel and her brakes seem spongy and need longer braking distance Garage at my request looked at em and said no problems with em, they seem to think brakes are designed for 1.1 106 and werent upgraded for the extra weight etc of the diesel.

what do you think?

Cheers

AndersDK · Post by **AndersDK** » 04 Oct 2006, 10:31

I think you should try another garage

Spongy brakes nearly always means air in the brake lines.
If the car is nearly due for its regular service, then to get peace in mind (and possibly save mrs. from any incidents) have the car regular serviced especially on the brakes.
Brakes parts are not expensive and labour is moderate.

The brakes is above all the most important function on any car

JohnD · Post by **JohnD** » 04 Oct 2006, 10:56

Your garage is talking rubbish. If your 106 is similar to my Saxo which it is, other than in body shape, then the front brakes can have solid discs or vented discs; three hole or four hole wheel fixings; ATE or Bendix systems, all depending on car model. As Anders says, find another garage.

droylsden dave · Post by **droylsden dave** » 04 Oct 2006, 21:54

Thanks Gents,

I must admit the garage i use seems to be of a good standard. Decent work at a decent price, but this brakes issue i think i have been fobbed offf. Car is now 9 years old and i dont think the brakes have been bled in that time and i have asked several times for them to do it.

Spongy may not have been the right word, but it certainly takes longer to stop than my 406 and a vectra i had before that. In fact you really do have to push down on the brake pedal.

I will get a mate to give it a good going over.

Thanks again

Pug106Dave · Post by **Pug106Dave** » 07 Oct 2006, 10:22

I had a 106d for a few years. It is true that you have to press down hard on the pedal compared to most cars, noticebly more than on my girlfriends 1.9d zx, I believe this is due to the servo not being as big or powerful as would be nice.

However they can still work perfectly if they are in a good state of order. There was always a noticable difference after striping and re-greasing the sliders on the calipers. And as usual it helps if the rear brakes are adjusted properly, particularly the handbrake self-adjusters.

I would strip down the front pads and sliders, remove all the crud and rust and reassemble with copperslip, maybe some new pads depending on how worn they are? And do you know when the rear brakes were last inspected, or the shoes replaced? It would be taking the drums off to inspect them, you might have a slight weeping from a rear cylinder, which are likely to be nearing the end of there lives, or they could just be all gummed up with crud. A good clean and making sure everythings moving free can make the world of difference to how responsive they feel, although you will always need to press slightly harder than on some other cars, in my oppinion.

Obviously as previously mentioned, bleeding them is also the only way to ensure your not suffering from air the system.

If you are concerned about brakes and not sure what to do, you must always get a second oppinion.

Dave

droylsden dave · Post by **droylsden dave** » 07 Oct 2006, 18:00

Pug106Dave wrote:I had a 106d for a few years. It is true that you have to press down hard on the pedal compared to most cars, noticebly more than on my girlfriends 1.9d zx, I believe this is due to the servo not being as big or powerful as would be nice.

However they can still work perfectly if they are in a good state of order. There was always a noticable difference after striping and re-greasing the sliders on the calipers. And as usual it helps if the rear brakes are adjusted properly, particularly the handbrake self-adjusters.

I would strip down the front pads and sliders, remove all the crud and rust and reassemble with copperslip, maybe some new pads depending on how worn they are? And do you know when the rear brakes were last inspected, or the shoes replaced? It would be taking the drums off to inspect them, you might have a slight weeping from a rear cylinder, which are likely to be nearing the end of there lives, or they could just be all gummed up with crud. A good clean and making sure everythings moving free can make the world of difference to how responsive they feel, although you will always need to press slightly harder than on some other cars, in my oppinion.

Obviously as previously mentioned, bleeding them is also the only way to ensure your not suffering from air the system.

If you are concerned about brakes and not sure what to do, you must always get a second oppinion.

Dave

Cheers for that.

We have just had the rear calipers replaced as one of em was weeping.

But as to whether they did anything like you suggest is a different matter.
I did ask for the brakes to bled but who knows. Im getting a mate to give a good going over, and do whats necessary.

thanks again

fivelighters · Post by **fivelighters** » 11 Dec 2006, 19:30

change the brake hoses as the rubber exspands through time and you end up with spongy brakes .. you can get stainless steel ones on ebay for around 40 pounds and it does help quiet a lot

danthevan · Post by **danthevan** » 12 Dec 2006, 10:21

Probably be an idea to change the brake fluid too, doubt it's been changed since new!

Post by **philhoward** » 12 Dec 2006, 19:04

I used to have a 106 and continually had to manually adjust the rear shoes as the auto-adjuster was...well not auto-adjusting! Might be something to ask about.

As has already been mentioned, best make sure that the fluid was totally changed recently and also bled properly.

Another possibilty is that the vaccuum pump isn't up to scratch, but i'd say it's something to do with the back brakes if that was the last thing touched...

Post by **504** » 19 Dec 2006, 11:51

The brake servo on 106 is still located in the LHD position and operated from the RHD peddle. Check all the linkage for slack.

David W · Post by **David W** » 21 Dec 2006, 10:56

I have found even when the 106 diesel brakes are spot on in all respects they are adequate (just) but never really good. Virtually every car with the cross tube lhd-rhd conversion has iffy feeling brakes due to the extra slack and flex in the tube/linkage.

There are places to take out the slack but as mentioned above there is a real danger of making the brakes stay applied even when the pedal is up.

David

fastandfurryous · Post by **fastandfurryous** » 29 Dec 2006, 19:46

having driven a 106 Diesel for some time a few years ago, I would concurr that the brakes are generally rubbish on this model, and need to be in tip-top condition to even be acceptable.

A little crap in the fluid, sticky sliders, old brake hoses, siezed auto-adjusters, worn discs etc. will all combine to make the brakes terrible.

You can do 1 of 2 things. Either service the entire brake system with new hoses, recondition the calipers&sliders, repair/replace the auto-adjusters and change all the consumeable parts (discs, pads and fluid). This will put the brakes back to factory standard (IE acceptable, but not brilliant)

Or, get all the braking system off a higer-powered 106. Bigger discs, better calipers, etc.etc. Change the fluid, and you'll have decent brakes rather than rubbish ones.

I never did manage to fix the caliper "creaking" noise on the 106 I drove. I'm sure it was stiff caliper sliders, but despite regular maintainence it was always there.

rossnunn · Post by **rossnunn** » 30 Dec 2006, 21:18

Being a 106 Diesel owner the brakes seem to be classic cheap french.
Not brilliant but more than up to the job of pulling the thing up.
All the diesels use a 4 stud disk in either Vented or Soild, Ate or Girling (IIRC) Calipers. I seem to remember the disks are the same as the 1.4 petrol versions, but I'm not 100% sure, you'd need to look it up.
Ruling out worn out pads & used disks;
Personally mine has the solid disks & pulls up fine.
If you think it might be air pump the pedal until it does hard & leave your foot on, if it sinks there is air in the system.
If your particularly worried take it to another garage or better, a MOT station & ask them to do a brake test, this will show up any anomalies that my be lurking.
It could be that the balance has gone out since doing the rear cylinder.