A couple of easy'uns

[Kowalski]

Just wondering ...

When swapping out front brake pads is there an easy way of getting the new pads to line up with the grooves in the piston?

And ....

Anyone know the torque settings for alloy wheel bolts?

Just swapped the pads on my Activa and i'm sure it should have been a quicker job than it took me.

Thereagain, I DO have a lot of time on my hands at the mo' [jobless of Whitley Bay )

Thanks people

If the car you're talking about is a Xantia like the ones in your signature, the piston rotates, thats the only way to get it to line up with the pads. Rotating is how the piston adjusts as the brake pads wear, so if you are replacing pads, you'll have to screw it in to get the new (thicker) pads into the caliper, the piston should be easy enough to turn,

[citronut]

also i have always heard you should not wind them backwards,

and its an internal piston which rotates to adjust the pads up with wear, not the one you see that is against the pad

regards malcolm

[Krede]

They need to be rotated back in like Kowalsky says.. they even make a special too for this purpose. Its the same on the ZX calibres if I recall correct... and on the MKI HMMWV's as well

[Krede]

What I meant was that i'm sure that the small 'lug' on the back of the inner pad needs to locate BETWEEN one of the outer piston cut outs. I'm sure i've read this somewhere. Is this correct or not and if it is then just how do you know when the pad is correctly within the slot, so to speak?

Correct.
As far as I know you can't slide the calibre back in place unless the lug and piston are lined up in the right way.

[citronut]

as Krede says you cant drop the calliper back over the pads if the slot is in the wrong position, it is usual to get the 4 cut outs in a 12,3,6,9 oclock position when the calliper is up the corect way/direction

regards malcolm

[Stempy]

90Nm I think

[DickieG]

So then ... if the caliper drops back over the new pads there's nowt to worry about, yes

Err no as I've seen instances where the tag on the back of the pad has not located correctly in the slot on the piston resulting in the pads sitting at an angle in the caliper causing the pad to wear at an angle, not to mention the issue of the disc now having a large area of its braking face exposed to the elements for some time and deep rust forming so you do need to check that the tag is located in the slot.

When fitting pads the answer is to observe the piston slot as you swing the caliper into position, invariably to get the piston to sit correctly the slot needs to be set at a couple of degrees off of 90° to compensate for the swinging motion of the caliper moving into position.

[citronut]

i agree with Richard
but if the calliper just drops over the pads without any efort, it should be corect

regards malcolm

[Krede]

Err no as I've seen instances where the tag on the back of the pad has not located correctly in the slot on the piston resulting in the pads sitting at an angle in the caliper causing the pad to wear at an angle, not to mention the issue of the disc now having a large area of its braking face exposed to the elements for some time and deep rust forming so you do need to check that the tag is located in the slot.

Richard and Citronut are right.

EVERYTHING can be "made to fit" by using enough force... I have seen this so many times. (and done it a few myself in my early days)

The calibre should slide effortlessly back in place, otherwise you need to check again.

[Xaccers]

If you wind the piston fully back, you don't need to worry about the notches.

[DickieG]

TBH its not difficult to sort out and as you're not sure if you've done it correctly whip each wheel off and check by looking through the slot in the caliper.

[Old-Guy]

The first time I did the pads on mine, I found one pad hadn't been fitted properly (by a main stealer!) the previous time. There was a 'bruise' at the edge of one slot on the piston - handy though, I might not otherwise have realised the importance of correct alignment. As the piston has to be 'wound' back, I haven't found it a problem as one slot is bigger than the others - I position that to line up with the lug so you don't need to be too precise.