Loosening Xantia rear brake pads

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hswift
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Loosening Xantia rear brake pads

Post by hswift »

Had a half-hearted attempt yesterday to clean up the rear brakes on my Xantia estate. Couldn't budge the inboard pad on the offside, maybe stuck to the piston or the piston itself refusing to retract. Any advice please on loosening things up?
spanners
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Post by spanners »

common fault on the xantia is the caliper actually tilts in towards the disc a large amount of corrosion gathers on the back of caliper to arm best way is to split caliper take disk off then bolt caliper back together prise pads out then. work pistons back in then unbolt caliper again and clean off 1, area where pads slide. 2,back of caliper arm you may have to chisel swarf off. bolt back on with lots of grease. you dont need to bleed brakes as long as piston movement was done with caliper bolted together. NB new pads may be needed because they wear irregular.
hswift
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Post by hswift »

Does splitting the caliper and removing the disk involve de-pressurising the system and disconnecting the fluid pipe?
Niek
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Post by Niek »

Hi,
As long as you don't touch the brake pedal there will be no pressure on the cylinder. You can take it apart without releasing the pressure as far as I know.
Niek.
DeonLulu
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Post by DeonLulu »

On the subject of brakes: why do I need to swap my rear pads so frequently? I get about 5000 miles out of a set, before they start making horible noises. I have already swapped the disks, to no avail.
shaunthesheep
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Post by shaunthesheep »

5000 mile aint too bad for a rear ste of pads, i have found that for every one change of the rear pads you will have changed the front twice, due to most braking force being on the front.
regaring the horible noise, please explain it better <img src=icon_smile.gif border=0 align=middle>, does it sound like grinding or squealing?, is it only heard when you apply the brakes, or all the time?
dom
DeonLulu
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Post by DeonLulu »

Thank for the last answer: my brakes squeals when applying foot brakes. Sometimes the noise continues for a bit after removing pressure on the foot brake pedal. It is a standing joke amongst my friends: me, my citroen Xantia, and the squealling brakes!!
shaunthesheep
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Post by shaunthesheep »

deon,
when you changed the brake pads, did you smear the back of the pad in copper grease/slip?
dom
spanners
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Post by spanners »

it is a common fault on xantia to have brake squeal the rear pads should have anti squeal shims on but even these do not help even using textar pads which are original equip they can still squeal. i tend to shanfer the edge of the pads before insersion, always check that the calipers are still square as i explained previously. the squeal problem goes back to GS days so dont think it is new.
hswift
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Post by hswift »

Spanners,
Thanks for the invaluable advice, but could you describe the procedure for splitting the caliper. My Haynes manual only talks about removing the caliper completely for which you need to disconnect the fluid pipe. If there's a way of avoiding this, then that's the way I want to go.
By the way, I'm on the original set of rear pads (63,000) and they've only just started to squeal, which explains why I wanted to clean everything up. Having seen the pads, I've decided they're due for replacement.
Thanks,
H
spanners
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Post by spanners »

if you are careful enough you dont need to take pipe out it will bend back enough to clean back of caliper. so remove 8mm nut and bolt in pads then remove 2x17mm bolts holding caliper on (16mm on estates) remove disc if it makes it easier. it is explained earlier.
Niek
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Post by Niek »

You've lost me. It surely isn't easier to remove the disc than it is to undo the pipe?
Niek
spanners
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Post by spanners »

THERE IS ONE RETAINING BOLT TO TAKE OUT ON DISC (5.5MM BOLT) GIVE THE DISC A GENTLE TOP ALL AROUND AND SHOULD COME OFF EASY. THE REASON WHY I USUALLY DO IT THIS WAY IS BECAUSE 1/DISCS ARE CORRODED NEED CHANGING. 2/THE BACK HALF OF CALIPER WHEN SWARFED UP IS DIFFICULT TO GET PAST DISC. 3/ WHY RISC TAKING PIPE OUT AND THEN NEED BLEEDING.
Niek
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Post by Niek »

Fair enough, didn't realise it was that easy... (learning something new every day, wonder how long that'll last)
hswift
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Post by hswift »

Didn't need to take the caliper apart in the end; the pads came out eventually with a bit of pushing and pulling.
Caliper definitely at an angle relative to the disk, but I'm not going to worry about that. Pleasantly surprised how easily the pistons moved back, given that this was the first time the brakes had been touched in over 60,000 miles and four years. Any luck and I won't have to do it again during my ownership.
Thanks for the advice on this thread.
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