C5 2002 Brake Pads

[MaxPrimal]

Guys, got question.

I am getting a warning saying that my brake pads are low on my dash. But this comes on intermittently (along with the Service light) and goes out. Sometimes it will come on when I touch the brakes, other times when I fully depress it, when the car appears to be warm and running it doesn't come on at all, other times the service light will flicker at low speed. My car had an new MOT last month when I got and there where not advisories on the braking system so I have a couple of questions:

1) How does the tell if the pads are low. Are there sensors on each wheel (or the callipers of each wheel) or is it a pressure related test to how much pressure is applied to the brakes to make them work? Could it be a duff reading causing the warning as it is not consistent at all.

2) If the brakes are worn (I will check at the weekend when it is light and can take each wheel off to physically inspect them) are they simple to replace? The last time I did brake pads was about 6 years ago on a 1998 Scenic, then it was a case of forcing the calliper back, knocking out two retaining pins, putting the new pads in, pins back in and then pumping the brakes to rebalance the system. Is that all there is to it on the C5 or is it more complex?

Thanks
Max

[Ben82]

I got this too shortly after getting my C5.....
Front brakes have sensors, back ones don't...... advice from the mechanic here was wait until they started squeeking consistently, however the rules on brake pads here are different to the UK.... Here the "MOT" only tests the braking power of the brakes and that they are even, not the depth of the brake pad.
When I finally took them in there wasn't much left of the pad.

It is a DIYable job, but you need a tool or equivalent (there is a thread on that quite recently), I've not done it myself so can't really advice on how easy it is. As my feeling was since the brakes are rather important, I would rather get it done right

[Hell Razor5543]

I don't have a C5, but I did see this thread, with the related tools in some of the posts;

http://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/v ... =3&t=42884" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

James

[MaxPrimal]

Thanks guys. I agree with the brakes being important but I have to look at cost and frankly money is tight and I would rather spend £20 on a tool and waste a day than £100 on labour and have a garage do it. I also suspect the garage will charge more than £40 for the pads which is how much I have seen them on Ebay for...

I will take a look at the brakes at the weekend and see what condition they are in and go from there.

Thanks again.

[Ben82]

I know how you feel, mine had the Timing belt changed a couple of months prior to the pads... that set me back about £1500 (with the 120,000km service) ! If I had the Gonads to do it myself it would have probably only cost me about £400-£600... Oddly, for the amount of money i was charged (and I did shop around, Citroen Sweden would have wanted closer to £2k), I could have driven the car to the UK had it done with the Citroen UK fixed price repair thing, and driven it back, and probably still had a couple of hundred to spare.

[RichardW]

Changing the front pads should be fairly straightforward. There is a Haynes manual for the C5 that will tell you how to do it. Important thing to remember is that as the handbrake acts on the front wheels, the calipers must be wound back, not just pushed in - and one of them (can't remember which) is LH thread. You can do it with a makeshift tool, but having just bought a proper wind back tool it's a LOT easier with! Try carparts4less for the pads - they do Pagid pads at reasonable price which I have been impressed with. The pad wear warning is just a wire that has a sensor in the pad, when the pad wears down the sensor touches the disc and earths the light on the dash. As it normally touches the outside of the disc which is usually pretty ragged, it gives erratic readings. You can also find that the wires break off where they are attached to the car body, which can give all sorts of random readings. I never bother to reconnect them..... If not been done, then a 2002 car may well need new discs, you need a few more tools for this, but again it's not too hard.