Simon's new Xantia V6 and Leaf blog

[Gibbo2286]

I wonder if your brake shoes were made here :

[Mandrake]

Well I've ordered Bosch discs from ECP for local collection tomorrow afternoon...

A bit of a Hail Mary to be fair, made somewhat in desperation, but I've been running the problem through my head over and over (in fact I was awake quite a bit in the night and couldn't stop thinking about it) and the way the disc pushes over the shoes freely 99% of the way and then suddenly binds quite strongly when when it's pulled up the last fraction of a millimetre by the bolts suggests there is a dimensional tolerance issue with the disc or the inner machined drum face is not parallel/straight with the axis of the hub.

I actually tried swapping the shoes around front to back and that made no difference so I think this rules out a slope/taper on the shoe lining and points the finger of blame back at the disc. The replacement shoes Cleeverly sent are Delphi so I doubt there is any problem with them.

Wish me luck...

[NewcastleFalcon]

Made a bit of a error with this post, pressed "edit" instead of "quote" and obliterated my previous post which basically said "good luck". I have found the official Nissan Service Manual for the Leaf now as the next post says.

Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

"Never yet found the Leaf Service manual in its entirety on-line."

I have now, including the pages 4333 to 4348 this section here.

I have sent you the relevant pages in the PB section via PM. It's for the cable foot operated Parking Brake so is applicable to both my 2015 and your 2016 model.

Neil

[Stickyfinger]

I wonder if your brake shoes were made here :

As sold by Autodoc & EBay

[NewcastleFalcon]

One bit of the Parking Brake info from the service manual is this. The adjuster is oriented differently for LH and RH sides. There may be a "wrong way" to fit it.

click to enlarge

Neil

[Mandrake]

"Never yet found the Leaf Service manual in its entirety on-line."

I have now, including the pages 4333 to 4348 this section here.



I have sent you the relevant pages in the PB section via PM. It's for the cable foot operated Parking Brake so is applicable to both my 2015 and your 2016 model.

Neil

Received - by the way I didn't know you've been looking for the service manual, I have the entire thing in PDF format complete with clickable index links....

[Mandrake]

One bit of the Parking Brake info from the service manual is this. The adjuster is oriented differently for LH and RH sides. There may be a "wrong way" to fit it.

click to enlarge


Neil

Hi Neil,

I double checked the fitting of the adjusters against both how they were originally installed and the youtube disassembly video. One side has a left hand thread to ensure that rotating the adjust DOWN loosens the handbrake on both sides of the car...

[Mandrake]

I received the Bosch brake disc/drums a few days ago but have had to wait for an opportunity to install them.

I actually took today off work to do the job as it was supposed to be fine and the weekend is rain, however it's just started raining on me so I've come inside to fume for a bit while the weather clears...

The new Bosch discs look considerably better quality than the Triscan ones - in particular on the Bosch disc the entire inside drum where the shoes go right up past the shoe area to the front is very accurately machined and has a very smooth shiny finish:

Whereas on the Triscan disc you can see the very rough finish on the part of the disc that hasn't been worn in by the shoes which has a kind of powered grey appearance and quite a rough texture, leading me to wonder if it has even been machined at all ? Or perhaps has had some kind of powder coating applied ? In any case it was a very rough surface that would take considerable bedding in.

Thoughts on the difference between these disc finishes anyone ?

By the way I had to wind the adjuster on the left hand wheel right back to loose as possible earlier this week as the left brake kept binding enough to get very hot when driving despite seeming to turn freely when tested and it still gets warm with it wound right in. (The right hand side is cold after driving)

The left side is also the side that seems to bind more as the disc is pulled up into place on the studs so there is definitely some kind of alignment issue there. Hopefully the shoe linings have not been burnt.

[Mandrake]

Did you figure out how to get to the adjuster nut on the brake pedal Neil ?

They show it in the diagrams and say just adjust it... but it looks like it's behind all the overhanging dashboard facia and inaccessible without removing a good part of the lower dashboard ??!

[Mandrake]

Ok, got it. I pulled off a little bit of trim from the bottom of the dashboard and can access it now. There's a long stud with a nylock nut which is only accessible when the pedal is pushed down at least half way, this adjusts the tension on the front single cable from the pedal to the balancer.

I see what has probably happened now - either the front cable has been stretched by pushing the brake pedal hard for months when the rear cables were were seized up, (and is thus now too long) or the new rear cables are slightly longer than the originals, either way the entire length of cable from pedal to drums is too long and that's why I can push the pedal to the floor without much resistance on the pedal or braking action.

Because the action is so slack, I've then ended up trying to adjust the adjusters in the drums too close to the edge thus they start dragging when they shouldn't.

The solution is to tighten the front cable adjustment to get rid of the lost pedal motion and then back off the adjusters in the drum a bit.

I should probably be replacing the front cable if it has indeed been stretched, (although it could just as easily be a slight length difference in the rear after market cables) but I'll see what I can achieve with the adjuster nut at the front for now and maybe table front cable replacement for another time after the MOT...

None of the videos online that I can find even make mention of this front adjustment, they all only show the adjusters in the hub, it's only the Nissan manual that even mentions it, and says that it should be exerting 200N of resistance on the pedal after 6-7 clicks. I'll just have to judge that as I don't have a way to measure it.

It's very useful to have the rear seat and balancer cover removed while doing this adjustment as you can easily check the tension (or lack of!) at the adjuster.

I do roughly remember how the pedal used to feel when I first got the car and it was a good firm push down to 6 or 7 clicks.

Fingers crossed I have enough adjustment range with a potentially stretched or mismatched cable length.

Edit: I should probably add that with the Bosch discs there is no weird binding effect as the discs are pushed on the final bit of the way and the wheel nuts tightened - even with the adjusters now set to where I think they should be the disc slides on and bolts fully up without binding! So there is definitely something a bit amiss with the dimensions of the first discs which I am now going to have to convince them to take back.

[RichardW]

Good to hear you are making progress Simon! I would set up the shoes first to be just clear (or just brushing), and then set the cable so the brake comes on at the right no of clicks. Hopefully there is enough adjustment to take up the slack, I doubt you will have stretched it much, they are pretty robust!

[NewcastleFalcon]

Did you figure out how to get to the adjuster nut on the brake pedal Neil ?

Just seen that now Simon, but you answered your own question I see. I never touched it or even realised it existed when I did the rear cables on mine . The next job I do in the rear brake department may well be new brake backplate splashguards. Very rusty and paper thin when I last looked, but maybe difficult to get hold of.

Neil

[CitroJim]

The next job I do in the rear brake department may well be new brake backplate splashguards. Very rusty and paper thin when I last looked, but maybe difficult to get hold of.

Could you fabricate some Neil?

[NewcastleFalcon]

Could you fabricate some Neil?

Sort answer to that one Jim...not a chance! Although I am a dab hand with Celebrations lids I have only had a fleeting look, but the run of the mill things are a buyable price but maybe not for the Leaf.

https://www.onlinecarparts.co.uk/fast-1 ... ontent=All

Neil