IF it is the Front brake caliper binding, you would normally be able to tell by the VERY HOT SMELL from the offending wheel. There is a leaver on the caliper that the H-Brake cable attaches to, this may be stuck and needs Penetrating Oil (NOT WD40) applied and give it a good "wiggle" to free it up.....use a good set of grips and wiggle it free, take your time wiggling
and / or
IF rear brakes, it is possible that the caliper to mount joint is corroded. These NEED cleaning and protecting at EVERY service or they will distort out of line. Often this is easy to spot looking under the car as you can see the miss alinement OR the white deposits on the joint. If you are lucky new pads and the joint cleaned will sort it, if not new disks as well as pads and a clean up, these are not to much $$'s on ebay.
Alasdair
Activa, the Moose Rider 3x C5x7 Steering racks and counting
Well, first up I realise that one of my wear sensors is severed, no big deal, but more importantly the NSF anti roll bar ball joint has popped its socket! So, the car is quarantined for now. Lovely weather to cycle to work in.
However, I'm not convinced this is the cause yet, so I pulled the wheel off and spun it. There seems to be a fair bit of clicking from the CVJ, plus maybe a bit of play when changing wheel direction. I'll upload a vid and hope the sound is evident.
There's a bit of graunch from the disc brake and maybe worse in reverse but if can move the disc by hand I doubt it's enough to hold it back like I'm experiencing. However, it had fully cooled at that point. The inside disc is unevenly worn across the face of the disc so it could be a contributor. The pads only have 5mm so probably worth replacing if I can solve the main issue. Rear seemed a bit freer but not by much. Didn't notice any bearing clicks or play.
\I am glad that is off the road and you are safe. Looks like there has been some poor maintenance in the past, just how long had that been clunking away for ? .
Alasdair
Activa, the Moose Rider 3x C5x7 Steering racks and counting
Well, I was in that area over Xmas fitting the undertray. I wasn't looking for it specifically, but I didn't notice it then. I had checked the wheel arches for damage too. Likelihood it popped when jacking the NSF up.
Oddly, a binding handbrake mechanism will sometimes release slightly when stationary, and allow you to spin the wheel fairly easily.
As has been said, you can diagnose the handrake by the hot disc - compare with the opposite side if it's not obvious.
Back on the road with a replaced drop link and back to the original fault. Drop link surprisingly easy to replace, although it would have been nice to have had an 18mm spanner (I've got 17mm and 19mm) so I could easily get the allan key in. It still took me a couple of hours and some swearing to achieve though.
So, after driving today it's definitely only an issue in reverse and it feels more and more like the handbrake binding. I don't have any resistance above the norm when going forward, plus stopping on a slope it'll roll forward. Resistance that takes a bit of extra revs to overcome in reverse and if I park uphill on a slope it won't roll back even in neutral with no handbrake or brake. Plus, after I get the reversing resistance, the handbrake seems to have a much shorter throw to engage. Would this just be the handbrake adjuster or more likely the discs and pads? I didn't notice any significant pad smell after driving.
Has the handbrake lever got any free play before you feel resistance as it takes up the spring tension?
If so, how much? There should be a little bit (perhaps 5mm measured at the end of the lever). Much more, or a varying amount, suggests a seized caliper mechanism; none at all, either incorrect adjustment or seized cables.
Feel you wheels after a journey and see if any are hotter than the rest, if so that will be the one that's binding. If it is on the front its likely that the parking brake cables have gone rusty and are not fully retracting, give them a good dose of oil where there are any cracks in the outer cover, do that a few times and they should free off.
Your car would be classed as low mileage, mine has done just over 200k and I have seen them for sale with 300 or 400k.
The handbrake cable is a bit cracked near where it hits the lever, so plenty of opportunity for it to get a bit rusty. If it's that, I'll look at getting it replaced.
Right, new pads and discs sorted it. However, it was something that they had never seen before. Apparently, the near side front pad had sheared most of it's friction material. Going forward, the material would slip slightly forwards and not make much contact with the disc when not braking. Going backwards, the pad material would catch on the pad and rotate backwards and catch on a thicker bit of the pad and thus closing the gap and increasing the friction. This was aligned with the handbrake taking three clicks to go up after driving forward and one click after reversing. The fun part was that the brakes somehow passed the MOT before the problem was diagnosed!
Thanks everyone for their help!
Anyway, all sorted now and back on the road, so much so that I've upgraded the car stereo. Now, can anyone tell me what the name of the rubber thing that is screwed to the back of stereos to stop it bumping around and skipping CDs? I can't for the life of me figure out its name to buy one off eBay. I've tried searching for car stereo with bolt, bayonet, M6 (the thread size), rubber, mount, vibration, cushion, pin, and every combination thereof. The new stereo didn't come with one and the old one has the metal part riveted on instead of screwed in.
