Failed "MOT" - rear brakes

[Ben82]

So an update on this. We walked round to the garage (about 350 metres away), and spoke to the guy there. He did say he was quite busy so wouldn't be able to look at it today, and said if the car was there then he could possibly fit in looking at it amongst other things. I said as long as he could get it sorted this week that should be fine.
So in the end we got the old pads back in and the tyre on and gingerly drove it round there (Dad's idea, I was rather reluctant! ) . It made it there fine though (thankfully). I took the discs and pads and all the new bolts etc around there, as once he gets it off he might as well put it back together again.

[Hell Razor5543]

Fingers crossed.

[Ben82]

One thing that I think might be a concern which I forgot to mention in all the hullabaloo is this:


The pad retaining screw doesn't seem to have much of the caliper to "hold on to" on the surface nearest the bolts (it does on the other end), is this normal, or is this something that would mean this caliper will need replacing?

[RichardW]

Needs a new caliper.... I strongly suspect you are going to need new pipes as well - I can't see them getting that union out easily (at all....)

[Ben82]

Hindsight, should have taken the rusty plate off before posting the pics earlier in the thread Oh well at least we know if someone else comes asking.

I've found some calipers at our equivalent of halfords, for ~£60 a pop, so hopefully can get someone to pick those up for me today.

I guess at least with a new caliper he can take the brake line back to the nearest join and replace just that bit of pipe too.

[elma]

Wow that's new on me.
If your feeling a bit fed up over this Ben it was a decent attempt and you didn't really stand a chance.
You did well to back out before fluid was going everywhere.

[RichardW]

The pipe is rather long, non standard flare, and awkward to replace unfortunately In the UK it is easier to fit a copper nickel replacement, but not sure if this is allowed in Sweden (it's not in Germany AFAIK).

[Stickyfinger]

Wow that's new on me.
If your feeling a bit fed up over this Ben it was a decent attempt and you didn't really stand a chance.
You did well to back out before fluid was going everywhere.

This +1

[Ben82]

Thanks guys Not sure if fed up is what I'm feeling to be honest.. defeated maybe. But at least we realised when to stop and ask "is this right?" before it went too far, and then leave it to a pro.

Mother-in-law has just arrived with these:



So will be taking those down to the mechanic shortly. They look very similar at least ( without the corrosion of course ), and come with all the doodars.

[Hell Razor5543]

Nice mother-in-law!

[superloopy]

£60 each seems v.reasonable for those ...

[RichardW]

Rear calipers rotting on C5s is not unknown - Citroen appear to have made them out of some specially reactive aluminium alloy! AFAIK dealers faced with this job just cut them off and fit new as the hassle with trying to remove the bolts from the old ones is not worth the hassle / cost (at dealers rates).

[Ben82]

£60 each seems v.reasonable for those ...

Partly it's the exchange rates that are helping recently. 2 years ago they would have been the equivalent of ~£80 each. Not complaining really

One problem with getting stuff from Biltema (the semi Halfords equivalent, kind of doing them a disservice as I think they're better than Halfords) as everything is their own branded stuff so it's not as easy to gauge the quality etc, and sometimes getting stuff for the car can be a bit hit and miss. (e.g they do calipers, discs and pads for the rear axle of my car, but nothing for the front, front wipers, not back).
Dad was in his element though when we went there on Sunday, he couldn't believe some of the tools you could just pick up off the shelves to buy there.

[Ben82]

Haven't really got an update on this yet, but I am curious just in case the mechanic cannot (or maybe won't) fix it, what would go into doing a proper job of the brake line?

I notice on service.citroen, that the piping is broken up into sections:


And from what I can tell #9 would be what's needed, but I'm guessing un attaching it from #2 (like how both #1 and #2 are "front"; nice one citroen!) would be needed, and I assume it's not going to be a simple unplug one and replug the other (notwithstanding needing to bleed the system afterwards of course).

[elma]

Theres several methods Ben, 3 main ones I guess.
1. You've already found, buy a pipe from Citroen and swap it with the old one.
2. If the inside of the pipe is difficult to access, the part is NFP (no f'ing parts) or Citroen want the price of your lovely new house for a stupid pipe a new pipe can be made.
To do so a piece of correctly sized pipe is bent to shape (by hand is fine), the end pieces are then slid on and the pipe ends "flared" with a flaring tool as shown in the video below.

The big advantage this way is you can cut the original pipe in the most accessible place and flare the end so you can use a joining piece, like this sort of thing. It's cheap this way if you already have a flaring tool and you can make pipes up faster than you can buy them. The flaring tool is expensive however and is advanced or professional mechanic tooling.
3. Another way is to use push on braided brake hose, not sure about the legality in Sweden but its great stuff, has flex, doesn't corrode and only needs normal tools to cut and fit. Example here. Usually found in Boy Racer shops rather than motor factors.

Theres bound to be other systems or ways but these are the 3 I have experienced myself.