right, ive got one for you all,
my brakes on my ZX TD Aura are quite honestly crap, loadz of travel in the pedal and very soft, yet not spongy?? the pedal only becomes firm after pumping it several times. ive fitted brand new front calipers,new front discs and pads, near side self adjuster which was leaking, and the rear drums and shoes are fine. im stumped. help!please!
regards,
DAn
ZX TD Brakes, very poor
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Jon
Mine are p**s poor as well, but......
Two things to do.
Brake flexi hoses. Another ZX weak spot. Get someone in the car with their foot hard down on the brakes to check that the front or rear flexi hoses are not leaking or bulging. (Usual safety rules apply)
Ensure that the rear brakes are correctly adjusted! With the drum off keep adjusting until you can only just get the drum back on.
If the front calipers are new/known good, fine. If not, the caliper slides maybe sticking.
Last of all, if rear brakes, flexi's and front calipers are all sound, theres a valve on the Servo (servo to vacuum pump hose connection) that may be faulty.......Rare, but not unheard of.
[xx(]
Two things to do.
Brake flexi hoses. Another ZX weak spot. Get someone in the car with their foot hard down on the brakes to check that the front or rear flexi hoses are not leaking or bulging. (Usual safety rules apply)
Ensure that the rear brakes are correctly adjusted! With the drum off keep adjusting until you can only just get the drum back on.
If the front calipers are new/known good, fine. If not, the caliper slides maybe sticking.
Last of all, if rear brakes, flexi's and front calipers are all sound, theres a valve on the Servo (servo to vacuum pump hose connection) that may be faulty.......Rare, but not unheard of.
[xx(]
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sooty
- Posts: 464
- Joined: 31 Jul 2002, 00:34
Mine are fine, but were not so good last weekend and had a long handbrake travel.
Found that rear brake adjusters were not working as they should. I slacken off the handbrake cable adjuster, so the cables were loose. Then removed the drums with difficulty because of a lip in the drum catching on the shoes. Had the lips removed by a machine shop. Started clicking the adjuster manually till the drum just started to drag. Be sure to have the other drum slipped over the other shoes (otherwise you'll blow the wheel cylinders) and then pump the pedal and use the handbrake to ensure the shoes are centralised on the drum you are doing first. Recheck to see if its still draging, if not then carry on with a few more clicks and repeat the pedal pump and handbrake operation till it slightly drags all the time. Then apply the same procedure to the other side. Readjust the handbrake cables with the handbrake on the second click, till the drums start to drag more than when you did the shoes. Road test for at least 3 miles to ensure that the drag is not too much causing the drums to get hot, that you can't touch them.
Now you should have very little pedal or handbrake travel. One thing you must be sure of, is that your handbrake cables are not seized or starting to seize otherwise this defeats the object of adjusting the brakes as when you release the handbrake the brakes will stay on dragging.
If you still have a long or spongy pedal then you need to find which brake is causing the problem. This can be done by using a flexible brake pipe clamp or with care a pair of mole grips with a piece of cardboard to protect the pipe and don't over clamp the pipe or you will damage it, you need just enough pressure to stop the flow of fluid. Carry this out on each wheel till you find which one is causing the problem.
If no brake can be found to be causing the the travel, then maybe the hydraulic systems may need bleeding or you may have a fault in your master cylinder.
Sooty
ZX TD 1996 130k miles
Found that rear brake adjusters were not working as they should. I slacken off the handbrake cable adjuster, so the cables were loose. Then removed the drums with difficulty because of a lip in the drum catching on the shoes. Had the lips removed by a machine shop. Started clicking the adjuster manually till the drum just started to drag. Be sure to have the other drum slipped over the other shoes (otherwise you'll blow the wheel cylinders) and then pump the pedal and use the handbrake to ensure the shoes are centralised on the drum you are doing first. Recheck to see if its still draging, if not then carry on with a few more clicks and repeat the pedal pump and handbrake operation till it slightly drags all the time. Then apply the same procedure to the other side. Readjust the handbrake cables with the handbrake on the second click, till the drums start to drag more than when you did the shoes. Road test for at least 3 miles to ensure that the drag is not too much causing the drums to get hot, that you can't touch them.
Now you should have very little pedal or handbrake travel. One thing you must be sure of, is that your handbrake cables are not seized or starting to seize otherwise this defeats the object of adjusting the brakes as when you release the handbrake the brakes will stay on dragging.
If you still have a long or spongy pedal then you need to find which brake is causing the problem. This can be done by using a flexible brake pipe clamp or with care a pair of mole grips with a piece of cardboard to protect the pipe and don't over clamp the pipe or you will damage it, you need just enough pressure to stop the flow of fluid. Carry this out on each wheel till you find which one is causing the problem.
If no brake can be found to be causing the the travel, then maybe the hydraulic systems may need bleeding or you may have a fault in your master cylinder.
Sooty
ZX TD 1996 130k miles
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Dave Burns
- Posts: 1915
- Joined: 14 May 2001, 05:30
- x 2
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by ZXturbo_Aura</i>
right, ive got one for you all,
my brakes on my ZX TD Aura are quite honestly crap, loadz of travel in the pedal and very soft, yet not spongy??DAn
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Very soft yet not spongy, well whatever, it sound like you could still have wads of air in there somewhere.
Hmm..."<font color="blue">near side self adjuster which was leaking</font id="blue">" more info on this item please.
Dave
right, ive got one for you all,
my brakes on my ZX TD Aura are quite honestly crap, loadz of travel in the pedal and very soft, yet not spongy??DAn
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Very soft yet not spongy, well whatever, it sound like you could still have wads of air in there somewhere.
Hmm..."<font color="blue">near side self adjuster which was leaking</font id="blue">" more info on this item please.
Dave
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ZXturbo_Aura
- Posts: 148
- Joined: 10 Oct 2003, 02:56
the nearside rear cylinder sorry, got a bit mixed up for some reason!(sorry), that was leaking fluid, had that renewed, also ive recently had a new master cylinder fitted, yet no cure. i'll replace all of the flexi hoses,cant cost that much (i hope),lol. how easy is it to adjust the brake pedal itself? so there is less travel, can it be done?? thanks for the info on the rear drums, i'll have a go at doing that next weekend when i have the garage.
thanks,
Dan
thanks,
Dan
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David W
- Posts: 439
- Joined: 30 Apr 2001, 17:49
You say the rear shoes and drums are OK.
The difference between excess pedal travel and a normal one can be very small changes in shoe/drum thickness.
Do not expect worn out shoes to look completely worn out. Also if the drum has enough wear to make it worth grinding off the lip then a new one may well be needed.
For the small cost is it worth getting some new rear shoes anyway?
David
The difference between excess pedal travel and a normal one can be very small changes in shoe/drum thickness.
Do not expect worn out shoes to look completely worn out. Also if the drum has enough wear to make it worth grinding off the lip then a new one may well be needed.
For the small cost is it worth getting some new rear shoes anyway?
David
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James.UK
- Posts: 1169
- Joined: 14 Dec 2003, 23:12
- x 2
I have just had all the same problems, caused when I fitted Volcane front callipers and aerated disks, I bought a new master cylinder, and changed the brake fluid and everything works well now, and I have pretty good brakes at last. [:D]
One thing that surprised me was, when they were being a pain the hand brake travel was a bit long, and it didn't hold very well.. After fitting new cylinder etc the hand brake is great? And I have to admit I completly forgot to adjust it afer doing the other jobs. [:I] But it seems to have sorted itself out very nicely. [^]
Are ZX's meant to have mud flaps on the rear wheels? I just noticed there are none on mine... Still.. I've only had it 2 and a half years. duhh. [:I] [:D]
One thing that surprised me was, when they were being a pain the hand brake travel was a bit long, and it didn't hold very well.. After fitting new cylinder etc the hand brake is great? And I have to admit I completly forgot to adjust it afer doing the other jobs. [:I] But it seems to have sorted itself out very nicely. [^]
Are ZX's meant to have mud flaps on the rear wheels? I just noticed there are none on mine... Still.. I've only had it 2 and a half years. duhh. [:I] [:D]