Rear Pads and Disc Replacement

[adamw1984]

My knowledge on car repairs is very limited

My MOT report said i would shortly need my rear discs and pads replaced and I took my car into my local garage that I have used for the last 7 or 8 years (non specialised just local and trusted for me) with different cars and he said that they could not get the ECU to take the electronic parking brake off and he checked with the manufacture of the machine that they use to communicate with the ECU to remove the handbrake that my car was from a line that were manufactured with an ECU that they can't communicate with and he suggested that I go to a Citroen specialist. I am struggling to find one that is close to me (north east Nottingham or south east with work) and I don't want to have to take it into other garages to wait around and find out they can't do it either. My other option is the Citroen dealership but I've heard a lot of bad things about them and they are also very expensive.

I have a 66 plate C4 Grand Picasso

Stupid question
Is the issue that the mechanic doesn't know how to remove the parking brake without starting the engine (as not used to these cars) or does he have to go through the ECU to do this?

I saw on here a walkthrough of how to take the parking brake off without the engine being on and it seems to work but I have no idea if this is what is required to do the pads and discs

With key fob, get in driver seat, put car in neutral,
Release bonnet catch.
without pressing brake pedal, press start button. To turn ignition on.
Close or Open windows it does not matter.
press brake pedal and press parking brake button down To release parking brake.
without pressing brake pedal, press start button. To turn ignition off.
Exit vehicle, ignore door alarm, close all doors.
Wait for dash display to turn off

Thanks in advance,

[GiveMeABreak]

First, forget all the rubbish you have heard on the internet. The electronic parking brake (EPB) must be put into service mode for work on the braking system , like pads and discs. The EPB is not 'removed' at all, it is put into a service mode that fully releases the cables or the motorised calipers (depending on the system you have) so that work can be undertaken. The vehicle battery should then be disconnected following the BSI Reset / Battery Disconnect / Reconnect Procedure to ensure that the ESP system does not automatically apply the EPB unintentionally whilst working on the vehicle.

Your garage's diagnostic tool is too old to interface with the vehicle most likely, so I would suggest it's about time they updated the software, as with respect it is 8 years out of date if it can't work with a 2016/17 vehicle.

You may want to check out the prices at the dealership if you want the job done properly, as they do provide fixed price repairs - link here:

https://www.citroen.co.uk/maintain/repairs.html

[RichardW]

Although not official, you can do it without a diag computer...