Looking for some assistance before attempting the work myself.

Had a nightmare month with my 1.9d 2002 scudo.

1st the EGR valve problem (£110)
2nd had timingbelt fitting now have whining noise when engine is warm (£250)
3rd exhaust manifold blew and had to get new exhaust excluding tail box (£360)
4th now front brakes are gone (est. £190-250) I aint paying that. Got 2 new discs and pads for £50.00 and will fit myself.

A garage said my brake release is ceased hence the premature wear of my last discs and pads.

I can manage the pads and discs replacement but the release is a new one on me. Not sure if they said it was a switch or what.

My experience of changing pads in the past was that the calipers simply retracted.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Shame about the problems....

I replaced my own exhaust (complete and including the CAT which isn't strictly necessary) and it cost £140-ish all in.

Do your own brakes by all means. The caliper cylinders seem to be siezing which is easily remedied by careful cleaning/rebuilding. The calipers "should" be able to be pressed back into the housing - it takes quite a push and beware overflowing brake fluid when you do this. Use a stout piece of wood as leverage. If they don't move relatively freely then dismantle and overhaul.

To push the caliper piston back in when I change pads on my car I use a small g clamp to slowly squeeze it back in. At the same time the brake bled valve is opened with a bleed kit in place so that the old brake fluid is expelled and not pushed back into the brake system. Top up with new brake fluid on completion.
Procedure is explained in most Haynes car manuals but I dont have any Scudo manual to know if this is the way to do it on these. If I had to change my scudo pads tomorrow, in the abscence of any other info, thats the way I would do it.

Thanks for the reply.

Didn't think there was a release mechanism, probably garage trying to falsely justify their £250 quote.

I actually read somewhere that I just need to open the master cylinder reservoir to stop bursting seals when compressing the caliper.

kellys_eye said:

Shame about the problems....

I replaced my own exhaust (complete and including the CAT which isn't strictly necessary) and it cost £140-ish all in.

Do your own brakes by all means. The caliper cylinders seem to be siezing which is easily remedied by careful cleaning/rebuilding. The calipers "should" be able to be pressed back into the housing - it takes quite a push and beware overflowing brake fluid when you do this. Use a stout piece of wood as leverage. If they don't move relatively freely then dismantle and overhaul.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I know, I was gutted. I was in Paris when it blew and the van was being used by a colleague back in the UK.

I needed it back on the road fast, so spoke to the Kwikfit centre myself by phone. I asked to have an exhaust on without the cat because it's not a legal requirement (read that here ). However their computer parts system didn't show an alternative for my van :bang:. Just had to go with the expensive cat one

AFAIK there isn't an exhaust system without a CAT - suspect you just get front/back box and fit straight pipe between them.

Anyway, I got a quote for £407 from local KF place for a replacement exhaust system hence my 'scrooge' DIY solution. Got the parts online and delivered to my door within two days

It was a right PITA to remove (had to cut front AND rear away), stripped a manifold bolt too but despite the aggro the savings were certainly worth it.

Keep us informed of how you get on with the brake problem as we're always keen to hear of how 'you' did it.

kellys_eye said:

AFAIK there isn't an exhaust system without a CAT - suspect you just get front/back box and fit straight pipe between them.

Anyway, I got a quote for £407 from local KF place for a replacement exhaust system hence my 'scrooge' DIY solution. Got the parts online and delivered to my door within two days

It was a right PITA to remove (had to cut front AND rear away), stripped a manifold bolt too but despite the aggro the savings were certainly worth it.

Keep us informed of how you get on with the brake problem as we're always keen to hear of how 'you' did it.

Click to expand...

Well changed the brake pads yesterday, surprisingly easy for me. Wanted to do the discs as well but didn't have a 36mm socket, my biggest is 32mm.

1. First of all I removed the cap from the master cylinder reservoir.
2. Located two bolts holding the caliper in position and loosened.
3. Removed third bolt holding the brake shoes (caliper is in two parts).
4. Removed the two bolts previously loosened then removed caliper.
Had to gently tap drivers side caliper off with a hammer (slider ceased).
Previously mentioned that a garage had told me the release was ceased, this turned out to be the hinged part of where both parts of the caliper meet. The hinged part is supposed to slide back and forth freely, allowing the outer pad to release. My hinge was ceased and resulted in my outer pad rubbing all the time eventually down to the metal. All other pads were like new.
5. Unhinged calipers and removed shoes (hung caliper with bungee cord).
6. Gently compressed piston with 'G' clamp.
7. Placed new shoes in and closed caliper, held closed by hand.
8. Positioned caliper with new shoes over disc and located bolts into fixing holes.
9. Put third bolt back in and tightened all bolts.
10. Fitted new brake sensor that come with new shoes (push one end into a hole in the end of the outer pad, and plug other end into a push in connector).
11. Refitted wheels.
12. Put lid back on reservoir.
13. Started van and pressed brakes a couple of times until feel resistance (not sure if I should have done that with the reservoir lid still off).
14. Took it for a test spin, brakes great and no squeaking from previous rubbing :slayer:

Job done!

That's great news

and thanks for the update/info - useful information to have

Great description for changing pads...it burst my bubble though expecting to change soon as I have on previous cars. (warning light has just started to glow, anyone any idea how many miles I have before that metal death grate starts?) Always previously the pads were held in by a pair of cotter pins and the change involved removing the pins, pulling out the old pads, pushing the pistons back with a wood lever (after removing master cylinder cap), then slip the new pads in, complete with wear sensor and putting in new cotter pins. I am not missing something on the way here am I? Mines a July 2006 Scudo JTD...always had garage change the pads hence my ignorance...gonna get my hands dirty again diy and hope the back stays in place! No special tools needed are there?

dont know much mechanically,but my scudo needed front pads for the mot,the garage i use/used charged me £55 suply+fit front pads,maybe theres alot more work with the discs? now you have the parts see how much they charge for doing em 4 ya?

Bossman74 said:

Well changed the brake pads yesterday, surprisingly easy for me. Wanted to do the discs as well but didn't have a 36mm socket, my biggest is 32mm.

1. First of all I removed the cap from the master cylinder reservoir.
2. Located two bolts holding the caliper in position and loosened.
3. Removed third bolt holding the brake shoes (caliper is in two parts).
4. Removed the two bolts previously loosened then removed caliper.
Had to gently tap drivers side caliper off with a hammer (slider ceased).
Previously mentioned that a garage had told me the release was ceased, this turned out to be the hinged part of where both parts of the caliper meet. The hinged part is supposed to slide back and forth freely, allowing the outer pad to release. My hinge was ceased and resulted in my outer pad rubbing all the time eventually down to the metal. All other pads were like new.
5. Unhinged calipers and removed shoes (hung caliper with bungee cord).
6. Gently compressed piston with 'G' clamp.
7. Placed new shoes in and closed caliper, held closed by hand.
8. Positioned caliper with new shoes over disc and located bolts into fixing holes.
9. Put third bolt back in and tightened all bolts.
10. Fitted new brake sensor that come with new shoes (push one end into a hole in the end of the outer pad, and plug other end into a push in connector).
11. Refitted wheels.
12. Put lid back on reservoir.
13. Started van and pressed brakes a couple of times until feel resistance (not sure if I should have done that with the reservoir lid still off).
14. Took it for a test spin, brakes great and no squeaking from previous rubbing :slayer:

Job done!

Click to expand...

I did my brake pads with new ones bought earlier in the week.

1) Loosen wheel nuts.
2) Jack up. Cheapo Lidl/Aldi trolley jack wit 4x2 pad under the box-shaped metal bit just inboard of the sill jacking points. Position "just in case" props.
3) Wheel off.
4) Unclip pipework/cables.
5) Undo 19mm bolts top and bottom behind calliper holding calliper on.
6) Lever off calliper (screwdriver between outside edge of disk and calliper). Rest on support.
7) Use end of pry-bar to force old disk pads back into calliper. Looked at fluid resevoir during this operation to check it wasn't about to overflow. OK.
8) Lever out old pads (in towards middle of callipers) with screwdriver.
8a) Jump up and down and curse.
8b) Put all back together, go and get correct pads from motor factor. N.B. correct pads for 2004 2.0JTD window van have lugs on end, NOT "oval" ends.
9) Resume, go to item 8, fit new pads.
10) Wirebrush ends of 19mm bolts, smear lightly with anti-seize.
11) Put it all back together.
12) Dab brake pedal 'till "slack" taken up. Go for test drive. Gently apply brakes 'till. pads bedded in.

Observation: Pedal "spongy" for a while. Brakes got rather hot during test drive.

I bought an old motorbike as a non runner as it had not been on the road for 18 years. Got it all running and new rubber with only the brakes to sort before MOT. The pistons were also stuck. I took out the pads. Using brake pedal i pushed the pistons out as far as i could then using WD40 and some fine sand paper i gave them a little rub and pushed them back in. Cowboy fix to get me an MOT. PASSED as it did for the next three years as apart from a fluid change and one set of pads i never did bother to clean them properly with new seals.

Zog said:

I did my brake pads with new ones bought earlier in the week.
8) Lever out old pads (in towards middle of callipers) with screwdriver.
8a) Jump up and down and curse.
8b) Put all back together, go and get correct pads from motor factor. N.B. correct pads for 2004 2.0JTD window van have lugs on end, NOT "oval" ends.


12) Dab brake pedal 'till "slack" taken up. Go for test drive. Gently apply brakes 'till. pads bedded in.

Observation: Pedal "spongy" for a while. Brakes got rather hot during test drive.

Click to expand...

Same again, after 2 years. Grr! "Same again!". Ordered parts from Eurocarparts, online, using "mid month sale code" (they almost always have a sale code on their front page). Parts were wrong!!!! My Scudo 2.0 JTD SX window van uses pads with plain lugs about-12mm-square-with-a-shoulder-on-one-side-at-each-end-of-the pad pads. As it was two years ago, I'd forgotten precisely what they look like. Grr!! However Eurocarparts were very good about it indeed, selling me the correct, more expensive, parts for an extremely good price.



Nearside a lot more worn than offside. Offside csalipher siezed, freed and greased. Offside CV boot cracked, needs replacing. Blast! Wires for wear detection of pads both corroded through, cleaned, resoldered.


During test drive I stopped in a gateway near the woods. A lady runner stopped & asked whether I was OK and had a phone; smoke was gently curling up from both front wheels, I guess I overdid the braking.