Technical 500 Disc Brakes - Problems & Solutions

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Technical 500 Disc Brakes - Problems & Solutions

Have a 64 plate 500s which had a grinding noise from to front brakes.Have just followed this excellent thread and stripped,cleaned and copper greased the frames.Only problem was the slider pin seal burst on the drivers side when screwing out the pin.Packed it with grease for now but will have to get new seals.Does anyone know where I can get them and what are they like to fit.
Thanks for looking
 
An old thread but I just want to thank the original poster for this info and just to add my own recent experience of these brakes.

I have a 2014 ford ka which use the same brakes as the 500. I purchased the car with just over 20k miles and the previous owner had new pads & disks fitted by a garage. I don't use the car very often but after a couple days parked up the brakes will stick on and once free they grind and you can feel a slight binding.

Anyway, having done quite a few brakes in my time I got round to having a look and bought some decent Pagid pads & disks to replace the cheap crap that the garage had thrown on. It was obvious that the garage had just done the bare minimum and hadn't bothered to clean anything up before replacing.

I removed the 2 17mm bolts and the single floating slider bolt holding the caliper to the brake bracket (or whatever it's called) and got to work on the bracket in a vice using a drill with various wire wheel bits and sandpaper. Eventually the bracket was spotless and shiny but before greasing and putting back together I got a brake pad to see if it will slide freely in the now cleaned bracket. No it still wouldn't slide free and was jamming. On further close inspection, although the sliding points on the bracket were cleaned of rust & corrosion you could see some slight raised imperfections that was still stopping the pad from sliding freely in the cage. If you hold the bracket & pad up to the light you could see where the light passed through the gap between the lobes of the pad and cage and dark spots where the pad was jamming. I then got a file and started filing the bracket sliding points untill the pads would freely pass through the bracket without jamming.

I've only done the one side and will do the other tomorrow but the side that's now done seems much better. After several presses of the brake you can see the pads working as they should and I can spin the brake disk around with my hand so no more drag/binding.
 
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I then got a file and started filing the bracket sliding points untill the pads would freely pass through the bracket without jamming.
Whatever you do, DO NOT file the bracket, if the pad sticks in the carrier file the backing plate of the pad such it moves freely in the bracket/carrier
 
Covered in huge detail in this thread but to cut to the quick, just buy a set of 4 NGK DCPR7EIX plugs, available from here for £25.56 including UK delivery.

I can't make it any easier than that :).
To be fair, you could have offered to fit them as well😉
 
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Agreed about filing the pad backing plates to make them fit the reaction frame, rather than filing the frame to make it fit the pads.

I used to like Pagid since they are good quality for the price but they do occasionally require filing down to fit without snagging. They are by no means the worst though and tend to stay in good shape, whereas the most budget pads I tried over the years tended to develop a rusty back plate that jammed in the nice clean frame, being even more susceptible to rusting than even the frame.

Over various 100,000's of miles worth of brakes/if only I knew then what I know now.. I would say Ferodo and Brembo fit the best. Freddie's pads eventually jam as the backing plate corrodes, whereas Brembo tend to hang in there much longer. In fact I don't think I've ever had a Brembo pad jam on me.. :unsure:


Ralf S.
 
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