General Hand brake problem after new rear pads n discs

[20VMarea.Weekend]

OK, changed the rear discs and pads a week or so back.... Changed the discs, wound back the calipers put in the new pads all seemed OK but the hand brake felt a bit weak... Let it a while to all bed in but the OS hand brake is still doing very little.... Worked OK before the change and near side hand brake is fine..!!

Subsequently bled the brakes, took pads out and depressed brake to force piston out and wound back in 3 times to check all is free and seemed OK. Piston looks all nice and shiney and smooth. Pumped foot brake up to take up the travel and ensure pad is keyed correctly on the caliper but still hand brake not doing much after driving car around for a while...!!

Any suggestions other than replacing caliper..??

The car is a P reg 20V Marea weekend... 117K miles and going strong, apart from the hand brake...

Cheers

PS: MOT tomorrow...!!!! :-(

 

[Wilqaeda]

I put new pads on mine when it went for MOT, failed due to lack of power, the guy at the mot station(and a friend of mine) drove it round with the handbrake on for a few miles. That tripled the output of power from the rear brakes!

Good luck dude, hope that helps

 

[CLOBAK]

Have you checked the hand brake cable is free in the outer sleeve? If the cable is frayed this could cause problems.

 

[20VMarea.Weekend]

New cables were fitted a few months back as they kept freezing up over Christmas because the rubbers had split allowing water in..!!

 

[tinytim]

so little braking is done by rear brakes that they do not bed in; agree with idea to drive with the handbrake on for a few miles each day until things improve; this is also worth doing occasionally to scrub rust off; rear discs are a sales gimmick; drums are better; the handbrake may gradual ease off as a disc cools and the discs/pads contract with catastrophic results if parked on a slope; drums cool and contract onto the shoes thus tightening the brake (but then we all leave our cars in reverse or first gear with the wheels on full lock when parked on a slope don't we?)

 

[Notorious131]

ok just to get this right under normal driving and braking the brakes feel fine, does not feel like its pulling or owt, but when the h/brake is applied then one side is ok but not the other and you replaced both cables??

It sounds to me that the actual h/brake mechanism has failed on one of the rear calipers.

The actual braking force whilst driving is hydraulic, brake fluid in pipes push piston out etc..

The h/brake mechanism is a mechanical action and works independantly of hydraulics, the cable connects to a lever and by pulling the cable it pulls the lever and engages the rear brake pads thus applying braking force.

If it works on one side and not the other then this sounds like the cause.

I need a cup of tea and a fag now...

Hope this helps.

 

[Davren]

Do Marea rear calliper pistons have to be the correct way up when wound back into the calliper?

Some older Fiat calliper pistons had a mark on the face of the piston that had to be at the top for the handbrake mechanism to work correctly.

 

[20VMarea.Weekend]

Thanks for all the feedback....

The FIAT manual does not say to line up the piston in any fashion nor could I see any markings on the piston itself indicating a particular orientation....!!

Running with the hand brake on was a bit tricky as the near side brake kicked in pretty quickly so I would have been cooking the brakes on that side before the off side had a chance to work....

As per a suggestion from a friend I loaded up the back of the car with a few bags of gravel to keep the back end down and force the brake bias adjuster to force the rear brakes to kick in a bit harder under braking and therefore bed in\settle a bit quicker....

This latter technique seems to have worked as the car scraped though the MOT OK yesterday...

I will leave the gravel in for a few days and test it out again at the weekend to see if the efficiency comes up to match the near side as this is still much better that the off side...

 

[20VMarea.Weekend]

Just to follow up on this, hand brake efficiency on the OS was still pretty poor after a few weeks of driving so.....

What to do next, new caliper, change discs and pads again...??? :bang:

The pads were pretty cheap ones from my local motor factors so I took a chance and purchased some EBC Ultimax pads which promised a much faster bed in due to a special coating to "condition" the disc by removing any disc glaze and speed up the bedding in process..... Went round the block a few times to gently ease things in and WOW what a diference...!!!!! Hand brake grabbing instantly on both sides and normal braking felt more positive...

Was it resetting the calipers yet again by winding them back in or fitting better quality pads... "I guess you gets what you pay for...!!!" but I will definately only buy EBC Ultimax pads from now on....