BUGGER.

Bloody Rover has failed its MOT. First MOT failure I've had in four years. Still, only on the handbrake - 80kg each side which is a bit comforting. Tried tightening the cable but it looks like the rear calipers need the pads taking out, winding back and resetting.

Reply to
Conor
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Winding back? By that do you mean that the pistons want pushing back? If that's the case, then surely it's just worn brake pads?

Peter

Reply to
AstraVanMan

No, winding back as in screwing back in. Alot of rear calipers self adjust by the means of a threaded piston. Pads are fine, plenty of meat on them.

Reply to
Conor

Winding them in is to make room for the extra thickness of new pads. It will not improve your efficiency. Effectively you will be un-adjusting them and the threaded piston will come out again, and until it does so you will have almost zero brakes..

The poor efficiency is due to a lack of friction. Are you sure that adjusting the cable has not improved matters? Have you jacked it up and tried to turn the wheels by hand with the handbrake on?

Steve

Reply to
shazzbat

From the description, it sounds like someone has tried adjusting the handbrake cable, when it was the callipers that were out of adjustment. Adjust the handbrake cable so that the levers on the calliper are completely at their rest position, when the handbrake is released, then pump the brake/handbrake a few times, to let the callipers adjust themselves up. There should be no free-play in the cable, but the levers should not be pulled at all with the handbrake released. It may be that one of the adjusters has failed in the calliper, and whoever adjusted the handbrake did it that way to try and compensate.

Reply to
SimonJ

Yes, this I know.

Yes.

Even better, done it with the aid of the brake tester at the MOT station.

Reply to
Conor

Absolutely spot on Simon both in the assessment and the required fix. Apparently its a common problem on these Rovers.

Reply to
Conor

If you buy a new or reconditioned calliper it will come with a warning not to apply the handbrake until all the free play has been taken up hydraulically (I.a. by the footbrake), otherwise it damages something or other inside. IIRC Granados use the same type of callipers on the rear, if not identical, though I haven't heard of any experiencing the same problem...

Darren

Reply to
Darren Jarvis

I'm confused now. What function did you expect winding them back to achieve?

Steve

Reply to
shazzbat

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