Brake pad change seems to have gone wrong

Car is a 1998 Fiesta Si 1.25.

Background is that 3 days ago, I changed the brake pads, as one had just worn down to the backing plate (I know I should've changed it sooner).

I took the wheels off, the discs are in fairly good condition, quite shiny and quite smooth, some life left. I followed Haynes instructions, everything seemed to go fine, old brake pads out and new ones in. Job done I thought.

I did not notice any problems until today. The car felt slightly slower than usual, noticed that with my foot down on a DC I was stuck at about 65 and there was no more power. Hmm I thought. Stopped to pick up a mate, smelt a horrible smell, opened bonnet looking for this smell but couldn't find it. Assumed it wasn't coming from the car.

On the way back, stopping at traffic lights, loads of smoke starts rising from nearside. Pull over, get out and there's plenty of white smoke rising from the wheel, and that horrible smell is back. No fire. The whole wheel is baking hot.

I take the wheel off, try moving the rotor by hand and it's stuck. There's also a 'shadow' of a brake pad on the rotor presumably where it got stuck. I let it cool down, drive the little way home and take the wheel off again, this time though the rotor does rotate freely.

The other wheel is fine, does not get hot at all, and I can't see any difference between the two. I did everything the same way to both wheels. I tried taking it all apart and starting again, pushing the piston right back and putting the pads in again etc, but it's still getting hot when driving?

If it's of any relevance... of all the old pads I changed, 3 had around 1mm of material left. The 4th that was worn to the backing plate, was the outer pad on the same wheel that's got the problem now. It looks like it's the new outer pad that's getting extremely hot, judging by the heat around that area

  • the copper grease burning off on the back of that pad.

So, does anyone know what might be causing this? After Googling I'm starting to think that maybe there's a problem with the caliper on that wheel because of the fact it looks like the brake pad got stuck on and the last brake pad in that wheel also got worn down a little more than the rest? If this is the case then it's beyond my ability to fix, how much would a garage charge roughly?

Thanks

BTW I am going to have a proper look in the daylight tomorrow and if anyone thinks pics would help them help me, I can get some. Thanks for reading this, was rather long.

Reply to
Spencer
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Sounds like the piston is sticking in the caliper. Cheapest option might be a caliper from a breakers. DaveK.

Reply to
davek

Sounds like your caliper guides have seized. Whip em out for a look see. If the rubber boots are OK, you may get away with cleaning and greasing them.

-- Stuart

Reply to
Stuart Gray

Probably stickyy caliper guides, take the caliper off & clean then really well before refitting. You can replace the sliders as well, they're quite cheap.

Reply to
Duncanwood

The single pad being worn right down is very relevent.

You've got a seized caliper.

Reply to
Conor

But it's probably seized in the sliders rather than the piston.

Reply to
Duncanwood

wait till everything cools down if this is the normal caliper with the 7mm Allen bolt type sliders then things are fairly easily resolved

you will need one assistant (they need to be able to hear and follow instructions, so perhaps some sort of male person would fill this position) and one caliper wind back tool (to retract the piston) as well as a selection of tools to do the normal job like spanners and whatnots

open the bonnet take the brake fluid reservoir cap off (you'll see why later) do the normal wheel removal and being safe sort of stuff with an assistant pressing the brake pedal, see if there is any movement in the caliper as in the pads come on and off as the pedal is depressed and released this should show up any sort of problems you have if something is stuck, I.e. it won't move pull the caliper off as you would do when you changed the pads and inspect the pads overheating can destroy their lifespan as the glue that holds them all together cannot take above and beyond a certain amount of heat (that's why pads have a heat range) your assistant should now, VERY GENTLY press the brake pedal but at a steady rate this will free off the piston if it is sticking enough to not make it stick anymore but if you press down too much it can also pop the piston out, that's for later now what you will need to do is either figure out if the piston was stuck of the sliders were stuck if it's the former, and you feel you have enough competence to put it all back together again it's just a case of clamping the brake line, removing the piston, cleaning it up with some very fine wet and dry, replacing the seal, and reassembly if you don't feel you can do this, get someone who can when it comes to stopping, you don't want to be taking any chances if the problem is with the sliders then it's easy to sort you remove the sliders (simple because you will have already done thins when you removed the caliper) and clean them you can clean with in a variety of ways but I find that the best way to do the is with a wire brush wheel make sure they are sparkling, but don't use a sander because you don't to remove any metal from the shaft you also need to clean out the hole in the caliper where it's sliding grease the buggers up just a little and then slot them into the caliper first and slide them up and down this may show up a problem you may not have previously spotted if they are sliding fairly freely you can reassemble the caliper before refitting the reason you remove the reservoir cap is to make sure you have somewhere for the fluid to go to when you are winding back the piston, make sure it's wound back as far as it will go to ensure that you have the maximum amount of movement possible

now that you have the caliper back on the car, press the pedal until you are sure the pads are closing and opening with the pedal effort

fit the wheel and test drive

"Spencer" wrote in message news:43f7b4c5$0$82666$ snipped-for-privacy@ptn-nntp-reader03.plus.net...

Reply to
dojj

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