Focus rear brakes

I had a stab at doing the rear brakes on the focus, I had a bit of a nightmare with it to be honest. This focus has rear discs not the usual drum.

The caliper comes off happily, the carriers comes off happily, pads out with a little wiggling. New discs went on fine, carrier back on, I put the pads on amd I *attempted* to get the caliper back on (in the rewound state of course) and I had a pig of a time to get the notch on the piston to line up with the notch on the pad. With much mucking about I got it on and it sits neatly with the piston right up on the disc. Its hard to see sometimes in certain angles that the notch is in the cut on out the piston. Is there a simpler way to do it next time ?

Seems a weird design I have only every encounted systems by where you just chuck the pads on :) and bolt up. But this fiddly notch business has added 4 more grey hairs by my count to me lol.

After thats all on I spine the dics and it makes a contact noise as its hitting thought the caliper, I thought maybe disc wobble as all thats holding it is a retaining clip so thought I'll spin again once the wheel is back on and still the noise. It does have a coating on it that will rub off after you drive and brake a bit so I thought it might settle down after thats off and it beds in a bit ?... to add the passenger side spins a lot more free than the drivers rear. Any ideas what I should look for ?

So far I took it for a 2 miles drive very short, car brakes perfectly fine. As it was dark now I took a light to see the material on the discs has started coming off. I didn't get a chance to jack it up again and spin it to see. Perhaps its a case of driving it for a while and see how it goes.

The other headache with this job was the handbrake cable, well the passenger rear went on fine, a pain to get off but I was expecting that getting it back on was fine. The drivers rear was a bastard, got it off, a bit harder than the other side but hey ho, come to get it back on it was as hard to get on as off. I used a large screwdriver to lever the mechanism to get the handbrake "hook" back over the arm. The hanbrake was off :) ... is there some kind of method to this ?

For such a common hatchback I thought it was be a simple to service car, well brake wise but I spent about 3/4 inc setting up on it and a few brakes. Usually takes about 30 mins a side for me on previous cars.

On the bright side its back together and drivable :)

Advice welcome.

Reply to
Joseph
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I would leave the brake cable on, the notch on the piston should be dead centre of the caliper (mark it on removal with a paint pen) discs are normally fully clean before fitting. A rub sound at one point or another is usual, slight rubbing (stiffness to turn) will probably be OK after a little use.

Reply to
Mrcheerful

Hey up MrCheerful

There was no reason to disconnect the handbrake cable, I blindly followed the guide in the haynes manual which I should know better by now hehe. No idea why it tells you to remove it. Maybe for a little move free movement of the caliper, not much difference I would imagine.

Yeah I see, I should have aimied the piston cut out which is quite wide at the notch on pad and it would've been a bit simpler! I was so caught up with making sure it was in visually.. but if I did it like you said it would have been as you would see the piston right up on the pad flush, you live and learn. I did take my time cleaned it all up nicely so I'm quite happy with it and to be honest despite a few nicks on my fingers I enjoyed doing it :)

I popped in my local garage down the road to book the car in for its MOT and asked the chap about the stiffness issue he in his experience very rarely do the rear wheels spin freely after a pad and disc change and that after some time the "beeding in process" it should settle down a bit. He said drive it about and wear it in nicely and avoid harsh braking.

Thanks for the advice MrC *thumbs up*

Reply to
Joseph

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