All Brakes Poor

[since1875]

Its time to bring my old ZX back on the road after overhauling the engine. It failed the mot on front brakes umbalanced, rear brakes poor efficiency and the hand brake poor. Iv looked at the pads, shoes etc and seems ok, im thinking about changing the rear wheel cylinders but anyone got any ideas? is it possible just to need the brake fluid drained and changed out? not really to sure where to start but cant wait to get her back on the road again. Thanks for all and any help

[Guest Colin Hunter]

Its time to bring my old ZX back on the road after overhauling the engine. It failed the mot on front brakes umbalanced, rear brakes poor efficiency and the hand brake poor. Iv looked at the pads, shoes etc and seems ok, im thinking about changing the rear wheel cylinders but anyone got any ideas? is it possible just to need the brake fluid drained and changed out? not really to sure where to start but cant wait to get her back on the road again. Thanks for all and any help

 

First of all, what engine is in the car so that we know what brakes are fitted. If its a 1.4 or 1.1 petrol or a 1.9 d then it will be Bendix on the front and they're a bit feeble at the best of times. The good news is that the callipers are easy to overhaul and the seals and boots are available from Citroen for about £8. (a side) A full set of (solid) discs and pads for our 1.4 was £30 from our local dealer. Make sure all the calliper slides are free and that the pads are loose in the calliper as these can cause imbalance if sticking.

If you bust the bleed nipples off you can buy a 6 mm helicoil kit and replace the 7mm nipples with 6mm ones once the old ones have been drilled out and the hole tapped and helicoiled.

As for the rears, check for contamination of the friction surface with brake fluid as you may have a failed wheel cylinder seal. Again not expensive from the dealer. but be sure you know which brakes are fitted as they may be Girling or Bendix. This appears to be pot luck depending upon what they had on the shelf when the car was made. Girling brakes are identifiable by the adjuster bar having a small toothed wheel on it, operated by a little lever on the shoe. Bendix have a different adjuster with a stainless steel contraption on the end.

Other common failures are knackered handbrake cables as the outer sheath can be damaged by stones, leading to the outer spiral of the cable collapsing due to corrossion. This will present itself as a "Scrunched up" section in the cable. The adjusters may also be siezed up and the brakes out of adjustment. Make sure the adjusters are properly assembles and be sure they are in the correct side as they're handed (On Girling anyway)

The easiest way of changing brake fluid is with a Gunsons eezy bleed or similar. Just couple it up to the reservoir, fill the bottle with fluid and bleed about 300 ml or so through each nipple in turn. It uses compressed air from a wheel to provide the pressure.

 

Cheers Hope this helps. :D