Rear Brakes

[Guest ray52]

Just reeling from a £200 bill for the freeing and replacement of the back discs and pads. The only warning was a slight squeal, which made me check and book the car in for new pads.

 

Is there any point in a regular dismantle and grease of the calipers,and what interval would the experts recommend?

[Bassrock]

Just reeling from a £200 bill for the freeing and replacement of the back discs and pads. The only warning was a slight squeal, which made me check and book the car in for new pads.

 

Is there any point in a regular dismantle and grease of the calipers,and what interval would the experts recommend?

 

 

I've had 2 C5's and every 6 months I remove and clean, first C5 I had, had exactly the same problem you mention, took 1.5 hours to remove and clean.

Thereafter, after regular 6 or so month clean up, no problems

[paul.h]

If you look at the Problems and Fixes subforum there is a pinned post with the info you need on the rear brakes. They will probably need the caliper/subframe joint cleaning and greasing every couple of years or when the squealing noise comes back.

[Johndouglas]

Having lived with BXs, Xantias and C5s for over twenty years I know what b******* the caliper bolts can be to get out when it becomes necessary to remove the corrosion between caliper and arm. When I got my present C5 new in 2005 one of the first jobs I did was to remove each caliper bolt in turn, clean it up, grease it and replace. I repeat it every couple of years and I haven't found any tendency for the bolts to loosen over time.

 

Two years ago squealing on the rear brakes became embarrassing but a check showed no distortion between arms and calipers, however a cleanout of dust and a change of pads cured the squeal.

[Malcolm]

Having lived with BXs, Xantias and C5s for over twenty years I know what b******* the caliper bolts can be to get out when it becomes necessary to remove the corrosion between caliper and arm. When I got my present C5 new in 2005 one of the first jobs I did was to remove each caliper bolt in turn, clean it up, grease it and replace. I repeat it every couple of years and I haven't found any tendency for the bolts to loosen over time.

 

Two years ago squealing on the rear brakes became embarrassing but a check showed no distortion between arms and calipers, however a cleanout of dust and a change of pads cured the squeal.

 

I'm a boat owner so I'm very familiar with this problem. It's galvanic reaction caused by two different metals in contact with each other.The steel swinging arm and the aluminium alloy caliper. The reaction is so strong that the corrosion where the two metals touch forces them apart and pushes the caliper so far sideways that it touches the disc causing the squeal. It actually stretches the very high tensile steel bolts by about 3mm. If anyone had told me this before I saw it with my own eyes I would not have believed it. However I had a Xantia before my current C5 that has exactly the same design of brakes and hence the same problem. The difficulty of dismantling is the locking fluid used by Citroen on assembly down the entire length of the caliper bolts. Once dismantled you can clean off the old locking fluid and on reassembly just apply a little to the "end" of the threads. To prevent the problem recurring you need to isolate the 2 metals where they touch. I used a piece of cling film and I've heard of people painting one or both of the surfaces. Both work perfectly well but with paint you have to let it dry before reassembly. Regards Malcolm

[Guest ray52]

Thanks to everyone who posted suggestions. I'll be taking all your advice!