Brembo Caliper Servicing

[gumby6371]

Over the last week I've noticed an occasional noise which seems to be coming from the near side brakes, almost as if the brake pads are failing to release the disc completely. Not a grinding noise like you get with worn pads under braking more like pulling your finger down wet glass but much deeper if that makes sense.
As my car has Brembo calipers can someone tell me before I strip them down are they the same basic setup as standard calipers?
Is it just a case of checking the piston and clean and grease the sliders?

Would a small amount of air in the lines cause a caliper to stick?

As a little additional info the brakes are sharper since I tinkered with the vac system but not as good as I think they should be.
No noises under braking and the car doesn't pull to one side under braking and no noticeable vibration.
My MPG's are averaging about 33 around town which is bang on for a standard 2.2 but a little down for my modified map.

Thoughts??

[steve_earwig]

I think mjb did some Brembo stuff on here but you're better off looking over on the toupe, sorry, coupé forum in the how tos.

From what I gather you have to use the right pads or they'll squeal, also the calipers are alloy with steel sliders for the pads, due to electrolytic action the calipers corrode behind the sliders, forcing them to trap the pads. Or something. Anyway, coupé club, go.

[gumby6371]

Thanks Steve,

On my way!!!

[jonsowman]

These might be of use:

http://www.406coupeclub.org/Files/HowTo ... lipers.pdf

http://www.406coupeclub.org/Files/HowTo ... brakes.pdf

[gumby6371]

that appears to be exactly what I need Jon, top man!

[mjb]

Give up before you waste any time or money, and upgrade to some standard Lucas callipers.

[gumby6371]

The idea has crossed my mind to fit standard brakes but I'll try giving the brembo's a spruce up and a bit of copper grease first as its only my time its costing.

[markw]

Budweg sell re furbished Brembo calipers and they're turned out to a very high standard.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PEUGEOT-406-C ... 3cd6a64d5a
They have to remove the Brembo name from them (the raised cast lettering on the inside) but that's all. The quality of the finish is A1.
At least two members on the Coupe forum (it's spelt with a C, Steve! ) have done this and then sold on their Brembos to massively offset the cost.

If you felt so inclined, you could add the Brembo sticker on afterwards.....after all, they are still Brembos.....

[mjb]

The idea has crossed my mind to fit standard brakes but I'll try giving the brembo's a spruce up and a bit of copper grease first as its only my time its costing.

Actually they're worth quite a few quid, and are easily destroyed by trying to refurbish. I spent more refurbishing my Brembos than I managed to sell the whole car for

Coupe forum (it's spelt with a C, Steve! )

It's also spelt with an accute accent: Coupé

[steve_earwig]

Pfft, it's just the more amusing options the spell checker on Firefox gives me when I type "coupe" without the accent (no Frenćh ačćentš on this keyboard )

coup
cope
couple
coups
coupé

[gumby6371]

My current plan is to clean up the sliders/bracket bits and refit with copper grease, plenty of meat left on the discs and pads. If the seals are naffed or pistons stuck I'll probably look at sourcing a decent set of standard calipers from a breaker.

[nutski]

Mark help me fit my Budweg calipers last week and the quality of them are fantastic.

photo (1).JPG

photo (2).JPG

[gumby6371]

I now have fully working brakes!

I took the caliper off yesterday and sure enough one of the slider plates had lifted to the extent the pad was virtually siezed solid, it took a punch and persuading stick to free it from the caliper.
I wasn't able to get the plate out as the bolt head just wanted to round off, not knowing what size it was and being a Sunday afternoon I avoided the temptation to attack it with my needle nose mole grips and gave the slider plates a good wire brush and copper greasing.They came up like new after a clean with no pitting at all.
A couple of minutes with a flat file and the pad now moves freely in the sliders and braking has now improved massively with no annoying grinding noise from that side of the car so I'm a happy bunny.

A close examination of the disc and using my trusty finger nail gauge I'm sure I could feel about 0.5mm difference of wear on the side the pad was sticking so could have been like it for a while and possibly me fixing the vac leak has given the servo more oomph to push the pad fully onto the disc and make it stick harder against the disc???? who knows but at least its fixed now.

If anyone knows the correct size/pitch etc for those bolts let me know and I'll strip them properly on both calipers if I get chance or it might wait until the pads need changing as I have a few other jobs on the to-do list atm.

As an additional note I filled up last night and averaged 35MPG on virtually 100% town, short distance, stop/start driving which I'm actually quite pleased with on a 2.2 (the 1.9 averaged 37 for the same driving style). Interesting to see if it improves now I'm NOT constantly braking

H&S note - I specifically went out and bought some gloves and a face mask for tackling this job as the dust is not at all good for you, this is particularly dangerous when have to 'persuade' parts out as the dust flies everywhere.
However when you don't remember to put them on until you're putting your tools away after finishing the job and spot them sitting on the shelf they have no effect what so ever

[mjb]

H&S note - I specifically went out and bought some gloves and a face mask for tackling this job as the dust is not at all good for you, this is particularly dangerous when have to 'persuade' parts out as the dust flies everywhere.
However when you don't remember to put them on until you're putting your tools away after finishing the job and spot them sitting on the shelf they have no effect what so ever

I religiously wear nitrile gloves - saves a whole load of scrubbing at the sink, and means if you need clean hands (loo, eating etc) you can have them in a couple of seconds I also do pretty well wearing a mask when doing stuff that results in unpleasant stuff being in the air, but sadly it does make life difficult when my glasses steam up... When you see the amount of crap deposited on glasses lenses though, and realise it's not in your lungs, it makes the inconvenience seem well worth it

[gumby6371]

I agree 100% on the glasses thing but as you say steaming up is an issue, after the car was done I broke out the chainsaw (on a windfall tree not the car) and glasses under goggles is an even bigger fogging up issue!!!