jasper5 wrote:
Matt, you must take those pads out again and make them fit properly, even if you have to file the edges of the pads where they fit into the calipers (quite normal, including fitting genuine? pads).The pads should fit in comfortably, not hammered in.
Indeed, 406 calipers are the worst i've seen for rusting up, trouble being they dont rust up and stop sliding like most calipers (not altogether a bad thing). They rust up and the pads stick inside them, i've seen 3 or 4 406's (mine included) that rusted up so badley that one pad was so heavily stuck inside the caliper that it wasn't doing any braking at all, only the caliper against the piston was moving against the disk and as a result was worn down to the metal backing while the other had a good 7mm of pad material left. A god tell tale sign of this happening is if your brakes are grabby, if you very gently and slowley press the brake peddle and get nothing, nothing and then the brakes grab much harder than you'd want/expect, that's a good sign your pads are sticking in your calipers.
Whenever i do the pads on a 406 i always set upon the calliper carrier with a screwdriver, remove all the big lumps of rust around the pad contact areas, then finish it off with a wire brush in a drill. Then clart the contact area with copper grease and fit the pads (also smeared on the back and side faces of the backing plate with copper grease).
Word of advice though, avoid Halfords pads for 2 reasons. Fisrtly i had to sand them down with a belt sander before they'd fit, they were about 4mm each to thick to fit into the caliper. Secodly they fade away to nothing after only a short amount of spirited driving and cause you to miss T junctions, and smell enough afterwards to make old women wait beside your car to tell you there's a bad smell coming from it while you're in the chip shop.
I hoped once the brake's been pushed a few times it'd all work itself out, given the old ones were wedged in HARD too
<------------------- GONE :'(
