Citroen dispatch panel van. which front brake pads?

[Avocet]

Trust me, they needed a good grinding despite a good scraping out beforehand. Just thought it odd
as have never had a problem with any other vehicle I've ever worked on before. Easily 1.5 mm

Yeah, that does seem a tad excessive. Were you removing steel when you did that, or had the paint run, and you were removing a blob of paint? Also did you try putting the new and old pads back-to-back on the bench? Did they look to have the same shape backplates?

What make of pads were they?

If it helps, the vehicle will be identical to a Peugeot Expert or a Fiat Scudo of the same era. The VIN: VF7BYRHZB86222734 will start: VF3BYRHZB... if it's a Peugeot. (There was a time when I knew what those characters meant - they'll denote the manufacturer, engine, transmission etc). RHZ is a diesel engine, I remember that much, and I think the more powerful version).

 

[Lazzy]

Surely this has to be the wrong pad?
I'd compare them with a quality brand such as Blueprint, I think.
The only problems I've ever had with pads was on a 1996 Fiat Bravo (or Brava, whichever was the 3 door) and they were Champion pads from Halfords. They were 2mm too small and rattled like hell.
John

They were Blueprint and exactly the same pattern as the old ones. The cheaper ones didn't come
with any AR shims so ordered the BP's. I wasn't paying for them so made no difference to me.

 

[Lazzy]

Yeah, that does seem a tad excessive. Were you removing steel when you did that, or had the paint run, and you were removing a blob of paint?

Yes from both ends. The old ones were extremely tight too, I had to literally crow bar them off.

 

[Burnerman]

Rust build up on the caliper bracket can make the pads very tight to remove.....I mentioned in post 11 about filing the lands back to bright metal. Did you try this?
John

 

[Avocet]

Trust me, they needed a good grinding despite a good scraping out beforehand. Just thought it odd
as have never had a problem with any other vehicle I've ever worked on before. Easily 1.5 mm

Yeah, that does seem a tad excessive. Were you removing steel when you did that, or had the paint run, and you were removing a blob of paint? Also did you try putting the new and old pads back-to-back on the bench? Did they look to have the same shape backplates?

What make of pads were they?

If it helps, the vehicle will be identical to a Peugeot Expert or a Fiat Scudo of the same era. The VIN: VF7BYRHZB86222734 will start: VF3BYRHZB... if it's a Peugeot. (There was a time when I knew what those characters meant - they'll denote the manufacturer, engine, transmission etc). RHZ is a diesel engine, I remember that much, and I think the more powerful version).

Yes from both ends. The old ones were extremely tight too, I had to literally crow bar them off.

That's rust then. The old ones would not have been that tight when fitted.

 

[Lazzy]

The job was completed on tuesday John. I scraped as much loose rust off as possible, thought the
new carrier shims were sat reasonably well and solid, was surprised new pads were so tight but hey ho.
You should not have to struggle like that to remove old pads. slight design flaw, manufacturer issue imo.

 

[Lazzy]

As an aside i recently had to restore a vintage sturmey archer hub that was seized up with rust. I made
my own rust remover with distilled white vinegar and 25% lemon juice on the internals. Left for
a couple of days it worked really well.

 

[Lazzy]

Oh dear, the wire from the alternator to the + battery post has broken off whilst I was trying to disconnect
it. I'm wondering if it was a poor connection why the battery was going flat. I thought it was alternator
at fault but not so sure now. This is on my 03 1.9d Berlingo. Anyone know what guage of wire i need
to test it, not sure of the model of alternator or ampage, guessing around 70amp dunno.

 

[sxturbo]

If it's producing voltage it will be producing amps.

 

[Burnerman]

See if the battery goes flat just now.....if the rectifier pack is faulty on the alternator it will flatten the battery big time.
John

 

[Lazzy]

Well i know the there's a problem with the alternator as i tested the voltage across the battery with a multimeter - zero reading. It might be a long shot but the alternator terminal was heavily corroded
and snapped off when i tried to wriggle it, hence the what guage wire query.
I was hoping to connect a new wire to the alt after cleaning up the alt terminal however the terminal
bolt sheared off so i'm pretty much stuffed I also managed to bend the terminal away from the alternator
haha! so it's got to come off the van now so I can figure a way of joining a new cable to it. Might just
order a new or reconditioned one depending on how the old one looks and what condition its in.