Caliper is seized or the pad is seized in the carrier
Waht can cause a sudden drop in miles per gallon?
- Thread starter Dave D
- Start date
Caliper is seized or the pad is seized in the carrier
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You can light a cigarette on the disc after a drive...
C
Captain Nemesis
Seized caliper. Take the pads out and try working the caliper piston in and out, to free it, you might be lucky and it frees up. You will need a lever of some sort, to push it in, then press the pedal to force it out - but not all the way out, put something solid in to prevent that happening.
A bit of brake grease around the piston when out, might also help.
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The AA trick is to whack the caliper away from the disc.....if the hub can then be rotated then it is a caliper issue. Exchange calipers aren’t too expensive and are recommended if necessary.
Other problems could be a collapsed flexible brake pipe, preventing fluid from returning once the brake pedal is released.
John
Other problems could be a collapsed flexible brake pipe, preventing fluid from returning once the brake pedal is released.
John
If the hose was leaking fluid the brake pedal would hit the floor sharpish.
We are looking at the hose protector rather than the hose itself, but can I see damage just to the right of it?
John
We are looking at the hose protector rather than the hose itself, but can I see damage just to the right of it?
John
C
Captain Nemesis
Havent all cars had dual braking circuits for many years now?
That is true - I've only once experienced a a burst steel brake pipe and that was on an Izuzu Trooper towing a trailer with a tractor on it
The pedal dropped to about halfway and then the vehicle came to a stop - sort of! How typical that is I don't know but I can still bleed brakes with the foot pedal if it's done smoothly.
Maybe there's a shuttle valve somewhere that shuts if the pressure drops suddenly - I wouldn't know.
John
The pedal dropped to about halfway and then the vehicle came to a stop - sort of! How typical that is I don't know but I can still bleed brakes with the foot pedal if it's done smoothly.
Maybe there's a shuttle valve somewhere that shuts if the pressure drops suddenly - I wouldn't know.
John
That is true - I've only once experienced a a burst steel brake pipe and that was on an Izuzu Trooper towing a trailer with a tractor on it
The pedal dropped to about halfway and then the vehicle came to a stop - sort of! How typical that is I don't know but I can still bleed brakes with the foot pedal if it's done smoothly.
Maybe there's a shuttle valve somewhere that shuts if the pressure drops suddenly - I wouldn't know.
John
Yes, that's what should happen with a dual circuit system. Different manufacturers split them different ways, so a common way is front right and rear left on one circuit, front left and rear right on the other. Some are split front-rear. On cars with calipers that have multiple pistons, they can sometimes split so that (say) one rear brake and one pair of caliper pistons on each front brake form one circuit and the other rear brake and other two pistons on each front brake form the other.
Inside the master cylinder is a floating piston for one circuit and a piston directly connected to the pedal for the other circuit:
Hence, the extra travel when one circuit fails.
Years ago in the early/mid seventies, I went with my Dad and his friend to pick up his friends Mk4 Zodiac from a garage near Southend to tow it home to Stratford, East London. We had a flatbed trailer made from a caravan chassis and scaffold boards and our tow car was a Ford Corsair 1500GT. We loaded the Zodiac onto the trailer and were manoeuvring out of the garage forecourt when the steel pipe between the front flexi hose and the caliper burst on the Corsair. We had to rob the pipe off of the Zodiac and bend it to fit the Corsair then bleed the brakes using secondhand fluid we drained into a cup from Zodiac to get home. That was a single circuit braking system so we had a total loss of brakes. I dread to think what would have happened if that pipe had burst when we were trying to stop the car with a trailer and a two-ton car on the back of it. The 'good old days' of motoring!That is true - I've only once experienced a a burst steel brake pipe and that was on an Izuzu Trooper towing a trailer with a tractor on it
The pedal dropped to about halfway and then the vehicle came to a stop - sort of! How typical that is I don't know but I can still bleed brakes with the foot pedal if it's done smoothly.
Maybe there's a shuttle valve somewhere that shuts if the pressure drops suddenly - I wouldn't know.
John
C
Captain Nemesis
I hope you told the friend about that....
As an aside - a cure for poor performance from a MkIV Zodiac (if it fits a Zephr it will fit a Zodiac)
That is true - I've only once experienced a a burst steel brake pipe and that was on an Izuzu Trooper towing a trailer with a tractor on it
The pedal dropped to about halfway and then the vehicle came to a stop - sort of! How typical that is I don't know but I can still bleed brakes with the foot pedal if it's done smoothly.
Me too and just the once. A quiet country road, single track road in the middle of the night in darkest, deepest Wales and down a steep hill, hedges both sides around 1970. I lost all braking apart from an inadequate handbrake. I had to slow it by brushing the hedges, handbrake hard on and going down to the lowest gear I could get into - luckily, there were no ditches. I managed to get it back to the hotel I was staying, using gears and handbrakes - very carefully
All single circuit back then and a company vehicle, with just the handbrake as emergency brake. Ever since then, I have been wary of poor handbrakes, despite them no longer being classed as the independent emergency braking system they once were.
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C
Captain Nemesis
Could you have turned the engine off without activating the steering lock?
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