So I managed to get up fairly early this morning, I was out of bed by 9 o'clock! I then realised that the clocks had gone forward and I'lready lost an hour of the day...
Today's job mainly involved my brakes. I fitted a second-hand set of 314mm fronts at christmas, bought off ebay from a Saab breakers for 220 squid. Seeing as you can't get them from LMF at the moment, I thought they were a good price and very quickly delivered. Fitting went ok along with goodridge brake hoses and DOT 5.1 fluid, but there was always something not quite right with them. They were schreeching from the start, which I put down to them being in storage for a while or the caliper not releasing fully, and as the noise didn't change when I was braking I decided that it was probably part of the pad catching on the lip of the disc and given long enough would sort itself out...
3 months later, this has proven not to be the case...
The noise has gotten better, and sometimes only happens when I'm going round a corner, but with my MoT coming up and my rears not looking totally clever I decided to bite the bullet and change them all. A quick visit to Vauxhall had me walking out with several boxes containing pads and discs for my front and rears totalling £155, which I thought was quite reasonable considering I've got 314's on the front...
A good weather day, and some space in a hanger at work an I set about getting some work done...
The dust on the wheel gives a clue as to how much crap these have been giving off. Especially as I painted the calipers black before I originally fitted them...
All wheels off, jacked up and ready to go...
...they look kinda small with the wheel removed, but you can see the disc isn't looking too happy...
...positive rate, gear up...
...plenty of wear on the rear pads, but the disc is probably the same one fitted when the car was built...
...that's more like it - nice and shiny...
Just to highlight the size of these things compared to my 17" wheels... I can't let you feel how effing heavy they are though...
Front brakes taken apart, before deciding to just take the caliper off at the brake hose to make my life easier...
Much better...
Sorted. On to the next one...
I've never done the rears, so this was a learning curve...
Everything looks a little rusty...
the reason for the lack of photos between that one and the next one, is due to me being not entirely sue if I was going to be able to do it all... The top carrier bolt is not the easiest to get to with my torque wrench, due to the various suspension parts and the handbrake mechanism. A spanner wouldn't fit the Torx bolt properly, so I had no way of easily getting it off...
With the bottom bolt out, however, the carrier can be made (with some persuasion...) to rotate about the other bolt... At the right point, this means you can slide the old (worn) disc out and (with even more persuasion...) slide the new one in. If this hadn't been possible, the old disc would have to have stayed fitted...
Pads changed, caliper on and time to attempt the other side with the same problem...
For anyone who has never seen a Gunson Easibleed Kit, this is how it works... Air pressure from the tyre feed into a bottle which is full of brake fluid, and when then in turn feeds into your reservoir, putting the brakes on at full pressure. Cracking the bleed nipple at each wheel then allows you to bleed the calipers in a matter of seconds. I did all 4 twice in about 5 minutes...
Defintely worth the 16 squid from Halfords...
Looking much better behind the wheels now...
And a couple of vanity shots to finish it off. And yes, I know the outside of the car is in a state, but the only way to make it decent would be to respray it all, as it was a lease car before I had it and the bodywork is not in the best condition. However, it's mechanically sound and hasn't put a foot wrong in the 20 months and 26,000 miles I've had it so I'm not too bothered about it...
Thanks go to the forum for the How2 guides on changing the front and rear discs and pads, and Radio 1 for keeping me entertained...
Bookmarks