Dangers of DIY car brake maintenance

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pete75
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Joined: 24 Jul 2007, 2:37pm

Dangers of DIY car brake maintenance

Post by pete75 »

People shouldn't attempt to maintain their car braking systems when they don't know what they're doing. This simple video from a small car repairers in Lincolnshire is more eloquent on the subject than somethig expensively produced.

'Give me my bike, a bit of sunshine - and a stop-off for a lunchtime pint - and I'm a happy man.' - Reg Baker
uwidavid
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Joined: 3 Jan 2017, 1:19pm

Re: Dangers of DIY car brake maintenance

Post by uwidavid »

I just did mine last week and if you're not daft it is one of the simpler jobs.
The only issue I had was the lack of information - car manufactures do not want you to know how to repair things.
I had never come across a rear disc brake before and it took me a while to realize that you need to rotate the piston to reset the hand-brake.
This was not mentioned in a so called service manual (that I found online) and most of the rest of the description was at best vague.
Another issue was return springs - the car was fitted with them, but the advice now is to throw them away again this was also hard information to find.
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Mick F
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Re: Dangers of DIY car brake maintenance

Post by Mick F »

Always done my car maintenance, and I mean always.
Head gaskets, big ends, clutches, brakes, differentials, gearboxes, oil changes, filters, tyres .......... the lot.

These days, I "just chuck money at it".
Car servicing ............. and we had all four brakes done today.

A full service and stuff by Toyota including another year of manufacturers warranty and including an MOT .......... and the brakes done locally today.

Not much change out of £700 this week.

I never even open the bonnet these days.
Mick F. Cornwall
pete75
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Re: Dangers of DIY car brake maintenance

Post by pete75 »

uwidavid wrote: 15 Aug 2022, 3:12pm I just did mine last week and if you're not daft it is one of the simpler jobs.
The only issue I had was the lack of information - car manufactures do not want you to know how to repair things.
I had never come across a rear disc brake before and it took me a while to realize that you need to rotate the piston to reset the hand-brake.
This was not mentioned in a so called service manual (that I found online) and most of the rest of the description was at best vague.
Another issue was return springs - the car was fitted with them, but the advice now is to throw them away again this was also hard information to find.
Almost all cars have rear disc brakes these days. It's not necessarily always easy and/or you may need special tools and, increasingly commonly these days, specialist software. On some you need a special tool to screw the piston all the way into the caliper. On cars with electronic parking brakes you need an ODB2 connector and the correct software to actually release the piston in the rear caliper so you can retract it to fit new pads. Some cars and motorcycles also require specialised software to bleed the ABS unit when you do your biennial brake fluid change.
I've got the right tools and software to do these jobs on my car and motorbike, my rule being if the tools cost in the region of having the job done at a dealers a time or two I'll buy them.
'Give me my bike, a bit of sunshine - and a stop-off for a lunchtime pint - and I'm a happy man.' - Reg Baker
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Cowsham
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Re: Dangers of DIY car brake maintenance

Post by Cowsham »

The one time I let a garage do my brakes ( this was about 17 years ago ) they failed.

Driving to work at 60MPH on a straight road thank goodness, the right front wheel stopped rotating with smoke and scary noises but I managed to bring the car to a halt up on a grass bank.

I removed the wheel to find the brake caliper body was only on by one bolt ( the bottom one hence the top of the caliper swung out and jammed against the inside of the wheel rim ) I found the bottom bolt loose too. I rang work and got them to bring me out a bolt for it.

I've never let a garage do that kind of work for me since. There are knobheeeds everywhere. Do it yourself then you know it's been done right.
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Mike_Ayling
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Joined: 25 Sep 2017, 3:02am
Location: Melbourne Australia

Re: Dangers of DIY car brake maintenance

Post by Mike_Ayling »

Mick took his car to the Toyota dealer.

A long time ago in Oz when most fleet sales were the locally built Fords or the equivalent General Motors Holden dealers would make fleet sales at a very small margin because at that time to maintain the warranty the car had to be serviced by an authorised dealer and they could charge like bulls for the regular services. The best cost centre in the dealership was the service department. Then the consumer laws provided that as long as the servicing was done by a registered mechanic the warranty would have to be recognised by the dealer. Now there are chains of repair and servicing shops and the dealers are charging the same as everyone else.
After our last Ford did a head gasket we bought a low mileage Toyota Camry and it seems to require a lost less maintenance than the Fords did. I notice a small coolant leak at 126,000 km which I am monitoring.
When the Toyota Land cruiser hit Australia in the nineteen fifties it was the end for Land Rover as the Toyotas were much more reliable.
I am a Toyota fan.

Mike
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Paulatic
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Re: Dangers of DIY car brake maintenance

Post by Paulatic »

30+ years of Landrover and then a Hi-Lux :D There was no going back.
When you see Land Rover on the side of the road you think he must be broken down. When you see a Toyota you think he must be out of fuel :wink:
Like Pete I buy most of the special tools I need for jobs as it usually equates to less than one garage visit. Getting down and under is getting harder , just waiting for my neighbour to fit a lift ramp in his garage. :D
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pete75
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Re: Dangers of DIY car brake maintenance

Post by pete75 »

Paulatic wrote: 16 Aug 2022, 7:46am Like Pete I buy most of the special tools I need for jobs as it usually equates to less than one garage visit. Getting down and under is getting harder , just waiting for my neighbour to fit a lift ramp in his garage. :D
Yep. Am just about to buy a motorbike lift for the same reason . :(
'Give me my bike, a bit of sunshine - and a stop-off for a lunchtime pint - and I'm a happy man.' - Reg Baker
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squeaker
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Re: Dangers of DIY car brake maintenance

Post by squeaker »

pete75 wrote: 15 Aug 2022, 1:07pm People shouldn't attempt to maintain their car braking systems when they don't know what they're doing. This simple video from a small car repairers in Lincolnshire is more eloquent on the subject than somethig expensively produced.

Must confess to having done that once :oops: I thought that the new pad's scouring surface was excessive noisy: then the penny dropped :roll:
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rjb
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Re: Dangers of DIY car brake maintenance

Post by rjb »

I've always carried out all maintenance on every car I've owned since 1970 up until our current car when I now happily pay the local garage to look after it. I don't want to crawl underneath a vehicle or crouch down in the wheel arch anymore. Chances are I wouldn't be able to get up again :shock:
Back to brakes on my Ford Escort, I found I needed a 7mm Allen key to remove the calipers ( only people with these would have had a cinelli stem :wink: ). I ended up grinding down a slightly larger size to fit.

Grandad was an AA patrolman so it's been handed down to me via my dad. :wink:
Last edited by rjb on 16 Aug 2022, 1:28pm, edited 2 times in total.
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jb
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Re: Dangers of DIY car brake maintenance

Post by jb »

Always thought that rear disc brakes are a bit of an unnecessary fashion fad. Look round most car parks and the rear disc is more often than not rusty as the rear brakes don't get the same braking force as the front. drum brakes on the other hand are proportionally weaker and protected from the weather plus the hand brake is a simpler setup.- and they rarely need looking at these days.
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Debs
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Re: Dangers of DIY car brake maintenance

Post by Debs »

Putting the brake pads in the wrong ways around is a really dumb mistake - some people just shouldn't work on cars...

I am lucky in knowing a small independent garage who like working on older cars (especially Japanese).
They're very knowledgeable, always seem happy and jolly in their work and do a good job, plus labour costs are very reasonable.

Last year had all my discs & pads replaced with brand new Ferodo parts - a good recommended make at affordable prices.
Also changed all the calliper slider pins with a new set - and given the correct type of lube too - 'Mintex Ceratec'
The difference this made with the car braking feel was fantastic.

It's a common fault of many garages to use the wrong type of lube on the calliper slider pins, some forget to bother, and many wrongly use copper-slip. Slider pin sticking is a very common issue which other than poor braking often causes pulling to one side or juddering.
Very easy thing to correct with clean parts and correct lube.

Image

Interesting link below:

https://mintex.com/copper-slip-vs-ceratec/?lang=ie
hemo
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Re: Dangers of DIY car brake maintenance

Post by hemo »

Much like Mick F, I use to also do all my own mechanics and my Grandad encouraged me to do so assisting along the way gearboxes, engine rebuilds and rear axles. Like Mick I been there and done it so the car goes in to the local garage for most work now.
I now only carry out simple jobs like the last one I did, no screen washer working, having removed the reservoir and motor a simple 12v test in a bucket of water found the motor pump was fine. The fault was a simple one and the small filter gauze was clogged by gunky stuff so a clean and all worked well again once all bolted in to place. An hour and a halfs work that saved some garage expense.
Biospace
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Re: Dangers of DIY car brake maintenance

Post by Biospace »

jb wrote: 16 Aug 2022, 12:34pm Always thought that rear disc brakes are a bit of an unnecessary fashion fad. Look round most car parks and the rear disc is more often than not rusty as the rear brakes don't get the same braking force as the front. drum brakes on the other hand are proportionally weaker and protected from the weather plus the hand brake is a simpler setup.- and they rarely need looking at these days.
For the same effectiveness, discs cool faster, are generally cheaper and lighter than drums and are marginally quicker to service when worn (if everything is working as it should, which is often not the case with single piston calipers), which is why drums are now a rare sight on cars. The weight of most modern cars and high speeds in Germany makes discs on the back pretty much universal, although I think you've a point in suggesting they might be a bit unnecessary in Britain for many.

However, the work done by rear brakes is greater than it once was because there's a computer which increases the effort when the steering wheel is pointing straight which should reduce the number of seizing calipers and rusted up discs due to lack of use. Having rear discs adds complication since unless you make do with the handbrake acting on the pads - whose mechanism is extra prone to seizure - there's a traditional expanding shoe drum handbrake working on the inside of the disc assembly.

There's nothing quite as good as the pedal feel from four finned, large drums, you stop just at least as fast as with any disc brake, just not repeatedly as well from high speeds.
Jdsk
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Re: Dangers of DIY car brake maintenance

Post by Jdsk »

Biospace wrote: 16 Aug 2022, 2:18pmThe weight of most modern cars and high speeds in Germany makes discs on the back pretty much universal, although I think you've a point in suggesting they might be a bit unnecessary in Britain for many.
Nowhere near universal. Many current production cars have rear drum brakes. And we'll see even more as regenerative braking rolls out.

Jonathan
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