Pads 'n' Shoes

[red]

Quick question for hopefully a detailed answer

1. How can you check whether your Brake pads need replacing
2. How can you tell if Brake discs need replacing
3. How do you check the shoes in the drums?

 

[Peter]

1) Whip a wheel off and have a look-see how much friction material is left on the pads. 3mm or less and they ought to be changed.

2) Using a micrometer, measure the thickness of the disc and the lip on the edge. Compare to values listed for discs in Haynes Fiesta manual. If they're outside tolerance, they need replacing

3) Remove rear wheel. Remove dust cap and 30mm nut. Undo the nut on the handbrake adjuster all the way without actually removing it from the spindle. Pull hub off stub axle. IIRC new shoes have about 6mm friction material on them. Again replace at 3mm or less.

 

[Dal]

If the front discs have than a 60thou / 1.5mm lip - the MOT examiner *could* fail the car for having worn discs regardless of the thickness. Helps if they're not rusted.

These came of my puma a week after I bought it - they were knackered:

Repleced with EBC Greenstuff pads and discs.

You can see how much pad a new pad has here:

 

[Peter]

Really the only time you need to worry about your rear brakes is when they fail an MOT

 

[Dal]

Mine seemed ok until the hub came off and I saw the leaking cylinders

:shock:

 

[Peter]

You'd expect that to be picked up by an MOT really

If you're going to go to the fuss of disassembling the drums, you may as well replace the shoes and cylinders whilst you're at it, after all they're reasonably cheap parts.

 

[Dal]

Yeah, cylinders were only about £6 each. Shoes about £12 a set.

The requirement for efficiency of rear brakes during an MOT is so low that a leaking cylinder wouldn't effect on a puma.

 

[Peter]

Something like 15% IIRC.

Irritatingly enough mine failed on the handbrake last time, whacked a set of new shoes in, job jobbed.

 

[red]

Thanks for the top tips people