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240 brakes question[ALL/1998] posted by Craig on
Monday, 24 November 1997, at 7:47 p.m.
Hi; I was looking at my front brake pads on my 82' 240 glt Turbo today, and noticed that on the left front, the inside pad is wearing much faster that the outside. Inside has about 10% left, outside has close to 60%. The right side is wearing evenly, both at about 30 to 40% remaining. Could this be caused by a caliper sticking or clogged? If so, is it difficult to rebuild calipers,or is it best to R&R them? Thanks in advance for info!
-Craig
Re: 240 brakes question[ALL/1998] posted by Brian Killins on
Monday, 24 November 1997, at 10:18 p.m.
The caliper may be sticking. One thing which I believe will help keep the calipers working and the wear even, is to remove the pads and clean up everything on a regular basis, about twice per year, to make sure that they are moving freely.
Re: 240 brakes question[ALL/1998] posted by Craig on
Tuesday, 25 November 1997, at 11:53 a.m.
By "clean up everything" do you mean take calipers apart, clean them up and replace o-rings and dust boots or just remove brake dust from the exterior parts? I assume you are talking about doing a minor rebuild job. Thank's, Craig
Re: 240 brakes question[ALL/1998] posted by Brian Killins on
Tuesday, 25 November 1997, at 1:31 p.m.
No, I just mean to take the pads out, clean things up so they will move freely. I believe the pistons in the calipers stay working well longer if this is done.
Re: 240 brakes question[ALL/1998] posted by Mike Posner on
Thursday, 27 November 1997, at 1:51 p.m.
Best way to preserve calipers is to change(ie flush your hydraulic fluid
on a regular basis, Volvo suggests every 2 years, Mercedes says yearly.
Because the brake fluid is hydrophilic, attracts water, what happens is thata nasty reddish sludge begins to form in your caliper, then the pistons and their respectine cylinder fuse with a rust bond and your sticking caliper becomes a frozen one. When you see your rubber boots torn, water gets in this way also.
A good signal to rebuild. The job requires a source of pressurized air to
force the piston out of its cylinder. A bike pump hooked up to a brake line
fitting and an adapter for the pump, will work.
Re: 240 brakes question[ALL/1998] posted by Mark Klein on
Tuesday, 25 November 1997, at 9:50 p.m.
Sounds like you have a piston or two sticking. Are the boots torn? Calipers aren't too terribly difficult to rebuild. Just be patient and remember the piston must be perfectly aligned before it will slide back into the caliper bore. Do NOT, repeat, do NOT split the halves of the caliper. You may never get it to seal properly again. Plus, the o-rings/seals don't come in a rebuild kit.
The hardest part may be getting the pistons out of the caliper. Try this. Unbolt the caliper from the spindle. Lift the caliper off the rotor. Now pump the brakes (or have someone else pump them while you control the pistons). Make sure they come out evenly. You may have to block/hold one while pushing out the other with brake pressure. You'll get to the point the pads are touching. Now remove the pads and continue until they are about to fall out. Now remove the brake lines and continue with the rebuild.
Re: 240 brakes question[ALL/1998] posted by Craig on
Wednesday, 26 November 1997, at 12:32 a.m.
Thank's for info, Mark. By the way, once I get the pistons out, is it adviseable to clean out the bore and piston with anything like a 3M pad, or will that scratch up the mating surfaces? My dust boots are not torn, I just haven't done anything to the calipers since I bought the car 108,000 miles ago. It has about 172,000 on it now. I assume that the kit comes with everything I would need except for the o-ring seals between the caliper halves, so I will give it a go! -Craig
Re: 240 brakes question[ALL/1998] posted by Topi on
Wednesday, 26 November 1997, at 9:52 a.m.
I had similar problem on my old GT. After changing the calibers brakes weren't good. It turned out to to be bad rubber hoses! They were deteriorated inside and almost blocked solid. For $ 30/each you may want to buy new ones. By the way; I know how to rebuilt calibers but for $ 65/each I bought factory rebuilt ones from Repco. I hate bathing on brake fluid....
Re: 240 brakes question[ALL/1998] posted by Mark Klein on
Thursday, 27 November 1997, at 8:24 p.m.
The Scotch-Brite pad works great for just such a thing. The bore doesn't have to be a perfect surface. The sides of the piston are what the square cut o-ring seals against. They can be cleaned up with some very fine emery paper if the Scotch-Brite pad doesn't cut it. That and the groove which the o-ring sits in needs to be clean.
And like Topi said, the rubber hoses can come apart internally preventing the flow of fluid both ways. When they get to this point, they can affect the feel of the brake pedal because they can "expand" during braking giving a soft pedal.
Re: 240 brakes question/info follow-up[ALL/1998] posted by Craig on
Tuesday, 2 December 1997, at 12:18 a.m.
I appreciate all the information. I was wrong, by the way about the boots not being torn. They were literally rotted off, so I could not see anything that looked like torn rubber. I took the calipers off of the rotor to check them out and found the inside lower piston pretty much frozen with that reddish rust stuff around it. It's amazing that only one was frozen with all the boots basically gone! It took a lot of brake pedal pressure with the other (working) calipers braced to get the stuck one to finally free up and come out. Getting it back in was a real head ache after I cleaned up the part that was sticking out as best as I could. (I didn't get the rebuild O-rings yet so did not want to take it all apart) I'll still try to rebuild them, as well as replacing the rubber brake lines as they are originals also and very cracked on the outsides of the hoses. If the rebuild does not seem to yield positive results, I will look into the $65.00 calipers that someone mentioned. Anyhow, I will keep you posted if anyones interested on how it turns out. Thank's again, -Craig