I'm in the throws of servicing prepping 'Project Sensonic' for its annual MOT inspection and I made my way around to the rear brakes.
They were dealer serviced [pads only] 2 years ago and what I found was disgraceful.
Firstly check out the picture below; that is the pads removed from the nearside caliper. The shot is of the two used pads from above with one new pad for reference, notice one is hardly used and the other is on the limit.
I could hardly remove the guide pins they were pasted with dusty and rust; also the hardly used pad was so fused to the caliper body with corrosion that was barely removable. Once all out the pistons moved freely, no fault there then, just sloppy installation from the outset.
The offside was marginally better with reasonably even wear but the wear was no symmetric on the pad as both were bound on the rust on the pins and caliper body and were pivoting about the point wearing the pads in a wedge shape. This shot was taken just after I had started drifting out the pins, note the amount of surface corrosion...
As far as I could make out no remedial care work was done during the previous pad swap.
Once all is out of the caliper I clean off any loose surface detritus with a scraper I also cleaned and draw filed the guide pins back to a viable shape [If in doubt of the condition just change the pins and springs] and then I applied anti seize grease to 3 primary contact points of the pad where they can bind to the caliper - the top and bottom metal edges of the pads backing plate and where the piston engages [take great care to not get any of this stuff on the friction face or working rotor face].
Prior to pin installation they get greased up to.
Whilst there I bled the brakes, performed a hand brake adjustment and painted the calipers too.
I succeeded in doing a vastly superior job to the mess I found, it takes few special tools and requires little skill. Importantly though, if caught early enough you do not need to throw away the pads, but if left, you'll have rubbish brakes soon enough and the rotors will be prematurely scrap too.
They were dealer serviced [pads only] 2 years ago and what I found was disgraceful.
Firstly check out the picture below; that is the pads removed from the nearside caliper. The shot is of the two used pads from above with one new pad for reference, notice one is hardly used and the other is on the limit.
I could hardly remove the guide pins they were pasted with dusty and rust; also the hardly used pad was so fused to the caliper body with corrosion that was barely removable. Once all out the pistons moved freely, no fault there then, just sloppy installation from the outset.
The offside was marginally better with reasonably even wear but the wear was no symmetric on the pad as both were bound on the rust on the pins and caliper body and were pivoting about the point wearing the pads in a wedge shape. This shot was taken just after I had started drifting out the pins, note the amount of surface corrosion...
As far as I could make out no remedial care work was done during the previous pad swap.
Once all is out of the caliper I clean off any loose surface detritus with a scraper I also cleaned and draw filed the guide pins back to a viable shape [If in doubt of the condition just change the pins and springs] and then I applied anti seize grease to 3 primary contact points of the pad where they can bind to the caliper - the top and bottom metal edges of the pads backing plate and where the piston engages [take great care to not get any of this stuff on the friction face or working rotor face].
Prior to pin installation they get greased up to.
Whilst there I bled the brakes, performed a hand brake adjustment and painted the calipers too.
I succeeded in doing a vastly superior job to the mess I found, it takes few special tools and requires little skill. Importantly though, if caught early enough you do not need to throw away the pads, but if left, you'll have rubbish brakes soon enough and the rotors will be prematurely scrap too.