Changing brake pads

Hi all, I'm having a spot of bother with this damn procedure!

Took the old pads out as they were well gone and placed the springs and pads ready to reassemble....

Two things:
1) In the picture the piston has returned without an equally concertina of the dust cover rubber - IS THIS RUBBER just a dust seal, or a fluid seal too?

2) Having pushed the piston back as far as it will go the caliper at point 'A' doesn't drop down and pass point 'B', there a mm or so discrepancy. I have no more piston left to push back - so have I done something wrong or are the pads too thick/incorrect?

Any help appreciated

B should slide in and out freely.

If it doesnt, its siezed.


There is specialy grease available for them once you unseize it, else just use w/e.

Answer to question 1 - the rubber is just a dust seal.

Yes the slide at B is stiff / seized - squirt a little WD40 or Duck Oil under the rubber bellows and its twin at the top - wait a bit - then judicious use of a plastic mallet will persuade it otherwise.

Best make sure it moves fairly freely before you put it all back together.

Brilliant!! Thanks guys.

It wasn't clear in the manual (Paynes) if the bottom should slide. I'll WD40 immediately.

Harold 4x4 said:

Brilliant!! Thanks guys.

It wasn't clear in the manual (Paynes) if the bottom should slide. I'll WD40 immediately.

Click to expand...

I believe that Plus Gas is better at penetrating than WD40 so if WD40 doesn't work get Plus Gas

specialy grease available for them once you unseize it

Click to expand...

Would that be copper grease?

Harold 4x4 said:

Would that be copper grease?

Click to expand...

I think he may be referring to Red Grease - great stuff made by Castrol - hard to find but I got a large tub off eBay - it will last my lifetime.

OK, many thanks again, all seems to be tickety-boo. However, I notice the old pads are uneven the near-side have plenty of wear yet the off-side are worn to the bone.

If the bottom bolt doesn't slide could this be the problem ie. I need to replace the caliper?

Having taken it up the road all works well and it brakes straight

If the caliper does not slide on the pin then you will find that only one pad next to the piston is doing most of the braking - the caliper is then distorting to try and bring the other pad in hence the uneven wear - you really do need to have the caliper slide on the pin.

Well done - what a relief I'm sure that you've got it all together and working again.

I wouldn't be thinking of renewing the caliper if it's braking straight.

Strange that one side has significantly more wear on the pads than the other, but a partly seized caliper could well give such uneven wear.

Normally the inboard pad wears more than the outer as it tends to get less ventilation and therefore runs hotter. Being a good Aberdonian I swap them over half way through their life.

Keep an eye on them and swap around as / if needed.

:doh: Sorry - I may have misunderstood you - are you saying that the pads on one wheel / caliper were uneven or was it one side of the car different from the other?

Yes, both pads on the off-side were completely worn, the pads on the near-side were maybe half-way worn.

Yes I had misunderstood you earlier.

Best to make sure that the caliper is sliding without too much difficulty - compare it with the 'good' side. Give it some regular tlc and put in a bit of the red brake grease and it'll soon slacken off. This has probably just been caused by salt in the winter and the passage of time.

On my first Freelander I learned from experience to take the pads out before and after the winter to move both the pistons and the slides about a bit to make sure they didn't seize up. The first year I had it I sweated blood to get them free.

I still wouldn't go rushing to buy new calipers. As long as its braking straight I don't think there are any safety implications to worry about.

As Angel said pretty much.

You will notice the piston is on one size only, so it uses the slider to give equal force to both pads, giving equal wear. A siezed slider will force a majoritive force onto one pad.

Also , pads on FL1 normally wear unevenly unless your grease them properly where they sit into the shims. Grease the pad where it sits into the shim with copper grease, helps a ton.

Dont use copper grease inside the slider though. Its far from ideal due to it being slightly abrasive. You need more specific stuff. You can generally use any kind of high temp grease as long as it isnt abrasive.




Last note, but have to say it : Caliper slide grease is a very complicated subject in terms of what works and what doesnt, additional to what works, but you shouldnt use. Technically you shouldnt use mineral based greased, which is like your lithum grease, bearing grease etc. You should be using a fully synthetic type grease, like silicon. This would be sold as 'Caliper Grease' generally , as opposed to brake grease. Although both lithium and red bearing grease do work