Hand Brake

[katelyndon]

hi, need help again please. we have just put new discs and pads all round on our 2003 mondeo 2.0tdi hatchback. did it all by the haynes manual, and we have bled all the brakes but have no handbrake. brakes are not perfect, but work. could the hand brake cable (cables) have stretched or have you any other ideas what could be wrong. any help appreciated

[BigD]

If the brakes are "not perfect", you may have done something wrong. New discs and pads should be absolutely perfect.

A couple of things to check:

1. When you wound the caliper piston back in, did you align the notches on the piston to match with the pin on the back of the brake pad?

2. Did you clean the new discs with brake cleaner before fitting? If not, they have a protective film to prevent corrosion and it's normal procedure to remove this with brake cleaner before fitting. If you don't (and I recommend that you do), the film will wear off quite quickly but braking performance will be affected until this happens.

3. Did you bleed the brakes before reattaching the hand brake cable? You should have. (You DID reattach the cables, right?!)

4. If all that checks out, then it could be that the hand brake needs some adjustment. There is a stop-pin on the caliper, and the hand brake levers should both be within 1mm of their respective stop-pin (the manual recommends to adjust them so either one is roughly 1mm from the stop-pin, and the other is closer, or touching the pin). The adjuster is above the mid-section of the exhaust, behind the heat shield.

[wase16ll]

if caliper was wound back, then once refitted, handbrake must be worked up and down till piston reaches back of pad BEFORE bleeding or touching brake pedal.

if this wasnt done, then remove calipers, wind them back again, refit and operate the lever till it tightens up [shouldnt take more than 20 pulls]

[BigD]

if caliper was wound back, then once refitted, handbrake must be worked up and down till piston reaches back of pad BEFORE bleeding or touching brake pedal.

if this wasnt done, then remove calipers, wind them back again, refit and operate the lever till it tightens up [shouldnt take more than 20 pulls]

Um, no. You're wrong. That might well be what you do on a 21 year old Granada, but not on a Mondeo.

[wase16ll]

always worked for me, sure not mixing them up with others.

if handbrake is operating caliper piston then this is why you are winding the piston back instead of just pushing the piston back...because of handbrake mechanism

[katelyndon]

i shall try doing them again tomorrow and get back to you, and thanks every one for your help

[wase16ll]

when caliper has been wound back, then refitted, you can operate the lever on back of caliper a few times, does the same job plus you will see when piston makes contact with the back of pad, job jobbed

dont attempt to adjust the cable till this is done, chances are, if handbrake was reasonable before changing discs etc, then once you've done the above, no cable adjustment is necessary.

[katelyndon]

did all that. the piston comes out to pad, but goes straight back in. so wat else is wrong or is the cable stretched. i did lever without cable on.

[wase16ll]

sounds to me like you have a problem with the caliper, just searched for a video of what you should be getting....look at around the 8 min mark, not a great vid but demonstrates what the caliper should be doing

sometimes can take quite a few tugs to get it working, otherwise there is something wrong with mechanism inside the caliper