sticking brakes

It's fairly common for rear brakes to seize if the handbrake has been left on for a while - especially if it was driven in wet weather before parking up. It should be far less common on the front, because there ~should~ be clearance at the front pads with the brakes off.

There are several reasons why it could be happening - one being that the pistons may have started to seize in the calipers, and another is (for "floating" calipers) that the sliders have seized up and the caliper can no longer move to correct for pad wear. If the latter, a giveaway will be the fact that one side of the disc is shiny, and the other more rusty. In both cases you should be able to tell, because you will start to get drag on the discs when the brakes are off.

If it were mine, I'd be inclined to have them checked out. Like Ray, I'm not going to say that spraying the discs is wrong, but it would worry me that any residue left on the discs could contaminate the surface of the pads, and that could significantly reduce the level of braking on that axle!

The calipers need to be stripped, cleaned and reassembled, and the sliding pins need to be cleaned and lubricated. You are probably using too much fuel and your discs and pads wille be wearing out prematurely.

Yes I would get a repair kit, if they exist. So many things now are 'throw it away" including the discs themselves. I think it is scandalous that you can't get re-skimmed discs. Reconditioned alternators are getting scarce as well, the usual best you can do is buy a new one and get £15 back for the old one.


BLEEDING THE BRAKES / CHANGING BRAKE FLUID
By the way it is a good idea to refresh the brake fluid if it's five years old. All you do is get The Boss to sit in the drivers seat with the engine running (this activates the vacuum power assistance) while you crawl underneath and undo the bleed nipple, starting from the wheel furthest from the master cylinder.
Shout "PRESS" . . . . .The Boss presses the brake pedal and fluid sprays all down your arm. Or if you are keen, down a thin tube into a jam jar. If it goes all over the driveway, don't worry, it is water soluble and you can just hose it down. You are not going to re-use it. That is a fact, not a suggestion. It is dead fluid and has probably absorbed some moisture from the air. It is hygroscopic. You can look that up if you like.
Once The Boss has pressed the pedal to the floor tighten the bleed nipple.
Shout "RELEASE" and ?she (sorry to be sexist if that offends you, but this is what we do) lifts off the pedal. At this point the brake master cylinder sucks some fluid from the reservoir into the actual cylinder. Thus the level in the reservoir drops slightly.
Repeat the Press / Release sequence five times, tighten the bleed nipple and go and see how much the reservoir level has dropped. You could probably do another five press/release sequences before refilling it. Don't however let the fluid in the reservoir go right down or you will have fun and games trying to bleed the master cylinder which can be a tricky thing to do.
The point of making the level drop as much as you dare is to stop too much mixing of old and new brake fluid. If you keep topping it up every time it goes down 10mm you will use a lot of new fluid before the reservoir is full of fresh fluid.
After several pumping sequences when you are sure that fresh fluid is now coming out of the brake slave cylinder, one of the rear ones, tighten that bleed nipple and move on to the other rear wheel. Repeat the press/release five times / refill the reservoir till fresh fluid comes out. Tighten the bleed nipple and move to the front.
It makes things easier if you jack up the vehicle because then you can turn the steering wheel to position the disc caliper where you want it. Even better is to remove the wheel, then you can lean over the caliper and bang your bald head on a solid lump of suspension you weren't looking at.
Repeat the Press/Release five times / refill the reservoir for both front brakes.
Replace the wheels, and you have saved yourself ? I have no idea what garages charge but I wouldn't want to pay them for a simple job like this.
Another reason for changing the fluid every five years or three years as some manufacturers would have you do - or two years in the case of a Nissan Leaf where they love taking £380 off you for a simple pump up the tyres' service. There is no engine to change oil and filters, plugs, air filter and so on so they want to change the brake fluid (or at least, charge you for changing the brake fluid) every two years. The other reason for flushing the fluid is just to make sure that your bleed nipples haven't siezed up. If they do it is very difficult to drill them out without damaging the thread, and then you will need a whole new caliper.

I think I'll start a new thread for this, if it hasn't been done already . . .

Molly3 wrote:Word of caution  bleed nipples can brake  off  ,then new callipers  would be needed,

That is precisely one of the reasons for doing it every two or three years. They should undo OK in three years. Although I suppose if you have a steeel bleed nipple in an aluminium caliper casting it would be more likely to sieze than in a cast iron one. I have just done all of the front suspension on my 2006 Volvo and was surprised to see the lower suspension arm and a lot of other parts were cast aluminium, to reduce unsprung weight I would guess. However the brake calipers are cast iron and thus heavy.


Edit: I have just looked at GSF car parts and Euro Car Parts and caliper kits are not available for my Transit from them. I'll need to look further.

bikeralw wrote:A word of warning regarding bleeding the brakes with the engine running. If you have ABS the system will detect a fault in that circuit when the bleed valve is opened and may shut it down as well as putting on a warning light. I had this happen with a BMW bike I once owned, and it entailed a slow ride to the dealers with a non-working rear brake to sort it out..
Al.

Non working rear brake? Grrr that must have been angrily annoying. Just because your ABS isn't working shouldn't make the back brake not function at all. That would really put me off any make of bike that did that. I will never again buy a Triumph motorcycle. I had a Tiger 800 and I discovered that if you stall it, and then you press the starter button you have to hold it pressed for a full two seconds before the starter motor operates. I thought this was a fault, but no. The starter button doesn't send 12v to the starter, it sends a 'go' signal to The Computer That Is Always Right. The computer then has a cup of tea and a biscuit and after two seconds it sends 12v to the starter motor. This is only if you have stalled it, not in normal starting conditions. I do not want the last thing I see before I meet my maker is the word SCANIA in big letters over the top of my helmet thank you because I pulled out on to a main road and stalled it. I immediately got rid of the abysmal excuse for pseudo-british engineering and got something proper that was designed properly and works properly. I wrote to the main dealer I bought it from and two weeks later he phoned me and thanked me for my letter, confirmed what I had found and said he will be seriously considering whether he wants to sell Truimphs any more. Appalling design and pre-production testing.

I forgot to mention that you have to hold the starter button in for the full two seconds. When I first encountered it, I would just press the button and expect the starter to operate straight away as it does when you first turn on the ignigion. I thought the starter switch was faulty and phoned the dealer for a replacement. They said I had had it for over three months therefore I would have to pay for it. Nothing at all about 'You have to hold it in for two seconds'. I told them they need to go to college and learn about the Sale of Goods Act. After all, if you press the starter while the rev counter and speedo do their 'full sweep' thing, the starter operates. Now I have a Royal Enfield Interceptor I am happy. THREE years warranty and breakdown /home cover included free. Everything works as you would expect and it is superbly well built, and nearly half the price of the equivalent Triumph.
Are we allowed to deviate from brakes to Royal Enfields?