Hi all,

Has anyone experienced problematic brakes? I have had a new caliper, pad and disc after the driver rear stuck on, then the passenger rear straight after and now two weeks later the driver front is grinding onto the disc.

Is this a common fault?

I'm very glad I'm paying trade and 1/10th cost of labour!
2006 supercharged

Sorry to sound harsh, but it sounds as though your brakes need to be properly overhauled.

Seized calipers are seized calipers no matter what the brand of car and if the front pads are worn away completely then somebody has been skimping on maintenance.

I really don`t mean to sound offensive in any way, but your car is suffering from a lack of good maintenance and there is no easy way to say so. Please get someone to sort it out properly and make it safe.

I ran a 2005 2.7V6 HSE for nine years and 90,000 miles, a P38 before that did 150,000 miles over 8 years, doing the maintenance entirely myself and had no problems whatsoever with brakes beside routine replacement parts.

Thanks for the advice, I agree it hasn't had the best maintenance. The old callipers were corroded and a lot of the chassis is corroded too.

Perhaps the car has been standing for some time, which would explain the corrosion. A programme of overhauling the brakes, replacing discs and pads and freeing off the calipers should see you right. replace the brake fluid too!

If you have a bit of chassis corrosion, do check the metal brake pipes at the rear, where they fit to the underside of the body above the rear axle line. They are prone to corroding in this area. I had to replace them on my L320 a few years ago, because they were spotted on the MOT test as an advisory. When I removed them, they snapped like a twig! It is impossible to replace the pipes all the way to the mastercylinder without removing the body, but you should find that the pipes are in great condition forward of the exhaust heat shield. What I did was to remove the exhaust shield and then cut them off and connect new and old pipes using convex/concave flared connectors (not compression fittings with olives) above the main silencer. It took me about a day to make new kunifer brake pipes and fit them, with the car on axle stands, but you do need a good 'on the car' flaring tool, capable of flaring steel pipes.

The corroded pipes are not easy to see under the car, so do look conscientiously at them. The consequences of a burst pipe are very distressing.

If you are not experienced in this sort of work, any sensible independent garage should be able to do them for you.

Adam..

It's had 2 new front pads and new wheel bearings. Handles much better. Hopefully that's the last of the maintenance for now as this year I've spent 1000s!!

Good that you have got it sorted out. The wheel bearings do seem to have a finite life. I replaced both front wheel bearings on mine in close succession at just over 100,000 miles. It is easy enough to do however.

Driver side required a lot of encouragement to come off and I mean a lot.. the passenger side came off quite easily. I paid 92£ each.

That sounds very reasonable. The difficulty with removing the wheel bearings is that the hub containing the bearing is held on with 4 bolts. Two of them are excessively long and the thread sticking out the far end corrodes making them very tight to wind out, no matter how much you clean them up. New bolts usually come in the kit.

Adam..

They were full of dirt and corrosion. Previous owner was a dairy farmer if memory serves, so I can imagine the filth it endured.

Pads and fitting was £120 (brembos) and the bearings were 98 each. Not sure about labour yet. I'm incredibly lucky that a friend owns a garage and is a very competent mechanic.

That sounds like very keen prices. Do ask your friend to check the metal brake pipes above the rear axle line at some stage. It is common for them to rust out there.

Good advice. Thank you.