Silvia Club of NSW

My handbrake takes a lot of effort and low speed to get it to lock up, and under heavy braking my rear squirms, so I bought some new pads for the rear, project Mu, when I went to fit them I noticed a few things.

1. I have no inner or outer shim, are they worth getting? I'm guessing they even out the pistons pressure but these mu's have a pretty stiff backing themselves. In the manual they look pretty damm thin. The top and bottem Pad retainers seem to hold the pads pretty well.

2. my Piston boot is rubbish, ripped and folded back on itself in places. I'd rather avoid unneeded work on these brakes, I'm new to mechanics and i'm likey to switch the whole things out later, can I get and replace this boot easy enough without dissembling the whole brake, bleeding etc, and is it worthwhile?

Can I get to grove by, say, pushing the brake with no pads in? and not having to take the whole thing apart?

Rotors are quite lumpy, I'm getting them machined on the hub after a failed attempt to remove them, rusty bastards

well first of all, dont worry about the shims, they aren't really needed and plus they wouldn't really affect the performance of your brakes.

secondly, i would remove both your rear calipers/pistons and get them cleaned and rebuilt with fresh new seals and rubbers (don't worry, it's cheap DIY stuff)

check your handbrake cable after it has been unlatched, it could be internally corroded

also, how hard have you tried to remove your rear rotors? did you check for min thickness before machining? etc...

I found a guide to redoing the seals, yeh it doesn't look too hard.

I've adjusted the cable on the handle, wouldn't that overcome any stretching/corrosion etc?

I beat the crap outta the rotor with a rubber mallet, about as hard as i could beat in such a confined area. I didn't try the screw method though, by the time i found that method out I'd been told that machining them on the car is cheaper(no) and better(?).

*editNo, I was going to leave that up the brake place, I assumed they'd tell me if it was a problem. They'd have the funky measuring tool they used in the manual

Some people CBF with the shims and chuck it away, some stick with it. Either way it won't affect the stopping performance of your brakes.

Calipers and rotors have to come out to do the seals. You should do them ASAP cos if they fail, and leak, you get no brakes which means no stopping.

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http://www.ao-ps.com

suddenly seems like a good idea that newer cars have a separate system for handbrakes :p