Brakes, Brake pads

[seanbrazendale]

Hi

Have started to play with my XM. First the brakes. Noise from front offside especially on left lock. Front pads not good. The outer pad on each side was down to almost bare metal, inboard pads about 3mm left. Looked like previous fitter had not removed the backing material. Replacement pads from French Citroen dealer 94 euros! Then I find on French Ebay complete set new pads front and rear for 35 euros! Fitting rear pads was a doddle. Front pads tedious as pistons needed almost fully retracting. I don't have special tool so improvised with old spanner, took ages.
Brakes now perfect. So I have set of 4 brand new front pads if anyone interested.

Regards

Sean

[noz]

Sean,

Badly worn brake pads spells trouble (easily fixed though). See here:

http://club-xm.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=15

Noise on left lock only points to the handbrake (parking brake) cable somehow being stretched when the strut pivots. How did the handbrake cables look? Are the outer sheaths and the concertina rubber boot at the end of the cable intact?

Cheers

noz

[seanbrazendale]

Hi Noz

Many thanks for that. Handbrake cables looked perfect (and very substantial). Ends are in good nick and operating arms on calipers were both free to move. Since renewing all front pads, I have had no reoccurrence of squealing. I'll obviously monitor situation and have a look at the linkage referred to in your link.
I was intrigued that both outer pads had worn much more than the inners. I noticed that the backing to the pads which I think one is supposed to remove before fitting was 'jammed' in between pad and caliper. The new genuine Citroen pads did not have any backing. As I've always done when changing pads, I've cleaned top and bottom of calipers to ensure that pads are free to move.

Any joy on CD workshop manual?

Many thanks for your help.

Sean