I've got a neighbour who's a bit gung-ho in his approach to car maintenance. He recently attempted changing his front discs and pads, and ends up knocking on my door to 'help' him.
I know he wants to have a go at his rear brakes, and I've warned him he should read a manual first. Unfortunately there's no Haynes published, and we can't find anything, not even on e-bay.
I guess the handbrake operates on the rear discs, and he'll need a retractor to wind the piston back, but I don't know.
I've never done anything to rear discs. How does the handbrake work on them? I presume the piston's on some sort of helix arrangement.
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Tom, the rear brakes on this car should be normal discs/calipers with a small drum inside the disc with normal brake shoes operated by the foot lever.
You should find adjusters visible through one of the wheel bolt holes to enable you to slacken off the shoes to get the drums off, these should be remarkably easy to work on.
I'm guessing here so check, some of the newer MB's have a power system for the brakes that has to be shut down before doing anything to them, i believe that came on the W211 E class, so hopefully not the car you may be about to tackle, but do check, there is a name for this system but it doesn't come to my feeble mind at the mo, but cars fitted with that system can be very dangerous to tinker with unless properly turned off, ie as soon as you remove a pad the car senses free play and pumps the piston straight out...not a place for fingers!!!!
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>>as soon as you remove a pad the car senses free play and pumps the piston straight out...
That didn't happen to the front - thankfully - so I assume it's not applicable.
I had to discourage him from covering everything with oil and grease before (with limited success). He insisted on greasing the thread on a screw that obviously had a locking compound on it!
I just know he's going to come knocking :>(
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I had to discourage him from covering everything with oil and grease
Oilrag and myself must have a long lost cousin..;)
Keep your head down.
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>>He insisted on greasing the thread on a screw that obviously had a locking compound on it!
Here's an idiot who shouldn't be working on brakes!
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Ah! NC's around.
Can you point me anywhere that that explains how handbrakes work on rear discs please.
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I'm fairly sure the car will be as GB describes.
The handbrake is a small shoe/drum affair in the middle of the disc. Unless they've been abused, they can be left undisturbed for long periods of time, with just the odd adjustment.
To adjust them, with the handbrake off, and the wheel off, look through the bolt holes, and slowly rotate the disc - you'll eventually see a star wheel adjuster. Adjust this up with a screwdriver, poked through the wheel bolt hole until the brake grabs, and then back off until it's nice and free again (should be about 6 or 7 teeth). You need to turn the adjuster different ways on each side of the car to adjust the brakes up - so on one side you'll be moving the teeth down, and on the other side, up.
The discs and pads are conventional. Like GB, I don't know if you've got the SBC system to deal with - if so, disconnect it before working on the brakes.
More here;
www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=49946
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