Gerard's secret blog

I like to carry out rudimentary mechanical tasks on the car as I really enjoy it and get great satisfaction from doing it successfully, plus saving a fortune in garage bills.

Yesterday I spent about 6 hours trying to find instructions on, and then actually replacing, the front brake pads on our 2011 Citroen C4 5 door hatchback (Pictured). I say 6 hours because of two key factors: I could not find adequate instructions on the internet and most crucially as it will turn out, my Allen key (hexagonal screw wrench) set had a 6mm and 8mm but not a 7mm key..... Also there’s the wrong instructions from a Citroen dealer, a video on Youtube that turns out to be a different model, confusing and contradictory instructions on the C4 owners forum and finally, thankfully, the right instructions from the mechanic I always get more involved work done by.

Now the job’s finally done and I’ve fully recovered I thought I’d share my experience in what should normally be a quick straight forward task. 

So here goes

“How to change front brake pads on a Citroen C4″

Short instructions:

Remove wheel remove outer caliper retaining spring Remove caliper retaining bolts in rubber sleeves (7mm hex wrench) Invert caliper and remove old pads, dirt and debris Compress brake piston Fit new pads Put back together

Long Instructions:

1: Check you have a 7mm allen key. If not, go to the shop and buy one.

2. Jack up the car, chock the rear wheels and place an axle stand underneath for safety, then remove the wheel.

You can now see the disc and caliper. If they don’t look like this then these instructions, whilst applicable generally to changing brake pads, may not specifically apply. 

First thing to do is remove the caliper to access and remove the old pads.

Prize off the outer retaining spring (arrowed) with a screw driver. 

Then, at the back of the caliper there are two rubber sleeves that have removable caps. These house the retaining bolts that hold the caliper in place.

This is from the top looking down:

And this is from underneath looking up showing bottom sleeved bolt:

Prize off the caps and using your 7mm allen key remove the retaining bolts. 

Note: My problem began because I only had a 6mm or 8mm allen key and I could not see into the sleeve to see the head of the bolt, and the only video I could find showed a torx bolt. If for some reason the allen key doesn’t fit then figure out what’s in there to undo these bolts. The procedure will otherwise remain the same.

Once these bolts are undone the caliper is ready to remove, however the brake piston will be pressing against the disk and will need to be levered away from the disc to free the caliper. 

Looking through the gaps in the caliper the brake piston (arrowed) is visible, covered by a rubber gator:

I used a large flat head screw drive in the groove on the outside of the piston to lever it away from the disk just a millimetre or two.

Once released, the caliper lifts freely and can be turned over. 

The inner pad is located on the caliper itself, while the outer pad rests on the outside of the disk:

This is a good time to clean loose debris and crap from the caliper.

The outer pad just rests in place and the inner pad has spring clips that attach it to the brake piston.

Remove the outer pad, but to allow the much thicker new pads to be fitted the piston must be completely depressed (pushed in). I used some very large grips so I could exert a lot of force being careful not to damage the piston).

Once the piston is pushed in, it should look like this, with the piston fully depressed, and everything ready for new pads:

So, fit the new pads: 

The caliper can now be turned over and put back in place, and secured by replacing the retaining bolts and replacing the outer retaining spring. That’s a bit fiddly but I found the easiest way is brute force and swearing.

Job done. Apart from the other wheel.

Once both wheels’ pads have been replaced and all put back together start the engine and gently pump the brake peddle a few times to repressurise the brakes. The peddle should travel further than usual for a couple of pumps then revert to normal.

Conduct a road test in a safe place, carefully checking that everything is operating correctly.

Drive and brake carefully for the first couple of days allowing greater stopping distances than usual to allow your new pads to bed in (adjusting to the shapes of the discs.)

Final note: To perform correctly the discs should be a minimum thickness (check your car hand book) so if they appear worn down or old or have deep scratches in them, or if you are in any doubt whatsoever about their safety consult a garage.

I am really annoyed that Twitter (which I hate) took over and shut down Posterous (which I liked a lot).

Last Saturday I got up early, and deciding to go for a walk to start the day well, managed to smack myself in the head twice with my digital SLR in the process of putting my coat on. Being philosophical about the two hits in quick succession, and superstitious about these things coming in threes, I hoped it would stop at 3 bangs on the head for one day, and wondered here number three would come from.

As I like to take photographs but hadn't taken my camera out for a while, I decided that I'd get back into the habit of taking it with me when I go out.

Today I successfully created a Kayak trolley with just an old golf cart, some plastic pipe and some foam pipe lagging. Cost: £3.39

I had a golf cart which has broad flexible wheels which are ideal. 

The pictures kind of show how to do it - just heat the pipe with a heat gun to carefully bend it to shape. As there is no load on the pipe it doesn't need to be super strong so it works just fine with 1" pipe. (£2.68 B&Q). Then use the foam (B&Q 71p) to pad the trolley arms so the kayak sits comfortably. It works great - keep the plastic arms quite long to make it easier to guide them into the drain holes of the kayak by lifting up the kayak and lowering onto the trolley.