Houdini brake pads - URGENT!

[Poodle]

My car has found a fun new game - it will wait until i'm doing 70 and then drop an osr brake pad. This leaves me with the bum-twitchingly exciting challenge of stopping the car, crucially without using the piston to punch a hole through the disc...

This has happened three times in the last day, the brand new fixing kit i fitted this morning has magically disappeared along with the latest - also brand new - brake pad to escape, someone please tell me what the f*ck is going on. As far as i'm concerned the car is unusable until i solve this little issue, so really need it sorted before work on Tuesday morning, please help!

[cully]

fit the fixing kit properly!

[Poodle]

Cheers Cully, can't believe i didn't think of that!

What gets me is the first pad to escape - yesterday evening - has been fitted and behaving just fine for three months of good, solid thrashing. And suddenly they've started dropping out at, well, at the drop of a hat lol.

[cully]

this may help

   

[Poodle]

Again, tremendously helpful...

[rocker8742]

Did you have the split pins in the back of the caliper mate? martyns car did this on the eurotrip as he didnt have them.. The pad was sat at 90* to the calliper

was bodged with some speaker wire

[Poodle]

Split pins in the back of the caliper...? Pics?

[Niall]

yeah sounds stupid but are you putting the split pin in the pad retainer on the bolt side and not on the other side? Cully has it right in the pic above if you dont quite get what im saying. if its the other way round and the split pin is in the opposite side to the bolt, it can still slide out.

[cully]

not smug at all

[rocker8742]

[Niall]

Wow that is bodgetacular!

[Poodle]

You guys are actually serious aren't you, ok... Thought you were trolling. :p

Thanks for the advice, but i understand how the fixing kit works lol, done this just a few times before.

[Niall]

well have to check. you are norther.....oh wait.

[rocker8742]

Northern? that bodge was done by northerners

[Poodle]

That's a fairly decent bodge actually, i kinda like it haha!

Still doesn't solve my problem though, any other ideas?

[4WayDiablo]

Wouldn't be missing the L shaped thingy that sits between the caliper and both pads at the bottom. Usually have to tap it in?
The pads come out fairly easy without that there

[martyn92]

I promise my car is still not like that...

[Dum-Dum]

The calipers/pads are a terrible design.

Maybe retrofit a set from a newer 307 or something

[Rippthrough]

If you put the retainer in the wrong way around it WILL fall out.

[Jonny81191]

I promise my car is still not like that...

Jesus christ mate, get it sorted already! That was a temporary bodge to get you home

[Poodle]

Phil, that's part of the pad retaining kit.

Chris, i don't have pockets that work like yours.

Other Phil, it was definitely round the right way lol.

[Rippthrough]

If it was, they shouldn't have fallen out

[samass]

Chemical metal. Done.

[Poodle]

Exactly, hence the thread lol! When i fitted the most recent lot of pads, i got hold of them with a pair of pliers and pulled and shook them as much as i could and they didn't budge an inch, they were definitely in there good and proper.

Sam, this is not the go-nad. :p

I'm guessing it's got everyone else stumped for ideas as well then... Will be having a very close inspection of the caliper later, will let you know what i find.

[Poodle]

Had a good look at the caliper - sliders were clean, lubed and free; piston had some minor oxidising, but that's now cleaned and regreased; all boots were intact and clean; all bolts were tight; they haven't even got much built up crap on them because i cleaned them down when i rebuilt the car... I'm still completely in the dark, there's nothing unusual about it at all.

I gave up trying to find a problem and just put in another pad and fresh fixing kit. Luckily enough buying stuff through work means this won't be crippling my wallet if it happens again, but it's still not exactly ideal.

Oh and a picture of the pads and fixing kit fitted, for all you unbelievers :

---

Oh yeah, managed to drop my reservoir cap and immediately stand on it, so if anyone has a spare one they fancy sending to me i'd be very grateful.

[Poodle]

Someone mentioned this to me the other day, thought i'd update the thread. This hasn't happened again since the third time, so i guess i've fixed the problem... All i did was clean and regrease the piston, based on that evidence i can only assume that this was causing the issue.

[Rippthrough]

Wow that is bodgetacular!

's also binding the pads themselves...

[Grant]

This seems to be a re-occurring thing with 205's, its not the first I've seen. What the hell are you 205 boys doing?! haha

[Poodle]

This was on the 306 mate, but yeah, pretty random.

[Piggy]

just a shockingly dumb design.

a pug afterthought