Brakes on QT500

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Permalink Reply by Roger on February 1, 2010 at 9:29am

Jordan,

Your Brakes stopped working and refilling with brake fluid fixed them. This suggests you have lost fluid from the system, you may have a leak. Worth checking brake pipe connections and that brake pipes are not rubbing against moving or vibrating parts, particularly suspension components. Also worth checking the hoses from the brake fluid reservoir to the master cylinder, I have changed mine.
Your brakes made a funny noise after refilling brake fluid fixed them. The QT has duel circuit brakes but instead of been opposite corner pairs they are front pair and back pair. If one circuit was without fluid and having topped it up you have use again, those brakes would probably make a noise at first as the rust is rubbed off the discs. My Peuguot 307 rear brakes make a noise on first use after washing the car! If brakes have not been working for a period they may need some freeing off. I had a partially siezed rear brake the caliper pins had to be freed off.
I question whether you need new discs and pads, I recall your car hasn't done many miles, suggest you check the condition yourself. Discs need changing if they are excessivly worn or grooved and if you change discs you must also change pads. See attached file with a picture and some words.
My front pads have very little wear and I believe are thicker than the rear pads, when new, anyway.
Hope this is helpful.

Roger.

Attachments:

• photo of my rear brake calliper.doc, 8.7 MB

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Permalink Reply by Jordan on February 1, 2010 at 6:33pm

Hi,

He said that as I live in a hilly area, constant braking down hills causes some of the fluid to evaporate, leaving air in the system. He drained it from the back as I pressed the pedal and then re-filled it. The brakes went really hard and were so much better than before.

The funny noise was not just after the re-filling of the brake fluid, it was from beforehand, a while back. He said that the calipers were stuck solid as all the salt from the roads and the rain washes away the grease. He reckons that the calipers not being able to return after releasing the brakes was the noise.

The lever for the brake light switch was also stuck. This had been causing the brake light to stay on, so he re-greased that and added a tension spring to allow it to return. The original switches they sell are useless and I now have an adjustable vauxhall one. When it first arrived, somebody had had to drill a screw into the switch to extend it. The switches used as standard are peugeot interrupters which are used for handbrake switches on both peugeots and on the QT500.

He is an honest mechanic (if that's possible!) and said that if I was selling it soon, he would not bother with the new discs and pads. But as I am not, he said that it is a good idea to replace them. He showed me how the current discs had lots of grooves in them when you run your finger up and down.

Although my mileage is only 4700km, it is peculiar that they should be in this condition. However it is coming upto 8 years old now and I don't think that it has ever had anything replaced on it. He says that as the discs aren't vented, they are relatively cheap in comparison to some cars, so £200 is a good price. Labour shouldn't be too much on top of that figure, maybe a couple of hours. He tends to fit it in between jobs and MOT's so that he can keep the cost down for me.

Thank you for your help Roger,

Jordan

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Permalink Reply by Chris Manley on February 1, 2010 at 8:10pm

Jordan,

Brake fluid should not simply be topped up. It does not evaporate. A low fluid level indicates a leak or worn brake components, both serious conditions and a message to you that brake repairs are needed.

If you have a 'mechanic' telling you that your brake fluid is evaporating, please find a mechanic that knows what he is doing for your own safety.

If you don't beleive the above, please Google the question 'does brake fluid evaporate'

Kind regards

Chris

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Permalink Reply by Roger on February 11, 2010 at 4:14pm

Puk, Can you give us more information about this spring possibly a photo, is the spring a secma part or a Peugeot part? my car is 2003 and suffers from slightly binding brakes this is clearly useful.

Thanks again Puk.

Regards Roger.

puk said:

I chanced the rear break bloks at 48.000km, the cost 43€ the disks are ok
part nr 4252.71 and fit in to the Peugeot 206 and 306
If u have i QT build year byfore 2005 than you need to mount a extra spring at the breaklever just in front of the main breakpomp, to by schore that the mainbreakpomp kom's to it restpiont, models from 2005 and after that dat, have that spring mountet from the factory.
without the spring the breakbloks are gone in about 20.000-25.000km with the spring 48.000 til 50.000km and the topspeed is about 5 to 10km/h higher and less feull consumpsion

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Permalink Reply by Jordan on February 11, 2010 at 4:38pm

That bloody spring is a nightmare. Its absence has meant that I needed a new brake lever switch as the peugeot interruptors are useless. It meant that even with the new brake light switch, the lights stay on sometimes. It has also caused the premature wear of my pads and discs.

It should all be sorted now and the discs and pads I had to use were off a citreon saxo gtr so weren't cheap. It cost near £300 all in all.

I now have a spring but the brake light sticks on. It only comes off when I set off but this is as good as can be achieved.

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Permalink Reply by Roger on February 14, 2010 at 1:55pm

Any chance of a picture, and infomation about the spring. If anybody else out there has a post 2005 QT can they possibly take a photo of the brake lever/master cylinder with this spring fitted.

Regards Roger

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Permalink Reply by Roger on February 16, 2010 at 1:44pm

Thank you very much Puk, your photo is perfect.

Regards Roger.

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Permalink Reply by Roger on February 18, 2010 at 9:07am

Jordan,

I have fitted a spring see attached file for how I've done mine, I also lubricated the lever hinge and intend to try lubricating the cable with silicone if I get one of those cable lub devices.
Thanks again Puk.

Attachments:

• Fitting brake lever return spring.doc, 34.3 MB

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Permalink Reply by Jordan on February 18, 2010 at 6:40pm

Hi,

Thanks for that roger. The garage have already put a spring in.

The file that you attached is corrupt though, I couldn't open it.

Jordan

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