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Malin Dixon · Aug 13th, 2004, 10:30 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by punkeyfunky

As far as I know (which might not be much

), *ALL* recent cars with discs at the rear require a particular tool (a "wind back" tool) to rotate the pistons.

If you didn't have a locking mechanism, the handbrake would fail (I believe this was a recall issue for Pug or Citreon), and hence the locking mechanism was implemented. Of course, this required a way of twisting in the pistons. Early rear setups (like that on my old Rover 800) had a simple 'blade' type groove, which could be rotated with a big fat screwdriver.
More recent cars often have some sort of pattern. The cynical side of me says that manufacturers do it deliberately, to make an 'easy' task such as the rear pads more difficult, so that people take their cars to the dealers (which makes a fair amount of money for them)

-Lee

Some cars, for instance Rover 75s, have a small drum brake for the handbrake, inside the disk. They don't need a locking mechanism on the disk. OTOH, on mine, the handbrake isn't very good. The one on the Mini has a lot more bite.

Malin

Aug 13th, 2004, 10:30 PM	#5
Malin Dixon MINI2 Senior Join Date: Apr 2004 Local Time: 11:17 PM Posts: 363 Offline	Quote: Originally Posted by punkeyfunky As far as I know (which might not be much ), ALL recent cars with discs at the rear require a particular tool (a "wind back" tool) to rotate the pistons. If you didn't have a locking mechanism, the handbrake would fail (I believe this was a recall issue for Pug or Citreon), and hence the locking mechanism was implemented. Of course, this required a way of twisting in the pistons. Early rear setups (like that on my old Rover 800) had a simple 'blade' type groove, which could be rotated with a big fat screwdriver. More recent cars often have some sort of pattern. The cynical side of me says that manufacturers do it deliberately, to make an 'easy' task such as the rear pads more difficult, so that people take their cars to the dealers (which makes a fair amount of money for them) -Lee Some cars, for instance Rover 75s, have a small drum brake for the handbrake, inside the disk. They don't need a locking mechanism on the disk. OTOH, on mine, the handbrake isn't very good. The one on the Mini has a lot more bite. Malin