Brakes on Ducato XLWB after 6 years

[Squiffy]

In continuation of a 6 years period as in my gas thread, I decided that maybe it was time to check the brakes after 34 thousand and 6 years of travel. The back brakes were very little worn and other than brushing the brake dust out of the park brake drum and removing and cleaning up the rear calipers there was very little else to do, bit of grease on handbrake linkage and everything put back together. The front brakes were quite worn I would think about another 2000 miles and it would be down on the warning sensor, but unfortunately I phoned the motorfactors and although they were open they would only deliver to commercial garages and will not serve the public over the counter, the chap I was talking to seemed to be new as I did not recognise his voice and rather than be crass and ask to speak to the manager who I know would have delivered them to me as I have used them for 30 odd years when I had the garage I thought what the hell I cant use it anyway, so I cleaned up the calipers and put it all back together just incase of an emergency that I might have to use it, it would only take 3/4 of an hour to Jack it back up again to refit the new pads when I finally get them. One thing I would advise is the back caliper mounting were hell to remove as the bolts threads were covered in thread lock from the factory and took a lot of effort to remove, the wheels were also extremely heavy and I would suggest that you Jack the vehicle up just enough so that the tyre is free of the ground as we used to do for large lorry wheels even greasing the ground under the tyre to enable it to slide on the tarmac/garage floor, as I now realise I am nowhere near as strong as I was 15 years ago.Phil

 

[Millie Master]

Phil; when it comes to brakes, I always buy any of my parts from a company called EBC, https://www.ebcbrakeshop.co.uk.

Not the cheapest, but anyone you speak to there knows their stuff and they are widely used by people doing competition......... I have their pads and discs fitted to both ends of my Master.
I am in the process of removing all the calipers from all my vehicles and stripping them down so as to ensure that they are working smoothly, it's something I do every year and I know it pays off.

Phil

 

[Squiffy]

Phil; when it comes to brakes, I always buy any of my parts from a company called EBC, https://www.ebcbrakeshop.co.uk.

Not the cheapest, but anyone you speak to there knows their stuff and they are widely used by people doing competition......... I have their pads and discs fitted to both ends of my Master.
I am in the process of removing all the calipers from all my vehicles and stripping them down so as to ensure that they are working smoothly, it's something I do every year and I know it pays off.

Phil

Thanks Phil that's a great site, however over the years I've learnt that brake pads can be very fickle and if there are 5 different pads to fit the same vehicle and year or on year change, then I will end up with the wrong pads. At least if I get them from my motorfactors they will change them within an hour or so or I can go in and change them. They also exclusively use EBC by the way and as you say there amongst the best to be had Phil

 

[Millie Master]

The brilliance of the EBC greenstuff pads that I have fitted to the Master, my daily driver Beemer and my little toy is that they make next to no brake dust, they also exhibit an exceptionally good feel, so as your local factor stocks their products, you might want to give the green stuff a try.

Phil

ps. On 'Millie' I also changed all the discs last year and the performance of her brakes brought a lovely comment from Julian Cardew at Greetham Garage (well known in national motorsport circles) when he was doing the MOT last time. He did the MOT brake test twice as he couldn't believe the results he was seeing as they were "better than when they first come off the production line when brand new"! It was also nice to have confirmed that I had done a good job !!