Vauxhall Zafira A (1999 - 2005) - 2002 1.8 petrol - brake pad replacement

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Fri 21 Mar 2008 21:51
2002 1.8 petrol - brake pad replacement - monty67
I have just replaced both front and rear brake pads on my Vauxhall Zafira with no problems on fitting. However, I am now experiencing excessive brake pedal travel. I have tried to rectify this by bleeding the front brakes which has helped a little. I have checked the brake fluid reservoir level which appears high. I understand that new brake shoes take a while to bed in. Is this situation normal or do I need to take further action.
Just as an afterthought, the old brake shoes were well worn and I had to retract the brake pistons fully to enable the new shoes to fit.

Edited by Pugugly on 21/03/2008 at 21:55

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Fri 21 Mar 2008 22:42
2002 1.8 petrol - brake pad replacement - topbloke
did you clamp of the flexi brake pipe and open the bleed nipple when you retracted the pistons, i you did not then you may have flipped the seals in the master cyl, if you did then they may just need time/miles to bed in to the disc's
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Fri 21 Mar 2008 22:57
2002 1.8 petrol - brake pad replacement - monty67
Many thanks for your quick response. I'm afraid to admit that I didn't clamp off the brake pipe etc. If the master cylinder seals are the problem is this a DIY fix or garage job?
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Fri 21 Mar 2008 23:57
2002 1.8 petrol - brake pad replacement - Dynamic Dave
is this a DIY fix or garage job?


Depends on how confident you are at taking the master cylinder apart, rectifying, and rebuilding it again.
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Sat 22 Mar 2008 09:45
2002 1.8 petrol - brake pad replacement - topbloke
the normal way to find out if you have a problem with the m/cyl is to bleed the brakes and see if you can get any fluid out of the offside caliper, that is the usuall problem, if you can get fluid out of the offside then you may have been lucky and they just need bedding in, bearing in mind that you have changed all the brakes front and rear the brakes will be poor
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Sat 22 Mar 2008 09:50
2002 1.8 petrol - brake pad replacement - piston power
Have you adjusted up the rear shoes manually or just pumped the pedal hoping that the automatic adjusters take up the slack?

Excessive pedal travel will be there if there not adjusted up properley, it will bleed up ok but stopping performance will be poor.

Edited by Pugugly on 22/03/2008 at 09:54

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Mon 24 Mar 2008 15:23
2002 1.8 petrol - brake pad replacement - topbloke
bigtee, disc's all round !!!!!!!!!!!!
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Mon 24 Mar 2008 15:40
2002 1.8 petrol - brake pad replacement - manic
were there any ridges on the discs? how worn were they?

Edited by manic on 24/03/2008 at 15:40

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