Citroen ZX brake problems... PLEASE HELP!!

[Jamiekehoe]

Hello everyone, Im hoping someone on here will be able to offer some help or advice....

I have had a Citroen zx 1.9D for nearly a year now, good car bought for a good price and all is well except the brakes........

When bought the brakes were in a terrible state, creaky callipers, no pedal, no brakes! Im no slouch when it comes to looking after my cars (other car is a mk1 mr2) so I have systematic done everything I can think of to sort the brakes out;
REAR;
new shoes
new wheel cylinders
new lines
took the lip off the drum and adjusted correctly (this includes the handbrake which is spot on and works well)
FRONT;
new calipers (GSF recons, which incidentally are very bad quality!!)
new pads and discs (they are non-vented)
new flexi's
new MC

also bled the system what seems like a million times both manually and with a pressure system, with pedal up, pedal held down and a combination of both.

The problem is that despite all this the brakes are still poor, the callipers bind and drag all the time, braking is poor and i still have a lot of travel, I have been steadily adjusting the push rod which is helping the pedal travel but obviously not the braking which is consitantly poor

I'm wondering if anyone has had any look sorting out ZX brakes or if anyone knows if any other PSA front brakes are interchangeable, preferably vented

hoping someone has the magic bullet for this one as i'm getting to the end of my tether with what is accentually a nice little run about

thanks PHers :-)

Jamie

[buzzer]

Have you tried clamping off the 4 flexible hoses and seeing if you have a firm pedal? then release the hose clamps one by one, bleeding the system as you go.

[buzzer]

Is there a bleed nipple on the master cylinder?

Try bleeding the brakes with two people... Build up pressure by pumping the pedal, then open a bleed nipple. while the pedal is down, lock off the bleed nipple. repeat 10 times on each corner

if you have adjusted the push rod, make sure there is still play so the master cylinder piston can return right back. failure to get this right makes it impossible to bleed properly.

Edited by buzzer on Thursday 10th March 23:36

[Kitchski]

In my experience its the front brakes. Really creaky and generally just make the car crap to drive.

Simple...306/Xsara/ZX Volcane calipers and carriers, 266m vented discs and pads and you're away. You could even go all the way with a full GTi6 set. I've retrofitted these to my O/H's Saxo and they're impressive. Only downside is you need at least 15in wheels to fit them under.

[oakdale]

Do you mean you have been adjusting the servo push rod?

Not the best brakes going on these, but if you have been increasing the lenght of the servo push rod you will never get the brakes to bleed properly and will have binding brakes.

The rod is preset during manufacture and should not need adjusting in service.

You need to screw the adjuster back in sufficiently to make sure that there is a slight clearance between the end of the push rod and the master cylinder piston when the pedal is fully back (so there is no pressure on the piston when the brakes are not applied).

I would do this, then try and bleed the brakes again.

[StoatInACoat]

As said, the callipers are crap. 266 setups can be found on the 306 18 16v, XSI, S16 and HDI and make a more than adequate upgrade and unlike the GTI-6 setup you will not need to change the master cylinder.

I wouldn't bother spending any more time and money trying to sort these ones - they will never be brilliant.

[Jamiekehoe]

HI thanks everyone for the replies...

After fitting the new master cylinder I have been adjusting the push rod and this is helping bring back the pedal. been doing this a bit at a time to make sure it doesn't lock the whole lot up. even so the brakes are still rubbish and I think i will go for the HDi callipers they seem readily available on the bay for reasonable money and hopefully then they wont crap out as soon as i look at them :-)

thanks all for your help


Jamie