Brake disc & pads

[john279]

Question 1 -Brake disc

Was changing my brake pads on one front wheel.

The brake disc is very close to the inner disc shield, virtually no gap, possibly rubbing against it.


I have been getting a lot of noise on the front wheels and had previously tried pushing the disc shield away from inner disc, which seemed to help.

I can't work out why the disc is so close to inner shield.


I measured the thickness of the brake disc, it was 8mm.
Haynes manual says minimum should be 11mm.

Looks like I need to change brake discs.


But if I change disc on this wheel, the disc will be much thicker than old disc, so will be pushing onto the inner disc shield, so there will be an even worse problem of wheel/brake noise as disc rubs against inner disc shield

Am I missing something here ?

 

[john279]

Question 2 -Brake pads

As I was changing the brake pads.

I opened the box with new pads and realised the new pads are slightly different to old pads.


2 of the pads have a little arm (1 of each pair).

I thought ****, I've been given the wrong pads and I only found out while I was doing the job !!
(In fact I think this may have happened previously years ago and I took the pads back to change them.)


But this time as I was doing job with everything dismantled, I thought I'd just check these new pads on the wheel to see if they fit and they do seem to fit ok !!


The arm seems to be just a stabilisor arm for the inner pad, which sits against the caliper.

Am I correct, are these pads interchangeable (pad with/without the arm), as I don't to want to find out out afterwards I missed something and it causes a problem ?

 

[frank]

the little steel finger is just a wear indicator john, it scrapes when the pad is nearly worn out so face it forwards

 

[john279]

the little steel finger is just a wear indicator john, it scrapes when the pad is nearly worn out so face it forwards

I now realise what it does, I thought the arm which goes 1 inch behind the pad was just a stabilisor as it sits on the caliper.

But I now see the arm curves back towards the pad and overlaps pad by about 3mm (minimum thickness), acting as wear indicator by rubbing against brake disc.

My pads previously haven't had this and motor factors said pads come with/without this arm.

Seem they are interchangeable and fit ok.

 

[john279]

Can anyone answer Question 1 ?


I phone my motor factors to check details on new brake discs.

He tells me there are 2 brake discs for my car in 1988, he says there is early version to Feb 1988 (43mm height) and later version after Feb 1988 (46mm height).


From my registration he says my car (1.0 GSX) is registered in May 1988, so he says later 46mm height discs should be correct ones for my car.

I go and check my car, check one disc and it seems to be 43mm height disc !!
But obviously it's worn and rusted after 26 years, so can't be certain.


As in my first post, my current old brake disc is already right up against the inner disc shield for some reason
(you can hear the disc rubbing against it, I'm sure it should not be like that.)

So there is no way the 46mm disc would fit (as my current old ~ 43mm disc is already up against/rubbing the disc shield.)


Now I bought the 43mm new discs, tried one on the wheel.

As the new disc is slightly thicker than old worn disc, it is pushing up against disc shield even more !!


Can anyone explain this, why are my brake discs right up/rubbing against the inner disc shield ??

Something doesn't seem right.

Changing brake discs to new discs will only make it worse it seems !!


I assume 46mm can't be the ones, as 43mm ones seem closer to my current old discs, unless they sit on hub differently and inner dimensions are different.

 

[frank]

just bend the shield out of the way john

 

[john279]

just bend the shield out of the way john

I have bent parts of it, but centre part is fixed, still seems to be rubbing.

I can't see where it's rubbing.

Shouldn't there be more of a gap between shield & disc ?

 

[h701micra]

I remove the shields personally they harbour dust, dirt and water. More of a hindrance than a help

46mm is the correct disc for your car going from the age