Glanza Brake Problem

June 8, 2007

Evening all,

Hope im posting this in the right section. Ive tried other forums for a solution to this but I think I need to try somewhere a bit more 'technical'.

Basically, a couple of weeks ago, my 1996 Starlet Glanza V failed its MOT on a rear brake mismatch. The passenger side was putting in 125KG of force while the drivers side was only giving a measly 50-75KG. The handbrake was also not putting in any effort on the drivers side but was fine on the passenger side.

Since then, I have rebuilt all 4 calipers. The problem caliper was still having issues so I figured the piston could have become slightly mis-shaped or something. I then moved to buying a whole new caliper unit and replacing the old one. This also had minimum effect on the problem. When changing this, I also changed all of the handbrake cables (the 2 rear and 1 front).

Just incase it helps, this is my current brake setup:

3G 10 groove front discs

Mintex 1144 front pads

Braided lines at the front (still need to change the rear but have got siezed bolts where the metal line meets the rubber)

Cusco master cylinder stopper

Rebuilt calipers (+ 1 new caliper)

New handbrake cables

Motul RBF600 fluid

When the guys at the garage ive been taking the car to for the MOT put it on the rollers again to see if the problem had been cured, the car jumped off when testing the front brakes but still had the same problem with the rear. Passenger side is fine, foot and handbrake; drivers side is fubared, foot and handbrake.

While I was there, the guys took the pads off and showed me that they were just a tad bit glazed. They sanded them down a bit and tried again and there was a very slight improvement.

Tonight I have fitted new pads and with the handbrake fully engaged I can still turn the wheel when the car is jacked up. Theres resistance there, but I dont have to put huge amounts of effort to get it to move. The passenger side wheel wont budge.

I have got new rear discs from Toyota but unfortunately they ordered me non-abs jobbies so there is no ABS ring on them. Could the discs be the problem?

I cannot think of anything else now and I have replaced almost every element of the rear brakes! Im almost certain it wont be a master cylinder problem because the other 3 brakes are spot on!

Any help would be greatly appreciated. The cars been off the road for 3 weeks now!

Many thanks

John

June 10, 2007

Reading the symptoms the problem is obviously mechanical.

Should the fault be on the hydraulic side then you would be able to adjust the handbrake to get an equivalent reading on both sides.

If it were the other way round the handbrake would give low effort and the foot brake would give a sufficient reading.

I remember a similar problem on a vehicle in our workshop once, that was the same sort of ball aching head scratcher, after numerous attempted remedies it was found to be a faulty batch of friction lining on that particular wheel, each time we stripped that wheel down the brake material was always glazed (we put this down to heavy braking to try and bed it in). I’m not saying that this is your problem but it is a possibility.

Les

June 10, 2007

how does the hand brake work on your car? is it using the same pads as the foot brake or is it seperate?

I have had a problem like this and swaping the rear wheels sorted it but I'm not sure it'll help you as you say when it's jacked up you can still turn the wheel

was the caliper new or recon?

June 11, 2007

swap over brake line from one side to the other and see if the problem changes sides?

June 13, 2007

Thanks for your input lads.

Ive now fixed the handbrake. Turns out it was actually my fault! I had overtightened the cable so it was already half actuated on the caliper so when you pull the lever, it was hardly getting any movement.

However, the footbrake still isnt sorted. Its still reading a 40% discrepancy and sometimes doesnt even read at all.

I have changed the following:

Caliper

Discs

Pads

Rubber hose (replaced by braided)

Can anyone suggest where I go next?

Andrew, how would I go about changing the hoses over? Or do you mean the rubber ones?

Cheers

John

June 14, 2007

If you've changed everything, I suspect you must have a dented or kinked brake line somewhere

June 22, 2007

mine did something similar last year, the garage changed the brake lines and it sorted it out...after that i wouldnt no were to send you looking next :wacko: