hi

had a bit of trouble with front drum adjustment recently but didn't realise this could happen.

brakes were stopping me fine - not altogether straight but not bad...however....

few 100 yards from home i had to do a sudden emergency stop (no dings thank god) however the rear brakes locked up with the force but fronts seemed to do little. got home and the car wasn't driven for a few days.

went to brake the next time i used it and there was nothing there....totally soft. a full reservoir had drained and there's DOT4 dripping from the front drums.

a total overhaul of the brakes is being carried out next week; not by me, the wife's got a baby due next week.....but

my question is - how could this have happened so dramatically and so quickly to both drums? has anyone had a similar experience

p.s - no leaking from the pipes...

thanks alot for any thoughts or advise

Will

Your story is very common. The front wheel cylinders pistons seals are shit house quality. They either leak very early in their life or stop working all together if not used. The wet side of the seals is not holding the brake fluid back very well, especially when braking hard is needed. The dry side (between seal and dust cover seal is a ‘’perfect’ place for moister to live. If not used, rust get a grip quickly. When I fit new cylinders I pull the pistons out and apply special grease to the seal and the piston. That seems to prolong the life being in use and also when not in use.
One guy in Australia tossed the seals out and fitted slightly oversized seals (thicker) with a good result.

thanks Viking - so this is nothing to do with the adjustments we discussed the other week? just bad luck - i have to say when we had it all apart earlier thsi year, the cylinders looked fairly new....so is this the difference between 2 different makes / quality of cylinder

are there still Citroen ones out there? or is it all pattern stuff now?

w

The seals don’t care too much, where the shoes are, except how much travel they need to do. The more travel the more ware.
I do not know but I don’t think Citroën made their own cylinders. Citroën was supplied by Valeo but Valeo do not produce parts to small markets anymore.
Today we stock STOP IBERICA from Spain.
http://www.stopiberica.es/index.php?id=134&L=1
and we don’t have too many problems. Before them we had some Bendix but the rear LHM cylinders seals was a big problem. During braking the seals rolled and pulled back the pistons too much. Next time hitting the pedal it disappeared half way down to the floor, very scary. I replaced all the seals with a firmer seals and voila problem solved but our suppler is now supplying STOP to us.

hi

is STOP a make of cylinder???

thanks for advice

What an excellent name for brake components

Citroen were supplied by Bendix, even Lockheed & Girling, later STIB made some cylinders for Bendix.

One possibility is that a previous owner has fitted undersize pistons & seals or just a seal set on old pistons, the type of problem you describe is NOT common - don't think about fitting oversize seals, do carefully check the i.d. of yours before fitting new seals or pistons.

What I mean by common is that wheel cylinders leak due to crappy seals.
Agree not to fit other seals if you don't know what you are looking at. If the wheel cylinder is ''not original'' and has been fiddled with. Fit new cylinders.
If cylinders and pistons are ''correct and original'' it is safe to fit firmer seals.
Main thing is that the seal can handle the brake fluid and that the seal is not too big and biting inside the cylinder.

they had popped - as they were worn and had been sat in a damp shed all last winter - you live and learn

Gary Dicks did the work for me as i was tending to an expanding family - and what a top job he's done....if you're in the south west region, look him up....

so back on the road through the winter - hurrah!!!

w