Binding brakes.

[DavidRutherford]

Its worth noting here, that the handbrake ALWAYS feels tight when the brakes are applied, because you can not move the pads further by the handbrake lever.
I believe this is what you experiences and you are then foiled to think its a handbrake issue.

You misunderstand me Anders. What I'm saying is that once you apply the brakes hard and then come off the brakes, the handbrake has no movement at all.
Also, the handbrake will not go tight with the brakes on, as the handbrake will simply be moving the designed in "slop" in the system which is designed to prevent the very problem I am having. Yes, the pads won't go any further, but the mechanism will.

I'm pretty sure you have got binding caliper sliding bushes.

They are clean and free moving. If I slacken off the pistons, I can slide the calipers forwards and backwards with nothing more than light hand pressure.

Having had an assistant depress the footbrake with me watching the calipers, it really does look as if the pads compress too much, allowing the handbrake mechanism to adjust up. I'm also amazed at the amount of pad I've already used up (even allowing for the binding brakes issue) so I think they're just generally rather poor. I think I'll just use them up and then bung in a much better quality set.

[Jaba]

Yes I concur with Ander's suggestion.
Also if the bearing has been changed at any time then it is possible that the lugs on the hub got bent so that the two caliper bolts are no longer completely parallel thus inducing binding and brake sticking

[DavidRutherford]

Yes I concur with Ander's suggestion.

Which one? That I am mistaken and don't understand the difference between pulling the handbrake on with or without the footbrake on, or his assumption (and your previous assumption) that despite having the pads in and out a couple of times I wouln't have noticed siezed caliper sliders.

Not trying to be rude to either of you, but as I said in my previous posts, I do understand fully how bendix combined hydraylic and mechanical calipers work, and I also now know what is causing the problem (the handbrake auto-adjuster mechanism). What I was wondering mainly from this thread was whether anyone else has every experienced binding calipers on a BX, with the implication of that being NOT due to normal (and easy to sort) problems like siezed caliper sliders, but something more fundamantal/wierd/odd/umexpected etc.

[Jaba]

Which one?

Well I meant the sticking caliper slides. - Its only a suggestion David, based on your first post which said you had changed one caliper and that made no difference. The chances of both auto adjusters on the car starting over adjusting at the same time and a replacement doing the same seems very remote. But not impossible.

Been through any floods ? Is there any rusting in side the the caliper gaiters where the handbrake mechanism is.

Following one of your theories if the pads are soft and compressible then maybe the self adjusting is coming on too hard.

I have never known these things to play up. I had them on a Lancia I owned for a couple of years too. Each car though seems to have a different length of time between the times when it is necessary to force a self adjustment. My youngest BX never needs adjusting. The others every week or two.

[DavidRutherford]

Which one?

Well I meant the sticking caliper slides. - Its only a suggestion David.

I know, but in one of my other posts I also mentioned that if I brake gently all the time, then the brakes work just fine. No binding, and the handbrake has some travel in it again. If the slides were binding, then there would be no effect on the handbrake, I would just have binding brakes all the time.

Been through any floods ?

Hmm... it's a distinct possibility. I might have been through a bit of water. Maybe.

Following one of your theories if the pads are soft and compressible then maybe the self adjusting is coming on too hard.

This is exactly what is happening.

Each car though seems to have a different length of time between the times when it is necessary to force a self adjustment. My youngest BX never needs adjusting. The others every week or two.

Now, that's an interesting point. Of all the BX's I've seen/driven/owned, almost none of them have had a handbrake with similar travel. Also, some of them respond well to a "full system pressure" stand on the brake (to adjust up the handbrake mechanism), and others have no effect. I'm beginning to think that this is almost entirely down to brake pad hardness. Soft pads will allow the handbrake to adjust up when you stand on the brakes, whereas hard ones won't have anywhere near as much effect.

I'm now completely sure that this is just a set of rubbish brake pads, as not only have I now watched them compress under full system pressure, but I'm alarmed at the rate I'm going through them. Despite only having been in for a few thousand miles / a month or so, I've probably worn a good 20% of them away. At this rate they'll only last 10k miles, which is really rubbish. I can usually get at least 40k miles out of a set of front brake pads. It's also very noticeable that only having 80% of the pad left, the original problems seems to be not as severe as it was. I suspect the problem will get less and less as the pads (very quickly) wear away.

[AndersDK]

Been through any floods ?

Hmm... it's a distinct possibility. I might have been through a bit of water. Maybe.

Replace the pads. Seems they have seen the bottom of the glass ...

[DavidRutherford]

The thing is, they were binding before I went through that flood.

You're quite right though Anders. I really should just change the pads for better ones. Thing is, I have eleventy million other little projects to be getting on with, and they work(ish) for the moment. So sod them. I'll just use them up with a new set on standby.