Bringing a 740 back to life

[Challo]

Thanks Luke and Dave. Just dropped Bigg Red a message on the repair kits and also reconditioning the calipers as well.

Going to work out what works best in terms of costs for all options and go from there.

Hopefully this is the last piece to get her on the road and being able to use her.

Just to add I heard back from Bigg Red on the costs.

Refurb - £135 + 7.99 postage
Mechanic Fitting - £80
Total £230

Repair Kit - £60
Mechanic Labour - £160
Total £220

Just need to toy up the idea of getting them refurb, attempting the replacement myself and perhaps cocking it up and needing the mechanic to fit them anyway

[360beast]

It would be very hard to mess up fitting them

If you were closer I'd be happy to come over and help.

As the calipers are off you might as well change the flexis too as they will probably be past their best.

Fit new flexis to the refurbished calipers, put the anti squeal pads in, new pads in applying either silicone grease, copper grease or ceramic brake paste to all the contact points (where the pads touch the caliper/AS pads). Put the calipers and pads on to the disc and do up the two 12/13mm bolts depending on if they have been replaced and torque them up or do them up very tight with a little bit of threadlock. Then you just need to do up the brake unions in to the flexis and sit back wondering why you even doubted yourself.

Bleeding the brakes you can do the old school way but the best thing to do is invest in a gunsons ezi bleed, the bleeding order is:

Rear left
Rear right
Front left bottom
Front left top
Front right bottom
Front right top

Brake fluid you will probably need a couple litres as you will want to flush out a lot of crud from the system so it will be more cost effective to buy a 5l bottle of Dot 4 from halfords or euro car parts etc

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by 360beast

It would be very hard to mess up fitting them

If you were closer I'd be happy to come over and help.

As the calipers are off you might as well change the flexis too as they will probably be past their best.

Fit new flexis to the refurbished calipers, put the anti squeal pads in, new pads in applying either silicone grease, copper grease or ceramic brake paste to all the contact points (where the pads touch the caliper/AS pads). Put the calipers and pads on to the disc and do up the two 12/13mm bolts depending on if they have been replaced and torque them up or do them up very tight with a little bit of threadlock. Then you just need to do up the brake unions in to the flexis and sit back wondering why you even doubted yourself.

Bleeding the brakes you can do the old school way but the best thing to do is invest in a gunsons ezi bleed, the bleeding order is:

Rear left
Rear right
Front left bottom
Front left top
Front right bottom
Front right top

Brake fluid you will probably need a couple litres as you will want to flush out a lot of crud from the system so it will be more cost effective to buy a 5l bottle of Dot 4 from halfords or euro car parts etc

Thanks Luke - saved me a lot of typing there!

Definitely agree on flushing the brake system completely and the Easibleed - took me about 20 minutes once the car had all 4 wheels off although i have two less bleed nipples on mine.

Another source of brake fluid :

https://www.smithandallan.com/produc...-brake-fluid-/

That said i have an unopened 5L tub from ECP in the shed, bought during one of their eternal sales for about half the price of the S&A stuff. Will be using that to change the fluid in both of mine soon plus some work on the 760 brakes.

[bob12]

You are not far away Challo. If you want any advice I am happy to pop over as it's all quiet at the moment and one or other of my cars needs a run out. PM me if you want.

Bob

[Challo]

Thanks all for the information. Luke you make it sound like a piece of cake

Got some time on Saturday, so will take a look at the flexi's and see how crusty it all is.

Having a think my mechanic is just charging me labour, so I would still need to buy the flexi's, new pads, fluid etc which will not doubt make it alot more expensive then doing it myself.

[Challo]

Originally Posted by bob12

You are not far away Challo. If you want any advice I am happy to pop over as it's all quiet at the moment and one or other of my cars needs a run out. PM me if you want.

Bob

Will do. Thanks

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Challo

Thanks all for the information. Luke you make it sound like a piece of cake

I did say further up it's a straight-forward job Chris - as long as you're methodical it should be a "spanner job", in other words a fairly simple task involving the use of basic tools.

Follow Lukes instructions and you won't go wrong, if you get stuck on anything, stick a post on here and someone is likely to respond fairly quickly with the answer.

[Challo]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

I did say further up it's a straight-forward job Chris - as long as you're methodical it should be a "spanner job", in other words a fairly simple task involving the use of basic tools.

Follow Lukes instructions and you won't go wrong, if you get stuck on anything, stick a post on here and someone is likely to respond fairly quickly with the answer.

Its a learning experience at the end of the day, and you have to start somewhere.

At least I have the Volvo sat in the garage now and not on the driveway so I can take my time and keep dry. Plus keeps the missus off my back, she hates the car

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Challo

Its a learning experience at the end of the day, and you have to start somewhere.

At least I have the Volvo sat in the garage now and not on the driveway so I can take my time and keep dry. Plus keeps the missus off my back, she hates the car

It certainly is a learning experience Chris, we all had to start somewhere as well. It's always handy to have a forum like this and for my part, it's a pleasure to help those that want to learn so it's a two-way street in that respect.

As for your missus, she'll work it out one day when your 740 is still going through the snow and everything else and (i'm guessing she has something modern) her Euro-blob is once more having its computers tweaked after an extortionately expensive part has been fitted on the dignostic computers say-so only for another fault to appear soon after!

[Challo]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

It certainly is a learning experience Chris, we all had to start somewhere as well. It's always handy to have a forum like this and for my part, it's a pleasure to help those that want to learn so it's a two-way street in that respect.

As for your missus, she'll work it out one day when your 740 is still going through the snow and everything else and (i'm guessing she has something modern) her Euro-blob is once more having its computers tweaked after an extortionately expensive part has been fitted on the dignostic computers say-so only for another fault to appear soon after!

True. She works for BMW so has a new company car every 6months which is handy. To be honest she doesn't like my daily either which is a Mini Cooper S Clubman (09).