Replacement  disks and pads

Another straightforward job. My disks were 18mm thick, the wear limit was 21mm - not sure how it passed its MOT like that.

Process:

• Jack up, remove wheel. Remove small bolt which allows the calliper to swing up and then remove the pads.
• Then with a 19 socket remove the two bolts that hold the calliper to the axle.
• Now remove the large posidrive retaining screw that holds the disk on.

Clean the stub axle up and put some copperslip on the back of the brake disk.

I used one of the brake pads to force both the pistons back in.

I also found I needed to clean up the area where the pads slip back in.

Remember to put some copperslip between the mating surfaces of the wheel and brake disk so it doesn’t seize on.

Front air spring replacement

A supposedly simple job that took a little longer than expected.

When ordering your springs, make sure you order the retaining clip / fitting clip which contains new upper and lower retaining clips/springs.

The tell-tale signs were there from the start - the wheel arch liner had been removed and the pin holding the lower air spring in was not bolted down.

Turns out the retaining pin was siezed in the hole - which is a common problem - so presumably the last person gave up.

Rather than remove the entire wheel arch liner, I found that unclipping it and folding it back gave me enough room to get my hands in to the top of the spring where the retaining clips are.

Removing the seized retaining clip

A little bit of googling suggested grinding the pin away or using a big crow bar between the spring base and the steel axle pad to snap the pin.

I opted for the grinder approach because I had one to hand. I would say its is possible to just break it out if its old and corroded - One of them was partially ground and then forced out - you can see it snapped quite easily.

Doh..

I had a jack underneath the front axle to support it whilst fitting the spring. I wanted to lower the axle to give me more room - so I just lowered the jack. This pulled the bag  of the upper housing, as the bag was still empty and not inflated. I got the bag back on by jacking the axle back up to close the gap, plus a bit of soap plus a blast from the compressor - which sorted it.

After getting the car back on its wheels, this side was drooping down. Turns out I damaged the height sensor by allowing it to drop so far. So I’ve re calibrated the sensor as a workaround for now.