Couple of brake caliper questions

[andy_harries]

Following a recent track day, my brakes started squeaking on the way home.  In the past on other cars that's been a result of a build up of brake dust (lots of hard breaking !), so I thought I would combine sorting that that with a check of the pads and a bit of a brake bleed.

Couple of questions as its a bit different from previous cars:

1) There are two bleed nipples on the caliper, I'm used to only one.  Can I assume that's for convenience and that I can happily use the outer nipple to bleed from, or do I have to use both?

2) the piece of wire holding in the pad retaining pins looks like it will have to be cut to get the pins out.  On other cars these have been simple R-clips I can pull out and put back in.  If I cut the wire I'll need to replace it every time I mess with the brake pads which seems a bit odd.  Is this normal?  Can I replace the wire with  small R-clips ?

Pic (2016 roadsport, look like standard 2 pot front calipers on unvented discs)

[Jim 123]

The bleed nipples are underneath the black rubber caps in your photo.  2 per caliper and the convention is to bleed the innermost nipple first. My car has R clips.

[ECR]

You need to bleed from both nipples. Start with the inboard one. I'd be happy putting a R clip in place of the lockwire

[LesG]

I've just fitted a pair of these calipers to my car, and they came with R-clips. I would bleed both nipples to ensure there's no air in the caliper, but also there's fresh fluid coming through both sides.

[andy_harries]

Thanks guys, I'll pick up some r clips and use both bleed nipples

[gulf 1]

I had R clips on my calipers but they have come out on two separate occasions so am now using split pins instead.I suspect that may have been why your pad retaining pins have been wire locked.

[andy_harries]

The bleed nipple is a lot bigger than on my previous cars, so none of my tubing fits!

One question - I have a bottle of never opened brake fluid thats about 6 years old.  The seal is still good - would it be fine to use?

[Jim 123]

You can get the Technical Data Sheet for your fluid on the internet. I've personally never come across shelf life limits for unopened DOT 4. If the container has the original foil seal intact it should be OK.

I found a couple of unopened bottles of brake fluid in my garage recently, but decided to bin them as a tenner would get me something that would not harbour unproven consequences of ageing and storage.

[jackb_ms]

With regards the 6 year old brake fluid in an unopened bottle, I was in the same position as you last year.

The color and "feel" of the liquid the old unopened bottle I had compared to a new one was dramatic.

I decided to "recycle" the old fluid and use only new stuff.

Jack

[andy_harries]

I think that settles it - new stuff to be ordered....