Citroen C6 brake caliper rebuild

[cornesoutafrica]

Hi Everyone

I need some assistance

I want to rebuild the calipers on a C6 later this year. And by rebuild I mean beadblast the unit and re electroplate it aswell as new seals etc. My question now is, the electroplating part. When the cars were fresh and brand new, what colour was the calipers? Was it a silvery finish, a dull silvery finish or did the calipers have the yellowish cadmium colour finish?

Then also I checked online, but what manufacturer do you guys suggest for the caliper seal kit as there are loads.....

I hope for some assistance.

Kind regards
Corne

[cornesoutafrica]

Does anyone got an idea? Id like to restore them as closely as possible to original specs:)

[Stickyfinger]

Are they not a very common design/part with lots of other cars ?

[cornesoutafrica]

To be honest I don’t know. Seems like c5 and 407 share certain brake parts with the C6 after checking caliper repair kits online...

[GiveMeABreak]

The originals were either Teves or TRW and just tended to be the standard silvery grey colour from what I can see Corne.

I’ve assumed you managed to import your C6 finally then?

Anyway if you have the VIN, I can supply the part numbers and then you can search on them to find the images for a colour match. I think these have repair kits and the cylinders and yokes are sold separately.

[cornesoutafrica]

Hi Marc

Ah so the same colour as the C4...

Well, the cat is out of the bag.... YES!!!! I managed to import one, she is not yet at my home but already in the country!!! Had a short drive in her and I am extatic! She needs work, the saltroads and wet weather did take its toll. My C5 is pristine and brand new underneath compared to the C6 So someone will get a tonne of TLC. I noticed the discs and pads look bad so from a safety point I will have to do it.

It is supposed to be winter here, but this part Monday when I saw the C6 it as pretty hot so I switched on the AC and only warm air came out and the radiator fans didn't switch on..... I looked in the service history receipts in the glovebox and saw there was something wrong with the radiator fans. Now I do not know if the two are related or not. Possibly the AC refrigerant is out and the fans are damaged or possibly the fans do not switch on immediately when you turn on the AC? I couldnt drive the car far enough to get to normal temp and anycase I couldn't see the water temperature? Might be funny, but it as the first time I actually sat in a C6, went through all the gizmos so possibly I overlooked it. only had an hour or so to have a look at the car.

I am completely and utterly inlove!

The VIN is:

VF7**************[VIN obfuscated, can be read by forum staff]

And just a pic to show how she looks

[GiveMeABreak]

Hi Corne - Excellent news - I won't ask how you finally managed to import it in case they put an APB out on you

Glad you managed it though and she looks very nice from the picture.

These are the TRW brakes at the front then.

Front Brakes	Rear Brakes

I'll send you an email for the full specs for the C6 so you know what it does and doesn't have - so look out for it shortly.

[cornesoutafrica]

Hi Marc.

Lol. Ok. First of all. It is/was all done legally. So atleast there I’m safe.

Ah. Great. Will check for rebuild kits. Do you possibly know. The plates (nr 3 and 10). Were they painted black or plated as these are quite bad. So might be worthwhile to get then up to standard aswell.

Any idea if there indeed is a way to check the water temp in the c6?

Kind regards

[cornesoutafrica]

Thanks for the buildsheet Marc. It is helping alot!

[furriegurrie]

There is 1 setting on the central display that gives info on water and oil temp. You can find it when you cycle through the screens for the “trip mode” which you select by pressing the trip button. You cycle through the 3 screens by pressing the top of the wiper stalk

[GiveMeABreak]

Hi Marc.

Lol. Ok. First of all. It is/was all done legally. So atleast there I’m safe.

Ah. Great. Will check for rebuild kits. Do you possibly know. The plates (nr 3 and 10). Were they painted black or plated as these are quite bad. So might be worthwhile to get then up to standard aswell.

Any idea if there indeed is a way to check the water temp in the c6?

Kind regards

Yes, these are a rust issue - mine have disintegrated at the rear, and they were ridiculously expensive to replace new and I couldn't source any second hand ones that didn't also look like they would crumble in your hand so have left it. The ones I looked at were black, and had I sourced some reasonable ones, the first thing I would of done was coated them in Hammerite. I may still do when I get round to looking again.

[cornesoutafrica]

Thank you Furriegurrie. I thought there must be a way to see it somewhere... I am quite concerned about the radiator fans not coming on when the AC is switched on, I just wanted to know where to check the temperature on her way to me as I am not able to get new fans and install them at this current moment. atleast it is all highway to my place so she will be moving constantly.



Marc, great ok, so the shields do have issues, I will just keep on looking for some online. I wonder if electroplating a good set after sodablasting might help them survive longer? Atleast this side of the world her rust days are over.... It's so dry here, rain is scarce. I wonder how the electrics will act in the dry air. I got this suspicion that issues might be way less, time will tell. there were error codes on display ABS and EBD fault and faulty electric handbrake. Most likely a dodgy ABS sensor. I remember my pickup truck when it rained had no error code and after a few days it will come back, was a dodgy sensor, I am thinking the same thing here.... can't wait for her to finally be home. Lots and lots of questions coming

[GiveMeABreak]

The weather will be a stark contrast from here, so I would expect her to last for ages. Your approach would be the same as me - anything you can preserve and protect is a bonus - especially as parts become harder to source over the coming years. Mine were so flakey they just crumbled into dust and parts of the plate went into the disc area, so had to brush that out - but the salt on the roads here is a killer.

The electric parking brake will be similar to the C5 X7 so controlled by the ESP ECU - although the EPB does have its own ECU it is a master slave setup with the ESP ECU being in charge as it were. Any fault in the ESP system will prevent some EPB functions from working - though as this would of been an earlier version of the system, I'm not sure if it has hill start assist or not - there doesn't seem to be any mention of this in the handbook that I can find.

I'm sure you'll have plenty of questions though

[cornesoutafrica]

Ah ok, so the ESP/ABS fault also has something to do with the Handbrake issue.
Thanks for the explanation.
As this is the first car I imported form overseas it is quite interesting to see how much damage the constant dampness and rain influences the car overall. I do have this idea that by simply cleaning a myriad of connections and certain electric units many of the issues will solve themselves.

The C5 I have, touch wood, has had very very few issues, apart from a swing arm bearing many years back and the floppy gearlever in D and the SAGEM coils failing she has been quite good. Never needed new brakepads, still on her original set since 2001! I will try my best to get her back to a showroom condition as much as possible.

You are correct, Marc. I will go the way of preserving what I have and keep it as good as possible. We know it by now but the C6 will go the way of the DS most likely. So we just need to preserve them a while longer. Can't really explain how excited I am to get my mechanic hands on her:) Cleaning Repairing and enjoying her

[GiveMeABreak]

That's what it's all about and I'm really pleased you managed to get one over there. It will be a real head turner I'm sure coasting down the streets of Jo'burg!

Plus you have a nice specification with the equaliser amplifier, the Heads Up Display and the Electric Boot Deflector.

As you have the RT4, this was a little before bluetooth, so here's a tip of mine that I used in my C5 II with RT3 which was similar. Get a compatible SIM card and slot that into the RT4. Then on your mobile phone, create 2 contacts, let's say 'Car Divert' and 'Car Undivert'.

On the 'Car Divert' contact, enter **21* followed by the C6's SIM card Telephone number and then a #
On the 'Car Undivert' contact enter ##21#

Then when you are going for a spin in the C6, just dial the 'Car Divert' on your mobile and all your mobile calls will be diverted to the RT4 telephone so you'll have handsfree for your mobile effectively.

When you leave the car, just hit the 'Car Undivert' option to route calls back to your mobile.

These codes are for Vodafone, but your mobile provider over there will have the same or similar. It's one way of being able to take calls on your mobile without bluetooth or fitting any unsightly third party devices.