Car brakes, Handbrake question.

And several Citroen models. Two I know for sure are the DS and the Xantia.

I have had a Citroen GS, a BX and a Xantia, all had handbrake pads on the front discs. All had all-round discs.

And the DS, at least, had inboard front brakes, which gets around the problem that Schuyler mentioned.

Incidentally, the handbrake as an emergency brake saved my bacon in the GS - first Citroen I owned.

I regilarly drive down an eight mile long bank and was in the habit of turning off the engine end allowing the car to roll down the bank - prior to being a Citroen owner this posed no problems (no servo on the brakes, no power steering - it was that long ago)
Turning off the Citroen’s engine brought some complications, as it powered the hydraulic pump that in turn powered the suspension and the braking system

There is enough pressure in the system to operate the brakes about eight times with the engine not running, but unfortunately, on a fairly curvy downhill run, the height correctors in the suspension system bled of the pressurised fluid and whne t

I was very glad of the emergency brake on that occasion, I can tell you.

As did the GS, discs were bolted on to the gearbox/diff. output. And they were huge.
An absolute bugger to change though.

IIRC, my long-gone 1983 Subaru GL had a diagonal arrangement - think it was left rear and right front wheels that had the parking brakes. My memory’s really fuzzy on this part, but I sorta recall there being a tiny self-contained cylinder on the front right caliper for the parking function.

Don’t know how they are now, but back then, Subaru sometimes seemed to do things strange just for the sake of being strange. Having to screw the pistons in rather than simply compressing them ought to be an omen. :smiley:

So the emergency here was ‘muppet behind the wheel’ :stuck_out_tongue:

Inarguably. Never did it again so it was a lesson learned. I’m just glad it was the GS and not the BX or Xantia with the power steering run off the hydraulic system too.