Rivage rear brakes not working

just out of interest why
would the age of the
brake fluid make any
difference what so
ever to the rear brakes
if that was the case the
front brakes would not
work either

The older the Fluid the more moisture it absorbs to rusticate your calipers and wheel cylinders.  The old Castrol type GT/LMA was better but it still absorbed moisture out of the air.  The newer totally synthetic seems to resolve this.

IF'n it was me, On a new to me car I rebuild the MC, and the Calipers, I use Teflon tape on the bleeders and poke a hole in the end where the port it.

I replace the Rear wheel cylinders, and Brake shoes, drums and Bearings.

When the Master cylinder is out, one at a time I open the bleeders and attach a hose on it into a 1 quart jar and blow all the old fluid out.

I bench bleed the new master, and attach it evenly on the nuts to the booster. I have a home made power bleeder out of a 2 quart garden sprayer you can google it.  I then power bleed the lines one at a time. Pump the pedal a few times and re-bleed.

If the e-brake cables look suspect as in opened casings showing rust, I replace them as well.

On a 45 degree incline about 3 clicks of the e-brake will stop my car from rolling.  Then every year I power bleed my system to keep it clean…

I personally if it was my car would replace the wheel cylinders, shoes bearings and drums, bleed it and know it is done and over with for a few years.  As I get 70K easily out of a set of rear shoes, and usually have to replace them because of a whel cylinder failure.

Come to think on it I had to rebuild my green cars calipers and the kits were like 7USD each.  

The rear kits were 20 bucks, but the whole cylinder was 7…go figure.

nicci21paul said

just out of interest why
would the age of the
brake fluid make any
difference what so
ever to the rear brakes
if that was the case the
front brakes would not
work either

If you saw the rust amount of rust that came out you would be amazed! , the old fluid was almost like tar!

it still would not stop the brakes
working on the rear, hand brake
did that pass the brake test mate

nicci21paul said

it still would not stop the brakes
working on the rear, hand brake
did that pass the brake test mate

yep, handbrake was fine. Going to re check the rear pads , to make sure they are assembled correctly. All of with looks fairly new and replaced before i got the car.

rear pads or shoes ?

Alps said

nicci21paul said

just out of interest why
would the age of the
brake fluid make any
difference what so
ever to the rear brakes
if that was the case the
front brakes would not
work either

If you saw the rust amount of rust that came out you would be amazed! , the old fluid was almost like tar!

Yep, when I got my Cabrio I did a full servcie including all fluids - the brakes wouldn't bleed with the nipple slackened off, I had to remove nipple and push the brake pedal hard and a lump of gung shot across the garage like squeezing a zit lol, then thick black gunge bleed out. It had been a one owner car only used in the summer so they assumed it didn't need regular brake bleeding as it never did much mileage……In the end I replaced master cylinder, both front calipers, rear cylinders and bleed everything

Update

So after some more investigation this is what was found
1. Brake pipe on rear beam was squashed
2. self adjuster wrongly assembled (prior to my ownership)

rear beam is currently being rebuilt with
- new bushes
- new wheel bearings
- new ARB brackets
- rebuild of the rear drums (correctly )
- new flexi hoses
- Repair to the squashed brake pipe

Since you are rebuilding the rear, I would do new shoes, drums and wheel cylinders as well as bearings and be totally done with the rears for a few years.

all done, feels more solid in the back end now, brkes feel better but i guess the MOT machine will be the ultimate test.

All rear brake lines replaced
Rear brakes\cylinders replaced
all bushes
ARB clamps
wheel bearings