I bought my wife a J reg LiteAce 1500 petrol in June 2002. She drove it here and there for four months without any trouble at all then it developed a brake fluid leak at the rear cylinder. The brakes were binding and creating fumes in the vehicle and ther was a leakage of fluid on the carpet in fron of the pedals so I phoned up the dealer I bought it from and after paying £30 to have it towed bak to him he sent it to the garage to have it repaired. The Garage told me that the front caliper pistons were sticking and the rear wheel cylinders needed replacing. I got the vehicle back after four days and my wife drove it for four days more without problems then..near disaster!.
On here way home from picking up our bavby neice(4 months old) and with four other kids in the van, without warning may wife heard a clump (like you have gon over a tine or plastic bottle in the road) and the van skidded and did a complete 360 in the middle of the road. It was 5 to 10 mins befor it would move and she then got it home driving very slowly and very frightened. It happened the next day also on two occasions and I told the garage to come and get it, and very angry I was too. He took it back and I got it back after a week. He said that he could find no problem with the operation of the repaired fron caliper and that he had asked the manufater for replacement rear cylinders as they must be faulty. He repalced the rear cylinders adn drove the van about for approx 35 miles with no problems. He brought the vehicle back to my house (yesterday 08/12/2002) and I agrred that he could drive it back home and I would drive it back. He gave it a pretty rough road test (going over road humps as speed and hard breaking) on the way and all was fine. I drove it back home (about 7 miles) and all was well until I was about a mile from home when I heard a clum from somewhre around the passenger side rear and then the liteace started to skidder and career behind me. The mechanic is at his whits end as to what is wrong and so am I (wife is giving me GBH of the earhole about her van and is very scared to drive it :( ) Has anyone had this problem before or heard of this problem, an what is the solution. The breaks were not being pressed at any time when this happened I/ my wife was just cruising at a about 30 mph.

Please Help

- (#6353) Rohan O'amrd, 9 Dec 02

are you sure it's brakes? any chance a rear wheel bearing is nipping up?
As your foot isn't on the brake, that would rule out the master cylinder, although a faulty servo could cause the brakes to apply by themselves...

- (#6354) david miller, 9 Dec 02

Tnx for the advice so far David


The lock ups always happen on the rear passenger side
and the mechanic says that the bearings are ok and if it was the server it wouldnt only be happening on one wheel place the pedal would become hard to push down. I cant believe that noone has ever had this problem befor, there has to be someone. He(the mechanic)has managed to get it to lock up whilst in gear (on rollers) but is no clearer as to why it is happening.
wife is getting more irate.....me more depressed
Advice please,

- (#6355) Rohan O'mard, 9 Dec 02

In your first post, you say 'a leakage of fluid on the carpet in fron of the pedals', this would suggest a leaky back seal on the master cylinder, so I don't see why they diagnosed the wheel cylinders, if wheel cylinders were leaking they would contaminate the rear shoes & make the brakes ineffective on that wheel. If the problem is with the brakes, then it could be either the load proportioning valve or the master cylinder. But I'm inclined to go along with David, could it be a tight wheel bearing that overheats when driven a little way & seizes up, when left 10 minutes or so it cools & functions OK, at least until the next overheat. Other possibilities could be a faulty diff, or damaged half shaft causing temporary seizure. (I assume it's a 2 wheel drive, not sure if they did a 4x4 1500 liteace!!). If you say there is a bang and then it locks up, I suspect a mechanical problem rather than the brakes.
HTH Rob.

- (#6356) Rob Drinkwater, 9 Dec 02

well, if it's definitely brake, and only happens on one wheel, you've gotta be looking at handbrake mechanism or perhaps return springs. Does going over a bump make it happen?

- (#6357) david miller, 9 Dec 02

Hi Rob and David
Tnx very much for your replies. Ist to you Rob, yes there was a leagage of break fluid on the carpet in front of the pedals(more towards the the accelerator pedals side but underfoot) but there was also a leak on one of the rear cylinders(could see the drips on the ground if stationrery for any length of time)

To David, YES! my wife told me that the 2nd and 3rd time it happened she had just driven over a piece of grating(cattle???) on the A13 then immediate screeching of brakes and skidding. It happened to here in exactly the same place (on the other side of the A13)when she went over the grate there.

Please tell me you know whats causing it, as it seem very strange that nothing at all like this was happening with the van unitl this mechanic said he changed both rear wheel cylinders(and hes done them twice now and its still happening!!)

- (#6358) Rohan O'mard, 9 Dec 02

Additional
The mechanic says that he managed to reproduce the lockup while running the van up on jacks.
He says he belives the rear brake shoes may have been damaged in the original binding up of the brakes when the fluid ran out. he also says he has checked both rear wheel bearings and that if there was a fault with either of them he would be able to tell as the bearing would make a whirring sound when they rotated and the wheel would not run true. Sounds logical but I'm a computer engineer not a vehicle mechanic, is he bullsh*tting me??. He says that he has replaced both break shoes and has been running it again back on the jacks, , breaking until the breaks are hot but cannot so far reproducethe lockups he got with the old brake shoes. can I begin to hope against hope that the shoe change can solve the problem, or is this another false dawn???

Tnx again for all your input it is greatly appreciated.

- (#6359) Rohan O'amrd, 9 Dec 02

Is the mechanic sure that he reassembled the brake shoes, return springs and self adjusters correctly?

It still could be a bearing, but very unlikely.

- (#6360) david miller, 9 Dec 02

Thinking wildy here... Is it possible that it's nothing to do with the brakes? since examining the brakes is getting nowhere.
The "screech" is from the tyres not the brakes, so the starting point is that something is suddenly stopping the wheel going round. Because of the diff it could be that something is stopping the prop shaft going round and the effect appears on the passenger side just because that tyre skids first (less loaded, more worn).
Is it manual or Auto? Following the brake repairs could something in the transmission be susceptible to locking when the vehicle is shaken? I find it hard to believe that an Auto box popping into "P" would do this - more likely to break the box.
Maybe the engine is stopping? Interesting that it took 5 to 10 mins to get it moving again after the first incident - what exactly were the symptoms then? are you sure it was a stuck wheel or maybe was that because the engine wouldn't turn?

- (#6361) Dave Mason, 12 Dec 02

Following Dave here with another " wild" theory but, the symptoms are a bit strange and I think that every angle, even the obscure ones, should be looked at. I assume that the mechanic has assembled the brake gear corrrctly and that there is a bit of a "leading edge" on the brake shoes. Has the security of the axle been checked ? Is there any movement, of the axle, due, possibly to a badly worn radius arm pin or, some other worn component, which allows the axle to move and tension the handbrake cable ? A vague, long shot I'm afraid but, it should not be overlooked

- (#6401) John Davis, 12 Dec 02

I wouldn't use this mechanic again if I were you, the line 'The mechanic says that he managed to reproduce the lockup while running the van up on jacks.
He says he belives the rear brake shoes may have been damaged in the original binding up of the brakes when the fluid ran out.' worries the hell out of me, you have already said that the wheel cylinder leaked, therefore he should have replaced the brake shoes, as they would have been useless due to contamination with brake fluid, if he did change the shoes then I suspect that he assembled the mechanism incorrectly, possibly not refitting the 'hold down springs' if he had omitted these then the shoes would try to come away from the back plate, due to the return springs trying to move them closer together, this could possibly cause the problem I suppose. If he has now fitted new shoes & got them to hold down properly then this COULD cure the problem, but personally I still think that brakes may not be the only problem you have. Regards Rob.

- (#6402) Rob Drinkwater, 12 Dec 02

Fixed!!! Thank you all for all your replies. Apparentely the rear break shoe on the passenger side developed a fault in the mechanism that caused it to engange when it reached a certain temperature, therefore outside conditions(rain etc) would cause it ot lock up at diferent times and although it was driven for some miles without locking (in rainy conditions it locked up quicker when the weather dried out :s . Replacing the ofeending brake shoe has fixed the problem and now the LiteAce (and my wife!) are both happy again :) Once again thnx to you all for trying to help.

- (#6671) Rohan O'mard, 6 Jan 03

I'm with Rob on this and I trust ANOTHER mechanic resolved your problem. If it was temperature related, how the hell did he re-create the heat build-up (unless of course his garage so happens to be in hell)?

- (#6688) Dave B, 8 Jan 03