Ford Ka mk1 servicing continued....brake pads

[dishman]

My DIY learning with car servicing continues....

I have a few threads about a few different issues while leaning how to do things on this ford KA.

The next thing is the front brakes. Thanks to a really good ford deal I ordered some OEM pads and discs for much cheaper then OEM equivalents at any of the usual stores.

They arrived today and I was slightly miffed how the pads were packaged, but....having not ordered parts like this before, I was not sure what to expect in terms of packaging.


They came in a box like this, I assumed they would all be packaged a bit more cushioned and protected....but no.

My only concern is that some of the edges looked, perhaps, slightly chipped.




You can see here the bottom edge of the lower pad seems like it has a bit of a edge chip.



A few other pictures, but the one above shows the issue best I think.



My guess is that they are fine, as long as the main pad surface is not damaged. Thought I'd check though.

 

[Mottie]

I wouldn’t be worried about fitting them. I grind much more than that off of them if fitting to used discs to clear the lip.

 

[Burnerman]

Fairly unorthodox packaging but so long as they are genuine Motorcraft the chipping can be ignored. Did they come from a Ford dealer?
Has your Ka the single solid front disc?
John

 

[dishman]

yes, genuine motorcraft, direct from the ford shop. It was the full front kit. This Ka actually has vented front discs. So do most of the examples i've seen on youtube how to videos for this model.

It has drums on the rear though.

 

[Belle427]

Seems odd they were not packaged better, you have to be careful these days as there are lots of counterfeit parts around online.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

The OP may have been sent customer returns, hence the random box and the slight damage.

 

[dishman]

Just an update to my slow ford ka servicing.

Finally got round to doing the power steering fluid.....and it looked very old.

Jet black, smelled bad.

I used the manual method and disconnected the return pipe to the hopper and manually turned the wheels on jacks while adding fresh.

It took nearly 2 litres before it started coming through mostly red.

Probably not the most comprehensive method, but it got the job done.

 

[Burnerman]

Good move, the black comes from various rubber seals, combined with some heat.
Dextron 3 I guess!
John

 

[dishman]

Yeh, the colour was bad.

It was a bit more of faff (as it always ends up being), as I was basing the procedure on similar era fords (mk5 fiesta etc). They all seemed to have a point on the return feed that could be easily split with a lot of flex and play.

This was not the case on this KA. It was all very fixed in place, no slack. The only point I could see that had some kind of connection did not look like it would be easy to split.

So, option B was to disconnect the return at the hopper. But even then, there was pretty much zero space or flex in the hose.

So at that point it all got bit heath robinson, and I connected a funnel to some washing machine hose, fed that through the engine bay to a container, jammed the funnel in as close as I could and then just....just had enough bend on the return hose to guide it into the funnel.

I had to enlist someone to physically bend and keep the hose pointing into the funnel.

I emptied a lot out of the hopper first using a clean soap dispenser, filled it with fresh and then kept turning the wheel lock to lock until it ran red (ish).

As you can see, the fluid extracted from the hopper was jet black.

Old and new fluid. Even the smallest drop is still jet black, no translucency at all.

I flushed through nearly 2 litres. But, I have a feeling I could have done lot more. After since running the car the fluid looks more like a dark red. But, it's still maybe 90% flushed with fresh fluid, so much better than it was.

I'm sure the steering feels lighter too.