1990 Espace

[renaultsan]

For those of you lucky enough to run an early Espace with Girling front calipers, this should be of interest. My Espace plus my 1987 Renault Alpine GTA and two of our Renault 25's all share the same front calipers. I have just finished rebuilding the front calipers of the GTA with parts bought from Rock Auto USA. What I got was two new 54mm diameter pistons and two caliper seal kits plus new bleed screws., all for 42$ delivered, I know other locations particularly England, have difficulty finding these parts, particularly the seal kits, Once the caliper is free of the carrier and beore you try to get the piston out, I suggest that the piston is pumped out using the master cylinder and you will need an assistant. Once the piston is almost at full sretech, put a brake hose clamp on the flexible, then remove the caliper completely, With the piston out, you will normally find thet the section of the piston barrel from the outside to the internal piston seal is corroded to the point where you cannot simply test fit the new piston, on no account try to force it in, you will damage the external surface of the new piston. Get a dremmel with a small steel wire brush and carefully work around the lip between the outside of the piston barrel down to the groove for the internal seal, This will remove any accumulated rust down to original metal and the piston will then drop into place. Fit the new internal seal and lunricate the piston barrel and the piston with new brake fluid and it should slide into place nicely, All you hsave to do then is fit the dust cover and retaining clip plus the new slide pin seals which are also in the kit, The same caliper is fitted to the American market Fuego 2.2 so I ordered the parts to fit a 1985 2.2 Fuego and all is good.  RockAuto will post parts out of USA.

[roy4matra]

For those of you lucky enough to run an early Espace with Girling front calipers, this should be of interest. My Espace plus my 1987 Renault Alpine GTA and two of our Renault 25's all share the same front calipers. I have just finished rebuilding the front calipers of the GTA with parts bought from Rock Auto USA. What I got was two new 54mm diameter pistons and two caliper seal kits plus new bleed screws., all for 42$ delivered, I know other locations particularly England, have difficulty finding these parts, particularly the seal kits, Once the caliper is free of the carrier and beore you try to get the piston out, I suggest that the piston is pumped out using the master cylinder and you will need an assistant. Once the piston is almost at full sretech, put a brake hose clamp on the flexible, then remove the caliper completely, With the piston out, you will normally find thet the section of the piston barrel from the outside to the internal piston seal is corroded to the point where you cannot simply test fit the new piston, on no account try to force it in, you will damage the external surface of the new piston. Get a dremmel with a small steel wire brush and carefully work around the lip between the outside of the piston barrel down to the groove for the internal seal, This will remove any accumulated rust down to original metal and the piston will then drop into place. Fit the new internal seal and lunricate the piston barrel and the piston with new brake fluid and it should slide into place nicely, All you hsave to do then is fit the dust cover and retaining clip plus the new slide pin seals which are also in the kit, The same caliper is fitted to the American market Fuego 2.2 so I ordered the parts to fit a 1985 2.2 Fuego and all is good.  RockAuto will post parts out of USA.

Actually there is a company here called Bigg Red and they had seal kits for the calipers on the Espace 1.  I didn't check on new pistons as I didn't need them, but they do have them for other cars as they can even supply them for the Murena!

Roy