FTO AUSTRALIA

Hi Guy’s,

I have noticed that the last few weeks my brakes have been real Sh*t compared to normal.

So I pulled off the pads and they had heaps of meat on them. (Nearly like new)??????

I also checked the brake fluid and it is full???

What could be making them so bad?????? Could it be that the pads are just sh*t, or could it be something else???

what sort of pads???

what sort of driving makes them bad???

sh*t in what way? and in what driving conditions?

have they glazed over?

I’m not sure what type of pads they are because my mechanic did them last time.


They feel like you have to put your foot down a lot harder then I used to. Also they grind sometimes.

I notice it the most in heavy traffic, at real slow speeds they just don’t seem to stop well.

I’m not sure if they are glazed over. I have been told if they are, the best way to fix it is to floor it and slam on the brakes. Does that sound right?

When my mechanic first changed then they were fine and have been for a few months, but are starting to get crappy

try doing some bedding in...

find a nice quiet stretch or road

accelerate to 100
brake to 20 really hard

repeat a few times...

i've found that race brakes (rb74's) can be a bit slow at stopping when they are cold.. .but they grip all the way to litterally on fire (they almost were on sunday)...

a brake fluid change might help too

dannyboyau wrote:a brake fluid change might help too

yep try this too, as you could have air in the lines.

now that i think about it

sounds like your brake booster is not working properly.

if you look at your brake master cylinder you will see a large black round cannister between the brake master cylinder and the firewall there will be a vacum hose going from it to the manifold check if that hose is in good condition and also check that the one way valve inside the hose is still operating properly. and check it is connected to the manifold as well as you need a vacum for it to work. and hope that it is not the brake booster as i dont think it would be cheap.

yeha good point... danny..


ummm i'm pretty sure they're interchangeable with other cars... if it is your booster or master cyliinder i'm sure we can track it down for you from another car

Thanks guys i'll try to have a look at all that tonight.

I'll let you know how i go.

brake fluid absorbs water and should be changed at about 80000K( i think, well thats when we did mine.) makes heaps of improvement and stops em being so squishy.

Getting my car serviced on Friday so I’ll get them to check it all out.

How much would it cost to get the brake fluid changed? Or how long it would take?

really?

I heard it should be done at least once a year...

Black_FTOGPX wrote:Getting my car serviced on Friday so I’ll get them to check it all out.

How much would it cost to get the brake fluid changed? Or how long it would take?

I know theres few ways doing it, depends on your mechanic, it could take from couple of hrs to half a day. Took me half a day once, as there was a problem with the ABS system.

Ask your mechanic, & find out how his going to do it & how long.

its in the tech manuals which order to do them in ....

when i did my aprenticship i was told you should not leave it any more than 2 years as you will find that after 2 years the water that has been absorbed by the brake fluid will start to rust the inside of the caliper and mastercylinder which will then damage the seals and cause them to leak

means it will cost you big bucks in repairs if you dont replace your fluid.

But I would get him to check the Brake Booster as well sounds more like the Brake Booster to me.

did you fix the brakes yet ?

and what was the problem if you did ?

I got my mechanic to check it all, including brake booster and he couldn’t find the problem. He took it for a test drive and said that they don’t feel that bad. (But I know they don’t stop anything like they used to.)

I think it may just be a case if having crappy pads, so I’ll change them soon and see if that helps.

I was having a similiar problem with my brakes and they were going to the floor basically they just needed to be bled and felt heaps better after that ... but also helped once I had changed tyres as slicks are very hard to pull up !

Slicks? as in Semi slicks? or Road tyres turned into slicks?