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Brake upgrade


DomRees

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soem of you may have seent he thread on Track Days in Chit chat.

 

I'll need to upgrade the brakes, what sort should I get? The ones at CC look expensive to me.

Should I bother with the rears?

 

And is it easy to do diy job?

 

Happily married to a 1990 Supersprint. Dont tell the missus.

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*confused*

 

New to all this, and I'm no mechanic (even though I think I know what you mean)..

 

In barnyard animal layman's terms, would it be changing the pads and the brake fluid? If so, how do I do that???

 

 

 

Happily married to a 1990 Supersprint. Dont tell the missus.

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As the long as the fuild is Dot 4 there's is absolutely no need to change fluid to Dot 5 unless the car is suffering from high brake fluid tempeartures through track work. Though I would always recommend changing brake fluid every 3 years at the very max..... its cheap to do.

 

As Richard states I would try the pad root 1st... it is inexpensive and can give surprising results.

 

The std front brakes are sierra single pistons. A good pad like a mintex 1144 will give the front more immediate bite and less fade at high working temperatures.

 

Leave the rears std. you can upgrade the rr pad type aswell but I would start at the front and see how the brake balance is 1st effected by better front pads.

 

Make sure the brakes are really well bled... no.1 priority.

 

anxiously waiting for my new 2.3 SV

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Dom,

 

Your keeping the car now?

 

Use Pagid RS14 pads on the FRONT brakes. Retain standard(?) rear pads as timbo mentioned. JOB DONE *wink* *thumbup*.

 

Did James Whiting bleed your brakes when he serviced your car?

 

It's a shame I am not around otherwise could have helped you.

 

My friend Stephen's ( has the Supersprint ) car has the standard brake caliper, and we recently changed his front pads to Pagid RS14. He was VERY impressed. Gave him much more confidence, both on the road and track. We also changed the brake fluid to Dot 5.1 ( Comma ) as the system was due a change.

 

Performance Braking in Monmouth can supply pads. Speak to John Freith - great knowledge and very helpful. Sorry, don't have tel.no.

 

There is loads of stuff on brakes if you do a search of the techtalk forums.

 

Perhaps get James Whiting to fit new pads. If you want a good motor engineer a bit closer to home let me know.

 

Chok dee ( good luck in Thai ), Gavin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

prisonR 43 C12 KAR - Some pictures here

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Gavin,

 

Yeah keeping the car now!!! 😬

SWMBA gave in, I get to drive her Smart when its miserable, and I then buy her a newish car for her. Win win all round. *thumbup*

 

I quite fancy doing the job myself, it cant be that hard to do.

 

I'll start researching Pagid pads and Dot5.1 fluid now, give me a nice little job to do next weekend...

 

After that, the suspension...upgraditis is a killer...

 

Dom

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I second all the advice to optimise the std setup before spending big money on 4 pots etc. Mintex will sell you a set of pads for 30 ish and Pagids are an eye watering 120 an axle. Still, I've never heard anyone complain about them and they do last for a year or two. Finally, buy this month's Prac Perf car for some ads for fancy brake calipers etc. Someone has a solution to the rear handbrake-on-a-decent-caliper problem. *smile*
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Yep, agree with all the advise so far. I changed my front pads only for Mintex 1144's and the difference was very marked and very satisfying for the ~£30 it cost and hour of fumbling to do.

 

I wouldn't advise changing to dot 5.1 at first, flush out the existing dot 4 and see how that goes. I hear changing to dot 5.1 is a bit of a PITA 🤔

 

Cheers

 

M.

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Just a couple of things - the standard front brakes on my 2003 car are Triumph twin pot calipers . . . . the rears are single pot sliding Seirra calipers.

 

I don't use it on the track, but it has had a lot of blasting up and down Alpine roads - hairpin after hairpin after hairpin . . . the standard fronts stay nice and cool and carry on working - the rears fade . . .

 

As for Dot5.1 - that's what I use - it is as easy as Dot4 to use - it should be - it's compatible with it - it is just a higher spec - higher wet and dry boiling point.

 

You may be thinkking of Dot5 - silicon fluid which is not too compatable with others and is not be rcommended - it doesn't absorb water like the others, but any water in the system will tend to sink to the lowest point - ie the calipers - and once there will boil at a lot lower temp than the brake fluid - the water doesn't too much for retaining corrosion free,nicely sliding pistons in cast iron bores either.

 

Bri

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