Last Modified Feb 06

Now I've known for a long time that the brakes on the car were not the greatest but they did always stop the car. Admittedly sometimes it did seem like rather a lot of effort was required but it did always stop. However, after someone else drove my car I realised the brakes were, well crap.

So I decided to order some new front discs and pads as the rears were deemed to be working fine. Front discs were ordered from Twos R Us and the pads were ordered from Pistons and Components. I only needed the standard pads since I don't do track days not drive everywhere at mach 1. Now since I knew the discs would not fit through the letter box I had them delivered to my work, which is a mile from my flat. Oh and its also an uphill walk from work to home. Well I had to stop twice on the way home cause I was that tired!! These feckers weigh 9kg each and I was carrying two of the blighters. What a muppet.

So we, well Calum jacked up the front of the car and this is the sight that greeted us

and also

Now that aint too good at all. You can see the imprints of the front pads on the discs which means the discs were not being `cleaned` by the pad when the brakes were applied. Wonder where all that braking effort went then?

Note classy brake calliper holder, dont mock. It worked perfectly well and cost nothing ;-)

When checking the brake pads they were found to be somewhat glazed and generally in bad condition which was matched nicely by the condition of 3 of the 4 calliper sliders. Now we know why the brakes didn't work so well

You can see the rust on the slider which meant it didn't slide and neither did the calliper meaning most of the braking effort was in fact wasted. Like I said 3 of the 4 sliders were in this condition so the whole lot was cleaned out and coated in copper slip before being put back together again. Point of note here. The sliders can be pulled out as they are threaded so a puller will remove them from the housing. Either that or plain old brute strength and loads of swearing!

The good news was that the actual pistons inside the callipers were in good condition and did not need any work. No markings, no groves and no pitting either. So the new discs were put on and new pads inserted also, no point in putting the old pads on now matter their condition. Ooo shiny and very chunky. 275mm diameter and 32mm wide vented mothers!!

So whats the end result? Well the brakes require very little effort to actually start working and its a much calmer affair scrubbing off speed. Wonderful stuff. Should have been done sooner but hey ho. Many thanks again to Calum for his work and effort in doing this for me in some rather cold temperatures oh and it rained too requiring the car to be rolled back a few feet further into the shed lol.