Really crap brakes

[steve_earwig]

my disc's are less than 1k old and the light is on when ever its damp here.

tell you what the first dry night you have over there when the light is off take the car through a car wash and i'll bet you £20 the light comes back on.

I'll bet you've got a damaged / trapped sensing lead to one of your pads

nope.

autodata says its the curcit to sensitave, and at first i didnt belive it till i changed the disc's and pads taking the old ones off that were near new anyway

Autodata also says they can be over-sensitive and you have to insert a couple of resistors in the circuit to shut the light up.

[sirwiggum]

Going to change my pads and discs soon.

In the winter there, in the freezing cold, the brake light would faintly come on under braking.

There is a bit of a squeal now under braking. Prob needs copper grease but would rather replace them.

Disc has a bit of a ridge. Enough to get through an MOT probably, but I hate taking chances with brakes.

Best brakes I had was on the Xantia. Brake pedal was on or off. Stopped it on it's nose first time I tried to brake slightly on the M6

[plod]

Need some new discs on the rear of mine

Had the car 4 3/4 years now, and the first job it had done was in the second week of ownership was rear discs and pads

The nearside rear disc is warped, and I guess, nearly 5 years down the line is acceptable me thinks

[kevtherev]

just had the wheel off mine as i was double checkin disc size before i order from e bay and there is a 1" strip of shiny steel where the pads are meeting the disc in the middle rest of the disc goin rusty doesnt seem quite right to me still work fine tho apart from the warped discs hopefully catch some dry weather next weekend to get them done

[DaiRees]

Mine went like that on the inboard side of both front discs.


I put Mintex ones on and they're excellent, reasonably priced too.

[kevtherev]

yep thats it ..seen some mintex on the bay set of front and rear 115 plus delivery not too bad but i only need the front and i didn't look too hard kinda went like this ; scroll down aah front discs and pads 260 mm 47 quid free delivery THEY'LL DO
if they turn out to be shagged in 12 mnth il have to invest in some decent ones tho

[Bailes1992]

Standard 406 breaks are superb!

Couldn't agree more, when required they stop the 406 very quickly

In all fairness the brake fluid in mine could have done with a change as the brakes were a little spongey, but stamp on them and they would sent you through the windscreen!
Although the Focus brakes are much sharper around town, they have nowhere near the stopping power 50+ that the 406's had! Looking for ST170 brake setup for my Focus but I goto get the hub, caliper carriers, calipers, ST170 hoses, pads and discs. Not to bad but not sure how much more money to spend on the Focus at the moment.

[DaiRees]

aah front discs and pads 260 mm 47 quid free delivery THEY'LL DO

What flavour's your 406 then Kev? Most have 283mm discs.

[Bailes1992]

I belive 1.6's and 1.9D (non-Turbo) have 260mm brakes?
But theses engine in a 406 are like hens teeth!

[kevtherev]

aah front discs and pads 260 mm 47 quid free delivery THEY'LL DO

What flavour's your 406 then Kev? Most have 283mm discs.

I belive 1.6's and 1.9D (non-Turbo) have 260mm brakes?
But theses engine in a 406 are like hens teeth!

its a 99 t plate d8 non abs so i presume no discs on the back just drums?? tho ive never actually looked
the 1.6 and 1.8 ptrols have the 263 mm discs afaik maybe the d9 1.8 had the 283mm disc??
it was a little confusing on ebay as some listers had the bigger discs as fitting the 1.8 then others had discs just for the 1.8 so i thought id throw a tape over them defo 260

[Bailes1992]

My 1.9TD had drums on the rear and 283mm disks at the front?

[sirwiggum]

My 1.9TD had drums on the rear and 283mm disks at the front?

HDi 90 has this, but a combined drum/disc on the rear is appears.

[DRTDVL]

Wow DaiRees - those pads are very much the wrong ones for your car, you should NOT have that much untouched area on the disc.

Gary406 - You might find it could be a small amount of pad material build-up on the disc face that your feeling, i've had it before on the 205 - a lite rub down with some fine sandpaper/emery cloth sorted it right out.

Different pads and discs have greatly different wear rates. I've found the mintex pads to be rather soft a wear quickly, and have seen multiple pads completely crumble or un-bond from the backing plate when at race event and trackdays, the fredero where much more abrasive than the OEM & Mintex pads and wore the disc much quicker. You can get a different co-efficient of frictions on pads also which will change the initial bite of the pad on the disc, most OEM pads are around 0.3 - 0.35 where a lot of aftermarket pads are around the 0.3 - 0.42 and race pads from 0.4 - 0.8.

Old lines and especially old brake fluid will lead to very crap brakes. Brake fluid i would typically change yearly, some fluids like the Motul RBF600/RBF660 is a lot more hygroscopic and therefor will adsorb water quicker than standard fluid. You need to make sure you get all the old fluid out and there is no air in the lines.

Master cylinders will play a big role in how the pedal feels- smaller masters will increase the force on the piston in the calipers but will require a longer pedal (you can play with pivot points to alter this), a larger master will have a shorter pedal but will require more force at the pedal to get the same braking force.

[DaiRees]

Wow DaiRees - those pads are very much the wrong ones for your car, you should NOT have that much untouched area on the disc.

They weren't the wrong ones, they were just knackered!

[Bailes1992]

Is it safe to lick brake pads? Mine taste quite nice?