i have a long history of bad brakes on my Fiats... Talons are not great.. huge amounts of pedal travel though they do manage to lock the wheels up.. fallout on the other hand..

Fallout has had bad brakes from day 1. they will not lock up, the pedal goes right to the floor before anything happens.

enough is enough. i want this fixed.

so far i have.. Adjusted the hand brake till it was binding then slackened it off until it was not.

replaced ALL brake fluid in the system... again.

bled the system... for the 9999999th time.

taken the master cylinder off (but not disconnected any pipes) to adjust the little arm that pokes out of the vacuum assist till the brakes were binding, then slackened it off till they were not. (though it ended up in the same position as it was originally)

the vacuum assist does work. if i roll down a hill with the engine off and pump the brake pedal till theres no vacuum left, i have no brakes at all.

all brake parts were replaced when the car was resurrected.. all but the rear control valve thing that lives near the master cylinder and the 2 front calipers. (well one was from off BEX..)

does anyone have any tips or know what i am missing? from what i can see i have done everything to rectify this.

my next port of call is the 2 front calipers (which i would like to replace anyway)

thanks.

Had simmiral issues occuring recently,
Car started to pull to one side while braking, bit spongy pedal as well.
Give a good wire wheel and good clean to the disc ( outer circumference ring with rust/crap residue was removed), Pads were threated in simmilar manner. After beding in all back to normal.

Pads quality is crucial, and unfortunately as you've pointed out on FB - same applies to brake pads - those days it is hard to buy decent replacement parts. EBC greenstuff all the way.

Brake hoses balooning under pressure? At one stage I'd say that was clutching at straws but i have minimal faith in brake hoses from motorfactors or ebay. All mine cracked within a year. Time to go braided?

i new a woman that drove her car so carefully her brakes would become glazed over i would fix this for her by taking her car to an empty car park and drive around it continually slamming on the brakes this would get heat into the brakes and also deglaze the discs she was always impressed at how good her brakes now worked, i always do the same for my cars brakes before M.O.T time i always check the condition of my brake parts before i do this ie pad thikness disc condition hose condition ect

Pedal box check all the bushes in the
Pedal boxes transfer shafts for wear Adams. 2wd had that problem replaced nylon bushes or turned them around greatly improved pedal moment and also the clutch operation
Take out seats Otherwise you will need arms like a gibbon

Ive no clue man, the only panda i had that had bother with its brakes like you describe was when the master cylinder needed replaced on the parade. Perfect after that though youve replaced all brake components

i forgot to add that when i adjusted the little arm in the vacuum assist i got the brakes really good... like amazing. a slight touch of the pedal and they came on. (i have 2 lock up marks outside my house they were that good!) sadly they were binding slightly. so i had to wind in the arm till a wheel spun free when i jacked up one side.

a process like this.. adjust arm, refit master cylinder, sit in drivers seat, press brake hard and release.. check wheel if spinning.. if wheel not moving then adjust again.

i was outside last night since the end of work till almost 10 at night trying to get it right. sadly it just went back into the same position it was before.

i was wondering.. if i adjust the arm out till i have really good brakes, is there any way i can prevent the brakes from binding? would it work if i was to bleed the brakes again to remove any pressure? or would the pressure just come back as soon as i braked again?

the brakes were really good... like as good as the marbellas.. and they were flawless.

Dragon Man said:

i forgot to add that when i adjusted the little arm in the vacuum assist i got the brakes really good... like amazing. a slight touch of the pedal and they came on. (i have 2 lock up marks outside my house they were that good!) sadly they were binding slightly. so i had to wind in the arm till a wheel spun free when i jacked up one side.

a process like this.. adjust arm, refit master cylinder, sit in drivers seat, press brake hard and release.. check wheel if spinning.. if wheel not moving then adjust again.

i was outside last night since the end of work till almost 10 at night trying to get it right. sadly it just went back into the same position it was before.

i was wondering.. if i adjust the arm out till i have really good brakes, is there any way i can prevent the brakes from binding? would it work if i was to bleed the brakes again to remove any pressure? or would the pressure just come back as soon as i braked again?

the brakes were really good... like as good as the marbellas.. and they were flawless.

Click to expand...

Any pandas with the same brake system as urs that do work perfect near you? Side by side comparison would be ideal

The pressure would just come back i think?

well coming home from work today i had only what i could call as brake failure.

pressed the pedal and nothing. pressed it harder.. all the way down as hard as i could and it slowed the car down as if you were just lightly pressing the pedal.
it was at a junction and thankfully no one was coming so nothing bad happened.

i have taken the master cylinder off so i can get to that little adjustment behind it. binding brakes that work are better than no brakes.

i just hope that they will stop binding in time.

i really dont know what to do.

Dragon Man said:

well coming home from work today i had only what i could call as brake failure.

pressed the pedal and nothing. pressed it harder.. all the way down as hard as i could and it slowed the car down as if you were just lightly pressing the pedal.
it was at a junction and thankfully no one was coming so nothing bad happened.

i have taken the master cylinder off so i can get to that little adjustment behind it. binding brakes that work are better than no brakes.

i just hope that they will stop binding in time.

i really dont know what to do.

Click to expand...

Geez thats bad news john

Sounds like when i drove the parade home with no brakes

Hi John, for what it's worth......... Although a SEAT my Terra van has always had appalling brakes. Loads of travel and braking only just off the floor. I've tried vacuum bleeding, pressure bleeding and good old get the other half to pump the pedal bleeding.
I've fitted a new servo, master cylinder, discs, pads and removed the rear brake balance valve.
On the back I fitted 'injection' self adjusting rear shoes and....... The brakes are crap.
My next idea is to fit engine, axles and running gear from a Ford Focus. That should do the trick.

Hopefully brakes are sorted by now, if you're still scratching your head I wonder if it's time to check out the back brakes...might be something simple like contamination that's got in the back drums, or some adjustment needed or something really obscure like cracked drum or the balance valve? Just a thought as you've clearly fettled the front end? At the risk of stating the obvious if your pedal's firm then the pressure isn't getting to the drums or discs for some reason...failed hoses have already been raised as a possible ...can they collapse internally? Best of luck
with it, hope it turns out to be an obvious & easy fix after all your efforts.

Dragon Man said:

well coming home from work today i had only what i could call as brake failure.

pressed the pedal and nothing. pressed it harder.. all the way down as hard as i could and it slowed the car down as if you were just lightly pressing the pedal.
it was at a junction and thankfully no one was coming so nothing bad happened.

i have taken the master cylinder off so i can get to that little adjustment behind it. binding brakes that work are better than no brakes.

i just hope that they will stop binding in time.

i really dont know what to do.

Click to expand...

Mate have you completely removed the fluid tank ?
There could be debris not allowing re charge of master piston sounds like the failure was at the front and you stopped on the rears did you do an assist with hand brake ?? So the rear master cylinder is not getting oil or passing it past seal !
I don't have any other ideas yet
Best of luck !
When rear I mean first the one that feeds the front only !
Ok if you get a brake Ferrell some copper tube soldered over and blank off each out put from the cylinder in turn location of failing area should become more apparent as the pedal will become hard as each one is blocked. If it doesn't go hard it's a failing master cylinder you could block all three then work from there !!

yeah the whole system was renewed and cleaned out last year :/

i think i found out one issue. now i know it has been like it for some time as i thought it was a CV joint.. but it turned out to be the wheel bearing.. not just worn out.. but completely snapped off!






brakes are bad still if i set the thing behind the master cylinder to a position where it does not cause the front brakes to bind... though they do feel better now.

i think i will live with the binding brakes for a while and see how that goes. they feel awesome now, just like a modern cars.

Wow you must have really loud radio to miss that nice failure there !!

Yup, that won't have helped the brakes any, that moving about will push the pads right back as you're rolling so every time you go for the brake pedal you'll have massive travel before the pads make contact again. Might be worth swapping the discs, that one could be a touch warped if it's had some abuse shifting about under braking which would have a similar effect.

the radio works... but it more just adds to the noise :/

Did you have that air intake wired up as a
Public address horn

Disc maybe a little scored but I don't think it will have got hot enough with all those air gaps to buckle it .--ha

the pipe going out of the bonnet is the air intake for the engine. the PA horn is on the roof rack. there is one in the grill that i could do with taking out as my radio does not have a PA function. the siren does however hehe.

How could I have ever confused them [emoji1009][emoji1360][emoji209]