Technical quick word of caution (front brakes)

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Technical quick word of caution (front brakes)

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Sisters had her 2 year 16k miles 1.2 POP in for service on Saturday. At the same dealership she got it from and all servicing. And it needs discs and pads......

After declining the we can do it for 150 magic beans...

I had it it up in the air to have a look the pads were seized solid in the pad carriers I had to bray the pin and pads out with a hammer :bang: if your mechanically savvy it might be worth checking yours are free and using some specific brake grease


I willget a guide made up at some point when the new parts come
 
Sisters had her 2 year 16k miles 1.2 POP in for service on Saturday. At the same dealership she got it from and all servicing. And it needs discs and pads......

After declining the we can do it for 150 magic beans...

I had it it up in the air to have a look the pads were seized solid in the pad carriers I had to bray the pin and pads out with a hammer :bang: if your mechanically savvy it might be worth checking yours are free and using some specific brake grease


I willget a guide made up at some point when the new parts come


Oh dear i think i have this issue... I havent dared to have a look yet = (
 
Sisters had her 2 year 16k miles 1.2 POP in for service on Saturday. At the same dealership she got it from and all servicing. And it needs discs and pads......

After declining the we can do it for 150 magic beans...

I had it it up in the air to have a look the pads were seized solid in the pad carriers I had to bray the pin and pads out with a hammer :bang: if your mechanically savvy it might be worth checking yours are free and using some specific brake grease


I willget a guide made up at some point when the new parts come
There's already a guide covering the same front caliper in the Punto section :)

https://www.fiatforum.com/punto-gui...-fluid-renewal-rear-cylinder-replacement.html

I followed this and it was easy peasy :)
 
I've already had them apart the discs are well lipped at just over ten quid a. disc on shop4parts I might as well
I bought mine from nextdaybrakes. Brembo, so they've got the little dimples which tell you when the disc is half worn and then fully worn :)
 
I bought mine from nextdaybrakes. Brembo, so they've got the little dimples which tell you when the disc is half worn and then fully worn :)
Another thing to mention, the standard pads were terrible, very much on/off, the Brembo's however give great feel, very progressive and still with the same stopping power.

I replaced my discs and pads around 26k miles and I'm almost at 43k miles now and they've still got loads and loads of meat on them and are wearing nice and evenly :)
 
Another thing to mention, the standard pads were terrible, very much on/off, the Brembo's however give great feel, very progressive and still with the same stopping power.

I replaced my discs and pads around 26k miles and I'm almost at 43k miles now and they've still got loads and loads of meat on them and are wearing nice and evenly :)

I am at 34 k and i think its time to change all discs and pads. Do you have to change discs that early or its more of an option?
 
Just gone for standard OEM parts for now as long as the car stops ok sister will be happy at least its solved what to get her for her birthday :devil:

I better get a present equivalent to £150 next year :devil: :devil:
To be fair most people would probably complain that the car didn't brake as well going from OEM pads to the Brembo's I've got.
 
or in my sisters case go into the back of a bus. :rolleyes: (she better not see this or you will be looking for a new moderator :eek:)

Hehehe *looks on fb to see if Andy's sister is on there* :p

Just to clarify to anyone looking, the Brembo's give the same level of performance, you just have to put your foot down a bit more. I found the OEM pads very snatchy and you could find yourself braking more than you wanted to because they were so grabby. I would imagine that Fiat chose the pads that come with the car because they give the impression that the car has very strong brakes because you put your foot down just a little bit and there's a lot of retardation. But that's just my hypothesis.
 
Hehehe *looks on fb to see if Andy's sister is on there* :p

Just to clarify to anyone looking, the Brembo's give the same level of performance, you just have to put your foot down a bit more. I found the OEM pads very snatchy and you could find yourself braking more than you wanted to because they were so grabby. I would imagine that Fiat chose the pads that come with the car because they give the impression that the car has very strong brakes because you put your foot down just a little bit and there's a lot of retardation. But that's just my hypothesis.

The Gp is the same when i test drove my first GP i nearly put the salesman through the windscreen at the first roundabout :D
 
The Gp is the same when i test drove my first GP i nearly put the salesman through the windscreen at the first roundabout :D

The problem for me is that the brakes on the Subaru are **** despite having had new discs, pads and fluid not that long ago. Nothing wrong with it, just not much braking for such a heavy car. So wife gets out of Subaru and into the Fiat and applies enough braking pressure to bring 13 or 1400 kg's of Subaru to a stop with crap brakes. Only problem is the 500 weighs 860kg's and has decent brakes (if you're just bringing it to a stop once)

:bang:
 
The problem for me is that the brakes on the Subaru are **** despite having had new discs, pads and fluid not that long ago. Nothing wrong with it, just not much braking for such a heavy car. So wife gets out of Subaru and into the Fiat and applies enough braking pressure to bring 13 or 1400 kg's of Subaru to a stop with crap brakes. Only problem is the 500 weighs 860kg's and has decent brakes (if you're just bringing it to a stop once)

:bang:


It really has good brakes for a car of the size. I always remember never seeming to be able to stop when using the brakes of VW's = ) they would only stop with serious force on the pedal! I am lucky to say i have never been 'outbraked' with my Fiat 500 but with the VW products I have and the only way i avoided an accident was to do some evasive maneuvers. For me brakes are the single most important thing related to a cars safety of avoiding an accident all other things being equal.
 
It really has good brakes for a car of the size. I always remember never seeming to be able to stop when using the brakes of VW's = ) they would only stop with serious force on the pedal! I am lucky to say i have never been 'outbraked' with my Fiat 500 but with the VW products I have and the only way i avoided an accident was to do some evasive maneuvers. For me brakes are the single most important thing related to a cars safety of avoiding an accident all other things being equal.

There was an issue on the VW GTI Mark 1 on the RHD models with poor braking (this was back in the early 80's !). Good article on here which describes the issue but it was sorted on the Mark II model onwards. I would imagine that the rest of the VW models have it sorted now.

From memory the brakes were good on the 1.4 (can't really comment on the 1.2 / TA since I didn't really test their brakes) but having migrated to the MiTo 155TB with real Brembos :D (no 'pretend' Brembo pads :p) they are simply awesome. Have managed to pick up a set of 'cheap' replacement OEM standard pads made by Pagid which I will have to fit now that I'm at 25K. You really only see the difference on braking power if you're stopping from motorway (+) speeds.

Also a key factor in braking as I discovered on another thread is the tyres. I reckon there could be a significant difference between the stopping distance of 16s version 14s given the extra width.

Lastly, simply replacing pads, discs and fluid with standard parts is a worthwhile 'upgrade' particularly given the relatively low price of the parts on a 1.2 / TA.
 
Im in the process of uploading a youtube video of doing a full strip pad and disc change.... unfortunately i left the camera in HD setting so the 10 min video ended up taking about 1Gb of memory so just trying to reduce file size via windows media player so i can stick it on youtube....

really simple to do (although i did loose the sodding little spring clip at one point)
 
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