Andy43 said:

The brakes on our 500 TA105 air are very good, in fact when I test drove it I was surprised at how keen they were. The 105 has discs all round but I think all the others have drums at the rear. Is this anything to do with it?

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I've got a TA - in a Punto shell, and my brakes are fine ( if not a little fierce)

all as it left the factory,:idea: werdna and I will have to compare cars / brakes at some point..

TBH - since my latter fiat's have had servo assistance I've had fewer worries over braking..

if you've got concerns over a 4 year old cars brakes- there needs some investigation..,

If you want a street race, then where and when ? Preferably somewhere with a brick wall to help us stop !! should the brakes be defective.
I know a nice straight stretch with a cafe for afterwards, the road leading past the green man has a camera to see who is in front ??

No, I haven't been drinking yet, just feeling good today.

Andy43 said:

The brakes on our 500 TA105 air are very good, in fact when I test drove it I was surprised at how keen they were. The 105 has discs all round but I think all the others have drums at the rear. Is this anything to do with it?

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Ours is a 85TA with rear drums.

Wonderful braking.

Mick.

Mick F said:

Ours is a 85TA with rear drums.

Wonderful braking.

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Same, mine with rear drums feel great. Very responsive.

Mick F said:

Ours is a 85TA with rear drums.

Wonderful braking.

Mick.

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Likewise. I've never been forced to test them to the limit but I have every confidence they won't let me down. In the meantime they just work as they should and the car pulls up straight, true and quickly.

If your brakes aren't working as they should, then basically you have two options:

1. get your brakes fixed

or

2. fit a louder horn.

More seriously,

werdna said:

You could make sure the pads move easily in the caliper.

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Actually the pads usually stick in the reaction frames, not the caliper - but I know what you mean. It only needs one corner of one pad to stick to cause the car to pull to one side when braking.

The thread on how to fix this issue is here.

44sunsets said:

Same, mine with rear drums feel great. Very responsive.

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Like most small FWD cars, at most 20% of the braking effort will be provided by the rear wheels; drums are more than adequate for the task and the only benefit of fitting discs would be marketing and cosmetic. Drums have the further advantage of being better protected against the elements - there have been many thrreads from folks with rear discs complaining of seized and prematurely worn rear brakes.

jrkitching said:

Drums have the further advantage of being better protected against the elements - there have been many thrreads from folks with rear discs complaining of seized and prematurely worn rear brakes.

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And the general advantage with the handbrake that cooling brakes will tighten the brake - the drum contracting when cooling against the shoes. As apposed to discs where a cooling disc slackens the brake away from the pads.

MN500 said:

And the general advantage with the handbrake that cooling brakes will tighten the brake - the drum contracting when cooling against the shoes. As apposed to discs where a cooling disc slackens the brake away from the pads.

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IIRC Citroen had a problem with this some years ago after a number of highly publicised incidents involving runaway parked cars.

Piccolo Nero e Bella said:

Likewise. I've never been forced to test them to the limit but I have every confidence they won't let me down. In the meantime they just work as they should and the car pulls up straight, true and quickly.

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I recently tried my brakes under EXTREME braking whilst no other cars were around me(dry road) and found a fault in that the car pulls to one side, not apparent under "normal" braking, so it maybe prudent to test the brakes to the limit whilst safe to do so, in order that you can be confident when a real emergency happens its going to brake as you would expect?

John202020 said:

I recently tried my brakes under EXTREME braking whilst no other cars were around me(dry road) and found a fault in that the car pulls to one side, not apparent under "normal" braking, so it maybe prudent to test the brakes to the limit whilst safe to do so, in order that you can be confident when a real emergency happens its going to brake as you would expect?

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Yes absolutely! I noticed that a lot. It is less apparent after I changed my suspension to bilstein b14 which made the braking much more stable but it still happens. In fact I am so used to it when I slam the rbakes I steer the car to stop it happening! Fun car haha. Mind you there was an Audi R8 in front of me braking very hard and I almost went into it so the brakes are good, but not that good!

And yes, before slamming the brakes i make sure there is no car tailgating me, in fact if I see someone following too close (it happens a lot in greece) I slam the brakes momentarily for a bit of brake testing with the emergency indicators on. Harsh, but the only way they will
Lern

Maybe we should look at the complaints from another angle.

Recently I discovered that when I press the accelerator and the brake pedal simultaneously, then the accelerator isn't ignored, and as a result the car doesn't slow down as quickly as when pressing only the brake pedal. That was not what I had expected. I thought ignoring the accelerator during braking would be a safety measure.

Do the people who complain about the brakes have large feet?

Hoi, I only mash the accelerator and brake pedal in my classic selecta!