Hi,

have a Cinque sporting and cane it but despite dropping the Janspeed exhaust, at partner's request due to noise, and having a rear brake cylinder replaced, since my partner drove for some miles with the handbrake on, the rear brakes have been poor.

Prior to the handbrake on new shoes were fitted and the, as mentioned, rear cylinder changed for the MOT. All was quite OK and all should still be OK but think not. I drive hard and even after grilling the front brakes so the wheels are well warm to the touch, the rear drums, not just the wheels, remain cold. That is not right.

Please advise if wrong but my thinging lies along the following options:

1) faulty front/rear balancer.
2) worn rear shoes (in which case they weren't changed when asked)
3) siezed rear brake cylinder.
4) any variation on these.
5) the mad monkey in the back has jumped forward and taken over the world.

Any offers of advice, beyond sending the stray monkeys somewhere else??

Richard

Right. here we go

the back brakes dont do very much work at all, especially on cento's, even driven hard centos! they dont get that hot tbh.

however, if you think there is a problem, my best guess lies in the fact you say your partner drove with the handrake on. that would suggest to me alot of heat would have built up with them on constantly. This may have caused the rear brake shoes to "glaze". they wont get much purchase. in which case you'll need new shoes.

But im still not convinced you have a problem tbh how good is your handbrake?

The rear brakes need fettling every 6 months, if they are gonna do hill starts. I'm getting less...

Dont expect more than hill starts.

Ask partner to look at the warning lights before starting off and at traffic lights and other junctions, or wearing walking shoes... I got blisters...

Noel

You need to be a bit more scientific.

Jack the car up at the back and have your partner put his/her foot on the brake pedal and try and turn each wheel in turn.

If you can turn one with the brake on then you have a footbrake problem.

Then try the same job with foot not on brake pedal, but with the handbrake on.

Make your own conclusions from there.

Cheers

SPD

Thanks everyone.

The handbrake is quite poor too so it may well be that the brake shoes got glazed but my understanding was that the glazed part would be just surface deep and wear off. If this is not the case then that is probably where the problem lies - which would be really annoying as new shoes had only been fitted the week before the hanbrake episode.
Maybe I'll change the dashboard warning light for a floodlight in my wife's face so she actually starts to pay attention to it ;-)

Will jack the car up and try the handbrake/footbrake test as suggested.

Cheers,

Richard

The little brake light means

you have only 50% of a footbrake, & soon will only have...
or your have no footbrake
or you have left the handbrake on.

The last is the bulb test, for the 1st two, all you need to do is to ask her to stop the car without footbrake or go to hospital, or pay attention to the light. Most gurls are pretty good when you explain it bluntly.

Noel

Pep0 said:

Most gurls are pretty good when you explain it bluntly.

Noel

Click to expand...

'If this light comes on you might smudge your makeup when you career into the back of the car in front', kinda blunt?

Cheers

SPD