Is anyone one else having problems with there brakes with all the rain we are having lately. My brakes are rubbish when I start off driving in the rain until I brake a couple of times. There's plenty of wear left on all brake disks and pads.

Brakes are never as good in the wet and if your brakes are cheap quality then their performance will be even worse. Do you notice a lot of corrosion on the brake disc surface.?
Have you had the brakes replaced or serviced recently.?

No corrosion on the disks, and they are not new and havnt been serviced recently either. Don't know if they are cheap ones or not. Quite scary when there's a car in front of you and you put your foot on the brake and hardly anything happens for a couple of seconds or so.

New discs and pads and you are good to stop again...

Or tires if they are worn they will atop worse in the wet...

markymark123 said:

Is anyone one else having problems with there brakes with all the rain we are having lately. My brakes are rubbish when I start off driving in the rain until I brake a couple of times. There's plenty of wear left on all brake disks and pads.

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tire profile?

Brand new tyres fitted a month ago

markymark123 said:

Is anyone one else having problems with there brakes with all the rain we are having lately. My brakes are rubbish when I start off driving in the rain until I brake a couple of times. There's plenty of wear left on all brake disks and pads.

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If it repeatably improves arfter initiat use..then its almost certainly corrosion on the discs and drums.

My 2012 puntos rear drums are the worst Ive ever had for this..

Charlie

Serviced my brakes a while back as they we not great. Minutes discs, ebc ultimax pads and replaced my old yellow fluid with fresh DOT 5.1, brakes are about the best I've had in any car wet or dry.

Cheers
Ben

markymark123 said:

No corrosion on the disks, and they are not new and havnt been serviced recently either. Don't know if they are cheap ones or not. Quite scary when there's a car in front of you and you put your foot on the brake and hardly anything happens for a couple of seconds or so.

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Couple of seconds??!!!

There's something seriously wrong there! Years ago, when pads and shoes were much softer and contained asbestos, they'd absorb a bit of water and then yes, when you braked, the water would boil off and form a cushion between the pad and disc (or shoe and drum) for a split second, reducing braking efficiency. A wade through a deep flood would maybe get them wet enough to not work properly for a second or so, but that was about it.

These days, modern cars hardly lose any braking efficiency when the pads are wet. Certainly my daughter's car (which is on very ordinary Mintex discs and pads from our local motor factor and I think Ferodo shoes on the rear), doesn't really feel much different wet or dry.

I'd be inclined to throw a new set of pads in first. Make sure they're not some cheap no-name Far Eastern jobbies. They should have a type approval number on them (a lower case "e" in a rectangle" or an upper case "E" in a circle, followed by some letters and numbers). That's a relatively cheap experiment. After that' it's a case of looking at the rest of the braking system carefully, but I really can't think of any braking fault that would exist in the wet but not in the dry.

I'd be worried, sounds like your front brakes aren't gripping (most of the braking effort is on the front).


Mine, similar to Ben D have EBC ultimax pads too and pagid discs and clean fluid. Never had a problem with them wet of dry

Ben D said:

Serviced my brakes a while back as they we not great. Minutes discs, ebc ultimax pads and replaced my old yellow fluid with fresh DOT 5.1, brakes are about the best I've had in any car wet or dry.

Cheers
Ben

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I have to agree with this,my wife's punto evo has the best brakes I have ever had,even though it's now 6 years old and still on same pads. Beware of buying counterfeit parts,I have seen fake brake pads before on the BBC programme Fake Britain.

Got mine direct from EBC, discs are mintex, predictive text hiccup!

My GP has great brakes, Agree about modern shoes and pads and braking systems in general, no problems my way with wet or dry braking. I did strip my front calipers a while ago and fit new seals and cleaned and lubed the sliders.

Yeah think I try changing the front pads

markymark123 said:

Yeah think I try changing the front pads

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you could always ask an MOT station to put it on the brake roller for a couple of mins.. then you'll know EXACTLY what works and what doesn't.


you originally said it's only for the 1st application of the day - then it's fine..,


my money is on surface corrosion as my 2012 TA is similar.

Been fine since the heavy rains

markymark123 said:

Brand new tyres fitted a month ago

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what is their wet rating? some tyres are so hard even new ones are useless in the wet?

I will have to have a look later