I have a problem with over heating with the rear breaks on my abarth. this isn't a problem with every day driving but is on B road blasting. You know fast straights into sharp corners mile after mile.
I've never felt break fade on the car even after 10 to 15 miles of driving like this but I have noticed after parking up that the back breaks get incredably hot so much so that they smoke but although warm I can still touch the front wheel. Surely this shouldn't happen??!! Could it simply be cos they are solid and not vented so don't cool as well?
I have had to replace the rear pads and disk twice already once at 12000 and once at 32000 miles but I've not had to have the fronts done yet. Fiat say it's simply the way I'm driving the car and nothing machanical, do you think this is the case??
I'm not to worried about the cost of replacing the parts for high performance parts if it's needed but I am worried that there is a problem that Fiat haven't found and one day there may not be any breaks when I need them.
Any thoughts people?

Interesting!

I drive my Abarth every day on a mixture of A and B roads into work, 22 miles or so each way. I have never felt brake fade, nor noticed the rears smoking. I will check later once I get home. You have to expect them to be hot, though.

I had the same thing happen to my 3 door JT, ended up getting one of the rear calipers replaced?? Might be worth checking out with the dealer??

Cheers

Darren

I crive 170 miles a day mostly on the M1 and it doesn't seem to be a problem then, just when the car is really being pushed...
They arn't just hot, spit on the WHEEL and they'll "pshhh" let alone the disk. It's as thought they are working way way to hard much harder than the fronts, like Darren says I guess it's worth getting the calipers looked at incase they arn't letting go propperly when they get hot.
Any way thanks chaps

You should get it checked out. That's exactly what happened to mine. I didn't notice til I stopped at traffic lights and put the window down, the burning smell was terrible. You couldn't put your hand anywhere near the wheel, you could feel the heat off it from about a foot away!!!! And slowing down and coming to a stop, the car stopped dead rather than gently rolling to a stop, if you know what i mean??

rears should never be noticibly hotter than the fronts as the bias is to the front brakes.i would guess youve got some dragging on the rear calipers. best to get it looked at sooner than later as that heat wont do the rear hubs any favours either.
edit; just noticed how old this thread is came up on me new posts,honest

I think this thread was just started today?? Came up as a new post for me too?

Er, lol, this is a new thread started today! At least new posts is working right

I had this problem on my Golf GTi and it was just the brakes Sticking on sometimes that was causing the overheating. Smoke would pour out while I was going through town. You may find the hotter they get the slower the car will become too (well thats what mine did anyway )

I thought that it might have been more of a problem than Perry's were letting on. It's booked in to have the auto leveling head lights motor fixed to I'l make sure they do something about it this time, I'll think I'll drive there with the hand break on to exagerate my point ;-)

I have previously posted about my stilo going for a drive on its own with handbrake on.

I parked up on the pub after a 30 mile drive home on country lanes and main roads, at the top of the car park, and after half an hour when i came out the pub it had rolled to the bottom of it (its got a gentle slope) straddling two spaces crookedly between two other cars. And people saw it to.

Put this down to brakes cooling and me forgetting to put it in gear- something i should have been used to with my old car.

This sort of handbrake and cooling down happens a lot, Jaguar have a warning in their handbooks about it as it happens with them to.

seems to be a greater problem with cars that use a disc handbrake mechanism(is it like this on the stilos?) as some other manufactureres use a central drum brake on the rear disc for the handbrake, which seems less prone to the problem.

The Ibiza I had, had rear drums. The brakes were always tip top but every MOT for the last 3 years I had it, it failed on handbrake- dont know why- it just ate handbrake cables and some sort of controling thing to keep the brakes balanced went on the final year i had it, meant that when you slamed on the car went every which way but loose.

. Just to let you know that I have had the breaks looked at by a local motor sport company after fiat said again there was no problem, as some of you said it was a problem with the rear break calliper pistons, when they were getting hot they weren't letting off the disk as they should, so getting hotter and hotter. They sorted this by taking them off the car cleaning them and replacing the break fluid. Apparently it would seem that grease was solidifying behind the piston!!
As the disks and pads needed changing they put Black Diamond disks and EBC pads on. I've not had a problem yet and I've been on a track day at Bedford air field too. All this and still saved £40 compared to a simple disk and pad change from Perrys.
Thanks for all your help

should fire a letter to fiat UK since you had to go outwith the dealer network to cure this problem.

Mmm......................................

strange, I have overheating brakes and overheating tyres too!