General Brake pad and disc source

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General Brake pad and disc source

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Apr 9, 2006
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Quite often on these boards the question of which brake discs and pads should I buy? pops up.

Quite often this is then answered with recomendation to buy from FIAT as OEM is best, to buy whatever your local factor sells, or to go down the route of buying certain manufacturers aftermarket, drilled, grooved etc. parts.

If you are after a set of discs and pads to put on your car, and you want stock looks with your parts coming from a well known brand - This outfit do Mintex discs and/ or pads. Have a look at:

Discs and pads on Flea Bay

I have had two sets of discs and pads off of them. All branded Mintex parts. One set for an Audi 1.8T and one set for my current Stilo Abarth.

Their price is better than my local motor factors and the parts are genuine Mintex so you know you're on to a winner.

Just for info really. (I'm not in league with them, just had good parts at reasonable prices)

Cheers

Andy

PS - On aslight aside, my local brand of Formula One Autocentres (Kwik Fit equivalent) quoted me a price of....wait for it....£330 :eek:to change just the front discs on my Abarth! I had to laugh! My full set of Mintex bits from the firm above inc. front discs and pads was £67:)
 
I put Mintex on the front of my 3dr JTD and they vastly outperform the OEM ones. They squealed like stuck pigs for the first 10k miles but are now quiet and even more grippy.

Given a choice, Id go Mintex again. Had a fair few miles out of them with no problems or excessive wear.
 
I put Mintex on the front of my 3dr JTD and they vastly outperform the OEM ones.
I have a problem with posts like this Lobster :confused:

If you're saying you need less pedal pressure then fair enough but if you mean you can stop quicker then that suggests Fiat have a major problem designing cars.

Kinda begs the question why they should bother with systems like EBD or even ABS if they can't design a proper braking system in the first place! :chin:
 
I put Mintex on the front of my 3dr JTD and they vastly outperform the OEM ones. They squealed like stuck pigs for the first 10k miles but are now quiet and even more grippy.

Given a choice, Id go Mintex again. Had a fair few miles out of them with no problems or excessive wear.

I'm going to have to agree on this front. My car had the original FIAT discs with generic pads and the braking was scary. You had to put a lot of pressure on the pedal before you got any real braking force.

The brake feel has now radically improved, and initial bite is much better. I'm much more confident on the new Mintex setup. I am still bedding the new setup in, but it hasn't squealed or squeaked yet (possibly due to the heavy use of copper grease on the slides and the pad backs.)
 
In asnwer to your question Argo, they require less pedal pressure which can only be seen as a good thing. For a start, the harder you push on the pedal, more pressure is applied to the whole braking system adding to seal wear and if you dont get that initial bite when you do pedal down, you are still connecting the braking surfaces contributing to overall disk/pad wear. So if you quantify performance as longevity, effectiveness and response, then I would stand by my statement in that they outperform OEM brakes.

I'm sure Jenson Button would be able to contribute to this.

Oh and Andy, they will squeal for a bit eventually ;)
 
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In asnwer to your question Argo, they require less pedal pressure which can only be seen as a good thing. For a start, the harder you push on the pedal, more pressure is applied to the whole braking system adding to seal wear and if you dont get that initial bite when you do pedal down, you are still connecting the braking surfaces contributing to overall disk/pad wear. So if you quantify performance as longevity, effectiveness and response, then I would stand by my statement in that they outperform OEM brakes.
Fair comment.

The reason I question this is I had an close incident at a roundabout trying to avoid being sideswiped by a van. My passenger at the time actually commented if the Stilo was equipped with a special braking system and was clearly impressed - and this was with oem pads.

After changing to EBC green stuff I kinda assumed they'd be better still and, in truth, can't really say I have any complaint with them (aside from the occasional squeal).

But here's the weird thing. Ever since, when forced to use the brakes hard, on those occasions when you need to come to a halt, I've never felt they were as effective as before (but very difficult to quantify) almost as if there's a mismatch between the pads and the ABS system. In theory, I can't see how that can work but it does rather make you wonder :chin:
 
Thats interesting to know. I always thought that EBC were the bee's knees when it came to braking but a colleague of mine said the same thing you did. Admittedly they were not fitted to a Stilo and that may have some bearing on the matter. One other thing that maybe worth considering is that we both have JTD's (3dr/5dr makes no difference) which means we have alot of weight on the front end. It just may be that EBC brakes are not that suitable for heavy engined diesel cars.

All I know is that I treated my Mintex brakes with an awful lot of respect when bedding them in and maybe that payed dividends. As I bought my Stilo used, then maybe the discs didn't get the respect they deserved and subsequently the OEM pads I fitted (before the Mintex) did not have the desired performance.

I still maintain however that Mintex know their stuff. My wife has a new A' Class merc (2 years old now) and it's got nowhere near the stopping power I have. It stops, but just with alot more pressure than my Stilo.
 
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