Technical Drums replace discs at the rear.

[jim cooper]

Stilo owners may be interested to know that rear disc brakes have been ditched in favour of drums on recent versions of the Tipo 1.4 95 hp models. I haven't been able to find out whether this change was made for cost or engineering reasons. I am rather hoping the latter as anyone who has owned a Stilo for any length of time will know that the rear calipers need far too much attention to keep them working properly.
With the drums on my new (March 2020) Tipo I now have a decent handbrake and I'm hoping they will be maintenance free for a long time.

 

[Abarth L]

I totally disagree that drums are better than discs, it is well proven.
Stilo's disc brakes are very reliable, work perfectly (original calipers, 442 000km's and still ticking over)
Problem is when incorrect maintenance is applied (turning pistons wrong direction or try to press etc.) That is what damage a caliper!

 

[jim cooper]

I'm sorry but that was not my experience. I had the correct tools to wind back the pistons and knew which way they turned. Despite this I had to buy 4 calipers in 13 years because they could not withstand the wet and dirty conditions on the rear wheels. On several occasions the rubber dust seal on the piston tore during wind back, creating much more work than should be necessary. Also, the splash plates behind the discs corroded badly and were in holes by that time. The Bosch system relies on spring metal tabs in the caliper hangers. These hangers rust badly, forcing the springs up against the pad ears and causing the pads to stick on the discs. New hangers are not available from motor factors. None of these issues applies to the front discs and calipers, which run much hotter.

 

[Maxcaddy]

I tend to think that replacing calipers, even more than a couple of times on an old Stilo, would be a lot easier and certainly a lot cheaper than fitting a 'Drum Kit', even if such a kit were to be made available.

 

[jackwhoo]

Rear brake shoes and drums last far far more many miles than pads and discs.

Drum brake wheel cylinders are massively cheaper than calipers.

Brake drums do tend to be more expensive than discs .

It does take a little bit more skill to change shoes than pads.

Most drum brake problems I see are where someone without the required skill has messed it up.

Rear calipers with inbuilt hand brake mechanisms do not provide as strong a hand brake as drum brakes and it is often the caliper's hand brake mechanism that fails / jams.

For alloy wheels drum brakes are cleaner than disc brakes.

Over all cost per mile/km I would say rear drums are considerably cheaper.

Rear calipers with out built in hand brake mechanisms are far better than with built in hand brake mechanism but still cost more per mile.

 

[Maxcaddy]

Got to say that my old Ford Explorer had a separate handbrake with shoes within the discs, and they were a total pig to work on. My current Grand Voyager also has handbrake shoes in the discs, and I ended up letting the local garage do the work on them as it was impossible (for me) to get in there to do it. Apparently they stripped off the hubs to get in there.

So whilst disc type handbrakes aren't the most effective, they are a lot easier to work on than some drum setups.

 

[chris3234]

Rear brake shoes and drums last far far more many miles than pads and discs.

Drum brake wheel cylinders are massively cheaper than calipers.

Brake drums do tend to be more expensive than discs .

It does take a little bit more skill to change shoes than pads.

Most drum brake problems I see are where someone without the required skill has messed it up.

Rear calipers with inbuilt hand brake mechanisms do not provide as strong a hand brake as drum brakes and it is often the caliper's hand brake mechanism that fails / jams.

For alloy wheels drum brakes are cleaner than disc brakes.

Over all cost per mile/km I would say rear drums are considerably cheaper.

Rear calipers with out built in hand brake mechanisms are far better than with built in hand brake mechanism but still cost more per mile.

Speak for yourself but the handbrake on my rear discs works perfectly fine and hold strongly

 

[jackwhoo]

Oh dear, I hope you didn't think I was insulting your particular hand brake.

In general hand brakes on drum brakes provide much greater braking effort at the wheels per Newton of force applied to the hand brake lever in the vehicle.

This is of significance to people who are not particularly physically strong in the arm that applies hand brake.

Quite clearly this doesn't apply to electrically applied parking brakes.

 

[roll]

Tipo is a cheaper car than Stilo was, so it has cheaper parts in it. And I believe it has rear disc brakes with 1.6 diesel.
And yes, Stilo has problem with rear calpers, but most of people don't even know about it since it brakes anyway.