General HEY!!! new guy needs some advice!!

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General HEY!!! new guy needs some advice!!

bemish14

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Jun 5, 2009
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Newport
Hey im new on here,
just bought my first car and im still lerning to drive, its a fiat seicento 899cc, year 2000 its in really good nick 13,000 miles on the clock only two previous owners an elderly lady and a female student so she is almost bran new and i love it,
need the brakes looking at though as they aren't responsive as i would like
any ideas of cost??

i bought the car for £1450 was that a good price??
i've heard its a really nice car but would love some feed back!

joe
:)
 
I dont no how to find the service history mainly cause im a new driving so all the help i could get would be greatly appreciated,
do you no how much roughly a full brakes service would cost?

joe
:)
 
Open the service book and look for lots of little dealer stamps with dates next to them.

A full brake service depends a lot on where you are and who is doing it.

Why not buy a manual and do it yourself. The Cinq manual will give you all the tech info you need.

That way you'll know its done and you'll learn as you go. If you get stuck, you can always pop on here for advice.

Cheers

SPD
 
i recently bought a fiat seicento 2003 1.1 and my breaks are pretty soft i had them checked out by a friend whos a mechanic he said they r fine its just because they are wee cars the breaks arent the best im gonna have them checked again but i reckon unless they are really bad and not slowing you down enough you just gotta put up with it like me :p and push your break pedal harder
 
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Brakes should not be noticeably bad. Good clues are the condition of the front disks which should show no marked wear ridge, no rusting or ripples on the surface, fair amount of pad left, no big difference side to side.

As to the rears, no leaks, more than 3mm shoe material left, handbrake working.

Easy enough to check, well covered by the Haynes Cinq manual.
 
well my brakes where replaced just before i bought the car the whole job disks pads the lot and ma mate said ive got 30-40 thousand miles left on them i noticedit because i drove my mums nissan almera and there breaks r if you slightly touch the pedal ur breakin u barely need to push the pedal to emergency stop
 
well my brakes where replaced just before i bought the car the whole job disks pads the lot and ma mate said ive got 30-40 thousand miles left on them i noticedit because i drove my mums nissan almera and there breaks r if you slightly touch the pedal ur breakin u barely need to push the pedal to emergency stop

the servo pipe might not be connected ~ as rallycinq said?

Ming
 
If the servo is working, don't worry about the feel, new cars have overpowered servos (as someone on here taught me before), same thing with my dad's golf mk V, if i were to push the brakes like i do on a seicento, i would slam my head into the steering wheel unless the seat belt stops me :D

If the brakes are strong enough to lock up the wheels, then i'd say they're strong enough for street driving. (assuming they are in normal working order otherwise)
 
well as i say my whole brake system was checked over by a mechanic but not a garage he was a friend so he did a proper job and he said they r fine its just seicento breaks arent the best comapred to other cars
 
well as i say my whole brake system was checked over by a mechanic but not a garage he was a friend so he did a proper job and he said they r fine its just seicento breaks arent the best comapred to other cars

Brakes in centos are usually pretty good, if you want a second/third opinion I am only about 6 miles up the road from you when at work.

Cheers

SPD
 
Don't expect a 'cento brake peddle to be particularly firm or sharp, they naturally have a longish & progressive peddle travel. If you're in doubt get your brake fluid changed, this seems to be something neglected quite often & will lead to excessive peddle movement.

As nmrmak & RallyCinq said really 'cento brakes have good power but you have to put effort into the peddle. If you're use a more modern car it probably has far sharper brakes with less peddle travel but when you want to haul the car down from high speeds quickly often end up feeling underpowered. The 'cento's brakes however while having longer peddle travel will generally scrub off speed with more confidence once you get into the brakes properly.

An interesting thing I found out recently is that despite having on-paper equal setups a late Punto GT has about 25% more ultimate braking force than a Panda 100hp when you use the same disc & pads. Ironically the Punto GT's brakes feel weaker right up until you want to scrub off 50mph in a real hurry.
 
I hope everyone realises that not all brake pads and discs are the same. I work in the R&D section of a multi-national company that develops and manufactures friction materials for Original Equipment and Aftermarket automotive applications.

(I bow to the many propulsion experts on this forum whose expertise and experience I have benefitted from in my recent engine swap.):worship: Brakes are often overlooked because they are just not sexy.

When you are fitting new pads \ linings\ rotors, remember they are safety critical items and that finding the cheapest deal can leave you with a poor or even dangerous brake system. (This is very similar to fitting cheapo Chinese tyres :eek:).


Some things to check (all covered in Haynes manuals)..
  • Worn out \ contaminated \ cheap & nasty pads \ linings
  • Heavily worn \ grooved \ crazed rotors
  • Purge the system with fresh brake fluid when buying an older car (and then keep up with recommended intervals).
  • Condition of the callipers & backplates (damaged dust boots, sliders & seals). Are the pads really tight \ stuck in the pad carrier bracket?
  • Rubber hoses ( blistering \ chafing) & "hard" piping
  • Loss of vacuum pressure from servo
  • Any problems with linkage from pedal box to opposite side of car (RHD cars only!)
  • Front Shock absorbers
If you want to get from A to B faster, you need good brakes as well as the usual performance enhancements.:)

Ruddy
 
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