Technical Tempra brake upgrade

[Kyriakos_Greece]

Hello everyone! Long time no post here. Some of you will recall me having a Duna, but there's also a Tempra in the family.

It's high time discs and pads got replaced and I was wondering what would be an appropriate upgrade to the standard solid 240x11mm front ones. I can't go for bigger brakes (let's say the vented ones from the Tempra 2.0ie) because that would mean €€€, so I was thinking to get a pair of Brembo Max or a pair of Tarox G888. Would you consider that an overkill and if so, should I just stay on the OEM ones or is there any other solution I'm missing? Zimmermann perhaps? The car is used as a dd but I feel that the OEM set lacks feel and fades quickly when driving in curvy roads, not to mention the brake distance, which imho could be shorter.

Regarding the pads, I was planning on getting Textar ones, which are of a good value for money. Any other suggestions that would work well with appropriate discs?

As far as the rear drums are concerned, I'll stick to the stock shoes, unless someone has tried sth better and can provide info.

Should you have any thoughts, suggestions, comments please leave a post.

 

[a73uk]

Hi Kyri,

Fade is primarily caused by the brake fluid boiling too early due to water build up over time, so the first think I`d say is change the fluid with good quality dot5 fluid.

To my knowledge the 1.9TD Tempra`s & Tipo`s also had the same vented disks & calipers as the 1.8 & 2.0 petrol models, so it may be worth looking for one of those in a scrapyard. Bear in mind it may also need the mounts from the doner car (never done it so I cant say) & occasionally the master cylinder may not match the fluid requirement of the new calipers. This is rare though, I`d change them & see (carefully!) how it felt.

My Tempra`s brakes are rubbish despite having vented disks (& rear disks) & I keep meaning to look into compatible servo`s from other high performance 90`s Fiat/Alfa/Lancia cars i.e. the Alfa 145/146/155, Lancia Dedra & Delta Mk2 etc.

Most Tempra`s are now suffering from rear locating bush wear, so the chances are you`ll have to get the rear suspension off at some point in the near future, so it`d make sense to keep an eye out for rear suspension from a compatible car so you can kill 2 birds with 1 stone.

Various Fiat group cars from 88 - 08 across the world, so in theory theres alot of options when to comes to upgrading, but research needs to be done!

 

[Kyriakos_Greece]

Thanks for the info, I'm also planning on changing the old Bilstein B4 I have now with some new B6 (yellow) which will hopefully work well with the standard springs. I really don't want to mess with many things because I don't think that the car is worth it (afterall, it's a 15-year-old one) and I believe that the "Michelin PE2 (which I have them for just over a year) + Bilstein B6 + some brakes" combi will provide me with the "liveliness" in curvy roads I'm searching for, nothing more, nothing less.

 

[maddogmorg]

Fade is primarily caused by the brake fluid boiling too early due to water build up over time, so the first think I`d say is change the fluid with good quality dot5 fluid.

i'd stay clear of dot 5, unless it's already being used ,for starters it doesn't mix with dot 3/4/5.1 and can cause problems with seals.

dot 5.1 is more of a racing fluid which requires more often changing as it more readily absorbs water. so dot 4 is probably the best option for most road cars.

but yes fresh fluid is a good start.

the best thing you can do is to find 257mm vented or solid discs and callipers, or 284mm, from Tipo/Tempra/155/145/146/delta2/dedra/bravo/brava/marea/multipla/coupe. and probably several others.

i remember driving my 1.4 tipo (which had the 240mm brakes) down one of my favourite roads and not being able to stop at the bottom, good times!