30 miles of B road twisties from work back to home.

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2:30am

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Brakes overheating after 8 miles.

stop using the brakes.

simples

The Felicia can be a very fun little car to chuck round some B roads I have found. Never had any overheating issues with the brakes before though... maybe I use them less and the gears more?!

Phil

Decent pads, no trouble after that...

Don't get me wrong it's not bad on the twisties.

Drop gears earlier to exit corners at higher revs and get back up to 60 quicker.

The key with any low power car is to be smooth corner to corner.

Body roll is much worse but you just adjust your driving style, go smoother and be prepared to straighten up to brake mid corner because of the understeer.

Me thinks you're using cheap and nasty pads.

Go buy some ferodo road pads (Premier or SL) as these are cheap and of a good quality.

whatever pads were on when I bought it.

It was more overheating the fluid than pads.

start of journey, lock up brakes easy.

After 8 miles, no chance.

This is probably why mine don't overheat then... I have ABS so they probably don't get stressed as much under heavy braking?

Phil

As Pinkscud says, don't use the brakes. All they do is slow you down!

Seriously, from what you're saying I think you'd be well advised to change the brake fluid for new DOT4.0 ASAP.

adding something like a duct to aid cooling might help a lot too, especially if yours has no foglights, you could take out the plastic trims from where the fogs would be and stick some tumble drier outlet hose in there

This is probably why mine don't overheat then... I have ABS so they probably don't get stressed as much under heavy braking?

Phil

Are you setting the ABS off?

Are you setting the ABS off?

On the odd occasion yes

Then there's no reason to think you're not stressing the brakes as much as anyone else. Unless, of course you have crap tyres on!

On my old Octavia I used to have the ABS kick in quite a bit - it made a difference when the brake pads and discs were changed! lol!

Just thought that with the ABS kicking in it puts less strain on the brakes as they are pulsing on and off as apposed to be on constant.

I have found it to be very useful to have as experience of my last cars without ABS wasn't fun when trying to brake over some loose mud or gravel you hadn't quite spotted!

Unless, of course you have crap tyres on!

P.s. My tyres are good... some Goodyear jobbies!

Well, I've never managed to overheat mine on either the Fav or Felicia rally cars, with A048 or A032s on there, with 1144 or 1155 pads and decent fluid...

Not sure if ABS is kinder to the brakes or not; they pulse on and off fairly aggressively on any car I've triggered it on, I'd imagine the shock loading can't be that good to the system...

That's true. There must be a fair bit of force with them pulsing on and off.

They have got hot before but never to the stage where they have overheated and faded. Even going to the Cat and Fiddle meeting they never overheated

I was told of someone taking a diesel Felly to that meeting once and he pretty much trashed his brakes they got that hot etc.

It's probably very much down to driving style. If I am on a "spirited" drive I will knock it down a gear or two nice and early with a sustained change then I'm in the right gear for the bend and have scrubbed a fair bit of speed off without having to touch the brakes. Also being in a lower gear you can then put some power out through the bend to stabalise the car.

Phil

i took my pickup out for a good thrash, and i can confirm it's fairly easy to cook up the brakes real bad without trying too hard, but then it does handle something akin to a school bus.... and they were quite new ferrodo pads on oe discs, i only did it because i was changing the lot the next day just to see how much stick they could really handle...

got mintex pads on now but i've not driven it enough to bed them in properly yet but they do feel much more positive than the ferrodo ones already

I dislike abs on loose surface, without it you build up a small bank of dirt/gravel/whatever infront of the tyres which stops you quicker.

It's only real use is to steer under braking which I can do with cadence anyway.

working at the same club again this friday so i'll finish changing the rear shocks, bleed the brakes and see how it does.

I dislike abs on loose surface, without it you build up a small bank of dirt/gravel/whatever infront of the tyres which stops you quicker.

It's only real use is to steer under braking which I can do with cadence anyway.

working at the same club again this friday so i'll finish changing the rear shocks, bleed the brakes and see how it does.

That's fine as far as it goes, but a true loose surface (several inches of gravel or snow) is much rarer than tarmac with maybe a scattering of gravel on it. Also, all ABS does is cadence braking, but can you cadence brake each wheel separately and at 20Hz?

as tom said, you can cook felly brakes easy.

i'm using some grooved discs with EBC green stuff pads, and this set up is MUCH better.

i would say ABS is gunna stress the brakes more, because once a wheel is locked, the disc isn't building up heat.

i would say ABS is gunna stress the brakes more, because once a wheel is locked, the disc isn't building up heat.

Anyway... I'd rather have my brakes get hot than not being able to steer away from the tree heading my way fast! :P

I'd rather have my brakes get hot than not being able to steer away from the tree heading my way fast! :P

each to there own, i prefer non-ABS my self.

That's fine as far as it goes, but a true loose surface (several inches of gravel or snow) is much rarer than tarmac with maybe a scattering of gravel on it. Also, all ABS does is cadence braking, but can you cadence brake each wheel separately and at 20Hz?

Can you respond to the conditions by counter steering 20 times a second?:P

Hammering the brakes about 2 or 3 times a second or however fast you can is enough to allow you to carry on steering.

From 30 to 0 on a dirt road abs adds about 6 to 10ft to yer stopping distance.

I've tested that me'sen.

On normal roads cadence has helped me avoid a crash at least a dozen times.

Can you respond to the conditions by counter steering 20 times a second?:P

Hammering the brakes about 2 or 3 times a second or however fast you can is enough to allow you to carry on steering.

Yes, but a combination of anticipation, 4 channel ABS and decent tyres means I rarely have to.

From 30 to 0 on a dirt road abs adds about 6 to 10ft to yer stopping distance.

I've tested that me'sen.

I'm sure you have, but guess what; I rarely to never drive at 30mph on dirt roads (or snow).

On normal roads cadence has helped me avoid a crash at least a dozen times.

Believe what you like; If you have to cadence brake (or activate ABS) then you're not slowing as fast as you could.