helloooo again. been thinking about this for a while, is there any way to "pep" up the bite of the standard brakes?I am running on new discs, pads, rear shoes and cylinders and completely new DOT4 fluid. All genuine skoda parts straight from dealer. Now my brakes actually feel decent and my stopping distance has reduced considerably from using the crappy halfords stuff previous owner had on there (cheap and long lasting? weird!)But, the feel in the brake pedal is just as rubbish as before. it seems to take some pressure before the brakes properly bite but the actual feel of the pedal does not change. its like a constant pressure pedal with no feedback. if i am making any sense here, it is quite hard to describe.is this normal on a felly?is there any way to improve the feel of the pedal? (making it softer i think would be better?)i dont want to go getting new brake parts like discs and whatnotany ideas always welcome!

gees, the removal of some punctuation and paragraph formatting by this backup forum is reaeeeely annoying!

it's normal on a felicia to have dodgy brakes, i dont like that 'nothing there' feel either. the only thing i would suggest is to double check that you have no brake fluid leaks anywhere

it's normal on a felicia to have dodgy brakes, i dont like that 'nothing there' feel either. the only thing i would suggest is to double check that you have no brake fluid leaks anywhere

thats the first thing i checked, and have continued to check since all the brake parts were reneewd 300 miles ago. Also checked the condition of the fluid by bleeding again from all four wheels and its nice and clear, with no water droplets or bubbles. Is brake feel mostly to do with the master cylinder? if so changing that for something else might help perhaps?

It is normal on these cars although It has never bothered me... round town etc I try to use my brakes as little as possible and keep moving and on the ring road etc I barely user my brakes there either by slowing down nice and early for roundabout etc. Then when I do want to stop i push the pedal and I stop... don't really see the problem! Then if I leave it a bit late for a bend or on some slippy stuff mr 'abs' helps me out!

Phil

Wear thinner soled shoes. I'm not joking; the easiest way of improving pedal feel is to increase the sensitivity of your feet to the pressure you're applying.

Actually yes. I sometimes like to drive in just socks especially on a long run and it does have a good feel when braking in just socks!

Phil

I've never found that the brakes on the Fav or Fel are lacking in feel. Perhaps you have poor pads? I've run Mintex 1144 and 1155 in the rally cars I've run (on standard brakes for homologation reasons), and while they're not the world's most amazing brakes, they're fairly good when all set up right, with everything working OK. Make sure the front calipers are nice and free - both the sliding part of the caliper and the piston itself, and make sure the back brake adjusters are working OK, and it should be OK. A set of 1144 pads will cost you around £80.

it's normal on a felicia to have dodgy brakes, i dont like that 'nothing there' feel either. the only thing i would suggest is to double check that you have no brake fluid leaks anywhere

Hi, no its not normal to have dodgy brakes on your felicia.The brakes on mine are sharp as i knife, try going somewhere deserted and do a couple of emergency stops then go home and bleed your brakes.Make sure that your pads and drums are ok first!!

I've never found that the brakes on the Fav or Fel are lacking in feel. Perhaps you have poor pads? I've run Mintex 1144 and 1155 in the rally cars I've run (on standard brakes for homologation reasons), and while they're not the world's most amazing brakes, they're fairly good when all set up right, with everything working OK. Make sure the front calipers are nice and free - both the sliding part of the caliper and the piston itself, and make sure the back brake adjusters are working OK, and it should be OK. A set of 1144 pads will cost you around £80.

80 pounds for a pair of pads!!!!!! As long as your discs are servicable just normal mintex would do the same job(22 quid)

Hi, no its not normal to have dodgy brakes on your felicia.The brakes on mine are sharp as i knife, try going somewhere deserted and do a couple of emergency stops then go home and bleed your brakes.Make sure that your pads and drums are ok first!!

haha, you've not been here long have you

80 pounds for a pair of pads!!!!!! As long as your discs are servicable just normal mintex would do the same job(22 quid)

No, they wouldn't. Standard pads go off fairly easily. I don't do a lot of tarmac rallying any more, but with a decent engine in a Favorit round Caerwent (look it up), the 1144s and 1155s didn't fade. Standard pads would die very quickly. I've managed to get them to be black and flaky, and this was a set of mintex pads, not some cheapo eBay junk.

No, they wouldn't. Standard pads go off fairly easily. I don't do a lot of tarmac rallying any more, but with a decent engine in a Favorit round Caerwent (look it up), the 1144s and 1155s didn't fade. Standard pads would die very quickly. I've managed to get them to be black and flaky, and this was a set of mintex pads, not some cheapo eBay junk.

I totally agree with you mate if your going to rally the car round a track but for normal everyday stuff standard pads do the job.I found my brakes are great after i changed one of the callipers as one of the pins had seized and my car was pulling to one side. After changing the calliper and replacing the pads( 22 quid from local supplier) my brakes are now excellent . In the long run it probably would make sense to go for the more expensive option but for normal driving i could replace 3 or 4 sets for the price of the 1155s, its all down to personal choice.

They fade on the road too, given enough effort; it's not a case of replacing pads more often when they're standard, more that you'll end up needing to replace the front of the car!

The OP asked about pepping the brakes up though; you don't think that's necessary, but I think even with them in tip top condition they aren't as good as they should be, and better pads makes them better. Not perfect, just better, and £80 is a lot less than changing discs/calipers/master cylinders.....

fwiw i still think the brakes on a felicia are terrible, even with brand new pads and discs and everything else in top working order. if you compare them to how sharp they are on a polo then you will get what i mean!! i think one of the biggest problems with them is that he master cylinder is slightly on the big side for the size of the calipers and it makes it feel odd somehow, i can only guess that they went for 22mm master cylinder for homologation purposes?

alas i think the best course of action is to upgrade them with something bigger.

, i can only guess that they went for 22mm master cylinder for homologation purposes?

I dunno about that - the GpA papers show a LOT of options for calipers (3 different piston sizes on the front, 4 on the rear, plus 5 disc sizes each front and rear) in the VO section, plus a bias pedalbox, so I don't think it was that really....

just clarifying here...

I dont mean that my brakes are rubbish (far from it in fact), what i want to do is sharpen up the pedal feel a little thats all. TeflonTom is on the right track with what im on about. I dont want to go replacing any brake components as they are all new and in tip top condition.

Without making mechanical changes, better pads are your only choice, really.

ok the way to get the pedal sharper is this,.

slacken the handbrake cables right off so they are real slack,then jack the rear up so you can turn the wheels, remove 1 wheel bolt,

turn the wheel so that the hole left by the removed bolt is at around 1 O clock on the driverside, you then need a long pointed screwdriver/bradel to reach inside and fit into the hole on the bottom of the brake adjuster wedge thingy. this needs to forced downwards you should hear it ratchet up until the wheel is locked by the brake then back it off one "click"

replace wheel bolt do other side the same except the adjuster is at 10 O clock and then adjust handbrake cables so they have just a bit of slack.

brakes should then be adjusted nice and tight and ther pedal should be nice and firm.

basically the self adjuster just doesn't

hope this helps

fwiw i still think the brakes on a felicia are terrible, even with brand new pads and discs and everything else in top working order. if you compare them to how sharp they are on a polo then you will get what i mean!! i think one of the biggest problems with them is that he master cylinder is slightly on the big side for the size of the calipers and it makes it feel odd somehow, i can only guess that they went for 22mm master cylinder for homologation purposes?

alas i think the best course of action is to upgrade them with something bigger.

the calipers are actually quite big anyway compared to say a 2.0 vauxhall,

i am currently working on a vented setup using off the shelf parts that will allow a 256mm vented disc and calipers to bolt straight to the felicia, only down side is the need for 14" wheels, it has just been tested on one of out rallycars and is good i just need to tidy some bits up before i will be selling any kits

i wasn't making reference to the actual size of the caliper, it's the piston itself that is mismatched to the master cylinder... it's fairly easy to use a vw 256mm setup on a felicia, you just drill and tap the carrier holes to M12 then put a 10mm spacer behind the brake disc with an appropriate spigot adaptor

i wasn't making reference to the actual size of the caliper, it's the piston itself that is mismatched to the master cylinder... it's fairly easy to use a vw 256mm setup on a felicia, you just drill and tap the carrier holes to M12 then put a 10mm spacer behind the brake disc with an appropriate spigot adaptor

oh yea the skoda piston is 54mm where as most ford and vaux ones are 52mm, the conversion i am doing uses mo machining or drilling/tapping tis a straight bolt on kit

your first headache is the spigot in the centre of the disc

on the vw discs the centre hole is 65mm, and it's 62 on a felicia disc, so i lathed up some rings to make them fit properly

quick squiz on the old milling machine

wilwood 4 pots, the hoses/unions were the biggest problem because these have some stupid american npt imperial threads

corrado g60, 280mm discs, minimum 15" wheels!!

How about replacing the dampers, and replacing the ditchfinders most people put on cars like this with some decent branded tyres?

your first headache is the spigot in the centre of the disc

on the vw discs the centre hole is 65mm, and it's 62 on a felicia disc, so i lathed up some rings to make them fit properly

quick squiz on the old milling machine

wilwood 4 pots, the hoses/unions were the biggest problem because these have some stupid american npt imperial threads

corrado g60, 280mm discs, minimum 15" wheels!!

the spigot is not a problem with the disks i used tho, i too tried the same combo as you there with the wilwood powerlite and g60 disk on my 2.0 felicia the biggest problem is it you actually calculate the area of the wilwood caliper against the skud one the skud one has more been there done that.

my car now uses subaru calipers and toyota disks with a bias pedal box etc, it now stops so well that it will lock a hot sticky slick at 80mph in the dry