The brakes on the Girfriends TDi Ambiente seem a bit soft to me. Where as mine have very little travel then you go through the windscreen, hers have quite a lot of travel, work but aren't as brutal as mine.

I've just had the fluid changed at Skoda - painful experience, should have been 8.30 done while you wait out by 9, instead it was nearer 10 before I left! I was kind of hoping that as a result the play would have gone but it hasn't.

I have got an advisory of the inside face of the discs being heavily corroded, but I'll be blowed if I'll pay their prices so I'll do it myself.

This has drums onthe back, so I have no idea what the shoes are like, but the hand brake holds well and doesn't have excess movement.

Any ideas?

Tom

Well I emailed teh dealer and got a call back from the service people. There reply basically is check that the pads are able to travel freely in the carrier.

I find it hard to believe that is likely to be the problem. Sadly I don't have time to do it before I go away for a fortnight.

Tom

That may well just down to the difference in the brakes. SWMBO has a mkI Leon and the brakes feel different to my Octavia and always have. The Leon has smaller discs at the front than my car, I think the 90bhp tdi may smaller discs than the 110 version too.

That may well just down to the difference in the brakes. SWMBO has a mkI Leon and the brakes feel different to my Octavia and always have. The Leon has smaller discs at the front than my car, I think the 90bhp tdi may smaller discs than the 110 version too.

If you're comparing them to the brakes on a vRS then remember that the vRS has steel reinforced lines.

Also, how worn are the pads? If they're low then there is a chance that the pads aren't meeting 100% square to the disc which reduces the solidity of feel throught he pedal, as can the pad beginning to break up which is quite common below 4mm. It doesn't take much for the brakes to feel spongy. Depending on the age it could also be the rubber lines beginning to lose their integrity and bulge slightly under pressure.

Another option, and possibly the most likely, is that the calipers aren't moving quite as freely as they should. If the inside faces of the discs are heavily corroded and the outside isn't then that suggests that something is sticking - another cause of mushy brake pedals.

Edited 7 June, 201115 yr by cloverleaf

It's comparing a 1.9 TDi 02 plate Elegance estate with a 1.9 TDi 53 plate saloon Ambiente. Not sure on front disk size, but certainly the Ambiente only had drums at the back.

I'm thinking I'll have to start with taking the discs off and examining/replacing, cleaning the carriers, check the pads and see what I have. The pads look pretty good, well the outer ones, but there again the out face of the disc look good.

While we're on brakes, I recently replaced the back disc and pads on the Elegance, now the front left seems to be binding a little, get's hot even when the others are hardly warm if I coast to a stop. Any ideas?

Tom

now the front left seems to be binding a little, get's hot even when the others are hardly warm if I coast to a stop. Any ideas?

Pop off the calliper and clean things up, a bit of copper/silver slip (not on the braking surfaces) might help.

Going back to the soft pedalled Ambiente... (seeing as I've bugger the Elegance)

It's got a wobble under breaking and a tiny squeak when driving, so I'll get some new disc and shove them on while down at the parents.

I'll also pull the battery and it's tray out and see if I can figure out the gear change issue too!

Oh and fix the rear washer which bungs up instantly after clearing it.

And fix the high level brake light

And replace the side light

And a brake light

And oil the door hinges

...

Tom

Edited 8 June, 201115 yr by tomsimmons

Right, an update on these here stinking brakes...

As I suspected Skoda were talking...rhubarb! The inside edge of both discs is a little more worn than the outside, but it by no extent corroded. The pads are fine, plenty to go, both inside and out. The calipers and guides are thick black and I haven't yet cleaned them. I instead opted to check the rear drums.

These although not perfect are working sufficienitly. The cable to one is much longer in the saddle behind the hand brake, and when the hand brake is 4 clicks on one hub is solid (short cable) other is slightly stiff (long cable) so I'm guessing that's a strecthed cable? However if you full the hand brake hard one there is still excessive movement and spoginess in the brake pedal.

I'm wondering if I start with cleaning the calipers and greasing them up, of if I should look at getting a brake efficiency test done for all 4 wheels and find out how they're measuring up.

What's people thinking?

Tom

When you say soft pedal? Remember that the throw! of the brake pedal is worked out to the movement of the piston on the caliper, so the pedal should move to the floor, almost which is full application of the brakes!

When you say soft pedal? Remember that the throw! of the brake pedal is worked out to the movement of the piston on the caliper, so the pedal should move to the floor, almost which is full application of the brakes!

I would say that that there is probably nearly 1/2 of the movement of the pedal before anything noticeable begins to happen.

On mine, granted discs all round, something is happening with very little application. On my Fathers, they're not great, but much better than this thing.

Tom

OK, now I'm rather hacked off!

Just finished cleaning the calipers, guides etc, fitted new pads (discs are fine).

Getting someone else to push the peddle while I watched and I can see both pads being moved.

So you would think the problem is solved.... NO!

In fact the foot brakeis now worse than ever, it's got even more movement, it's less effective when it does do something.

With the engine off you can pump the pedal to pretty much solid and little movement. With it on you can pump to improve but it collapses straight away.

Anyone any ideas?

Tom

Clamp the flexible lines and see if the pedal improves, this will tell you if it's actually caliper or drum related of master cylinder.

Clamp the flexible lines and see if the pedal improves, this will tell you if it's actually caliper or drum related of master cylinder.

Tech1e, thanks for you reply.

I'd heard this before, but I have to confess feeling the flexible lines on the front, and those that go round the beam on the rear, they don't feel at all crushable to be me, and the last thing I wanted was to split it and have to replace that and refill and bleed the entire system.

I've spoken with you once before, and you know your sausages, could you tell me how I found out which brake system I have, and thus what order to bleed in? I see from Haynes that one system you bleed back first, the other front first. Also, when in the process would you Master, ABS and clutch?

Thanks for you help.

Tom

Clamping the flexible lines will be fine for a short while, if you use mole grips some card wrapped around the line first will stop marking it.

Don't forget that the new discs and pads will need some time to be in. I almost always have a longer pedal with new discs and pads for a while.

I would turn my attention to the drums and make sure that they are free and adjusted correctly and that the wheel cylinders are free and not leaking.

I assume that the flexible brake lines are the same as those fitted to the Mk1 A3, if so they are PTFE lined and if you compress them, like you could a rubber hose, they will be scrap. I learnt that the hard way. Haynes manual said it was OK, experience proved it wasn't.