Hi,

Short story :

Where can I get some decent , but reasonably priced brake drums and shoes in SW London (or mail order if it cheaper.....)

Long Story :zzz:

I'm planning on doing a bit of hefty towing (up to 750kg) and the brakes are a bit saggy / ineffective on my trusty Felly '98 diesel - I have just got a pair of Michelins on the front to replace some nasty cheapos (in advance of the Mintex discs and pads I'll be throwing on soon.....), but what about the rear?

I'm getting an intermittent squeal (disappears when you dab the brakes) - I noticed the drums had a bit of scoring / a fair sized wear 'lip' when I changed the the wheel bearings in the summer..... but all within Haynes wear limits

The handbrake doesnt work too well either. I'm wondering if I should replace the drums aswell as shoes.....

The question is - I'll be changing the fluid, (silicon) greasing the front caliper sliders / pins and generally sorting the front out - do I need to think about brake hoses - pretty sure they are the originals - front and rear ??

Thinking about it all a bit too much - and I dont want to throw money at it unless I have just before Christmas......

Cheers

Butter

The rear brakes on my sisters Micra were p*** poor.

Needed new wheel cylinders and shoes. Gave the drum a real good clean too.

Dealer price was £20 per cylinder but I got them online

Hunted on Ebay,

My Skoda dealer charges £10 per wheel cylinder. Skoda parts are reasonably priced.

Try a local dealer or auto parts shop

But to get your handbrake/rear brakes up to speed you need new wheel cylinders and shoes.

Try here

or these

clicky

Flexi brake hoses are checked annually as part of the MOT and ANY signs of deterioration - cracking or perishing - are instant fail, so if yours passed, there's probably no reason to change them. Saying that, I've not seen them so cannot make judgement. I think hoses are rated at 15 years life.

The bad signs on any braking surface (drum or disk) are crazing, discolouration, scoring (scratches) and ridging (like mountains & valleys) as well as the limits of thickness/oversize and out of "true" (oval, wobble) they are. Any of these and change the components. The lip on a drum edge is normal.

The hand-brake is self adjusting in accordance with the foot-brake operation, though there are adjusters on the back of the lever to compensate for cable stretch. Once you've replaced whatever parts you're going to (if the pistons aren't siezed or leaking, then you probably don't need them either, again, I reserve judgement), adjust the lever so that fully on is 3 or 4 clicks.

As for the squealing, see what it's like after you've changed the shoes - and check your wheel-bearings are still properly adjusted/greased whilst you're there

I have no idea about where to get Skoda parts in SW London other than to point you in the direction of your local Garage Motor Factors (Trade outlet, not corner parts shop).

Apparently the self adjusting mechanism doesn't work very well. See here http://www.briskoda.net/forums/technical-guides/felicia-fav-fel-fab-oct-drum-brakes/49988/

My 94 hoses are probably the originals too and not failed an MOT yet so I wouldn't worry about them.

Also I have recently read you should have your best tyres on the back, even on a front wheel drive. Not sure why.

Also I have recently read you should have your best tyres on the back, even on a front wheel drive. Not sure why.

Maybe because the Felly is a bit tail-happy at times? It does kinda make swapping the fronts to the backs obsolete though, doesn't it?

OK - cheers for the advice - have ordered a set of Shoes - will have a busy saturday as some **** **** scum ********* slashed two of my tyres last night (the new ones of course) - to quote a movie - "....it would have been worth it, just to catch them doing it....."

Will let you know how I get on ....

Butter

good luck.

when my rear stoppers failed the moto nazzy test (mot) all it took was an air-line to blow the crap out and all was cool again.

if you are going to de towing anything near to the 750kg mark make sure the trailer has got working brakes on it, otherwise with no brakes on the trailer, a wet road, the best felly brakes you can get, you will and up as another statistic. If you go above 750kg on the trailer, the law says it has to have brakes on it

Welllllll, I will be driving to Spain after Christmas, with the car FULL of tools, parts , clothes and a few other items - up to 50kg of the roof , 70kg trailer with a 250kg ish bike on it...

I will do some sums - but went for a light trailer as didnt fancy the idea of finding myself travelling backwards on a frozen French motorway.... :eek:

I know a van is a better idea , but the Missus wont have it (and Skoda dont make one big enough).

Cheers for the advice - was hoping to get some brake work done today, but the day fell to bits.....

Will try the rear brake adjustment etc etc and report back.... Test run with the once everything has bedded in nicely.

I'm hoping the de-cat I had to do will help the towing aswell (although Ive been reading in the forum about some people towing caravans, so .....)

Regards

Butter

The felicia and favorit estates are like a cavern when you pull out the rear seats. They just unhinge off and take a few minutes to remove and dump in the house.

The felicia and favorit estates are like a cavern when you pull out the rear seats. They just unhinge off and take a few minutes to remove and dump in the house.

:iagree:

I know I know , but (all) estates "look like hearses" apparently..... :confused: and the smaller the better (for city parking) ..... as its her car (most of the time) its hard to argue....

The rear seats in the hatch are removable too. Unclip them at the top, push the backs forward then the squab up and the inner mounting pin has flats on it that slide out of the retaining lug through a slot. The seat belts oull through the gap between the squab & back.

Presto! a cavern!

Made it to Spain! over 1000 miles in 22 hours (including the ferry crossing and getting lost crossing Paris at 3am!!). The Felly was brilliant - just kept pulling away at 70-80mph (except for a couple bits climbing the mountains...) with only a couple or 3 inches of suspension left, the roof rack 1m high and a trailer on the back.

I didnt think it was possible, but my little Fella has moved me and all my gear to Spain , and I am indebted to the wee man! Bloody brilliant for what looked like a clapped out banger my brother was going to scrap a few years back! I am living here now and thought I would need a LHD, but a RHD is a real headturner here , and is not difficult to drive so I think I will be keeping the Fella for as long as I can!!!

So as a reward I want to sort the cosmetics out - Ive got a bit of rust on the rear arches, and the paint has flaked off the sunroof.surround. Also the rear panel below the righthand tailight is dented and rusty - is this removeable or will require a boodyshop... (theres nothing in my haynes manual)?

Whats the best cure for rusty arches? And has anyone polished a flaky sunroof surround?

Regards

Butter

As for wheel arches, on mine I got the wire brush out and tried to remove as much as possible. If you remove the thingies in the boot you can see inside the wheel arch. I then applied a rust converter, put layers of aluminium tape across, and painted. Although I only did this recently so don't know how long my bodge will last.

Certainly a good clean of the area behind the wheel arches and some underbody seal/multi-purpose grease will stop the water and salt/air attacking those bits.

I doubt the panel you mention is easily replaceable. If money is tight I would recommend trying to bang it back yourself and stripping the bubbling paint, wire brush, rust converter, primer, paint.

When I first got my Felly my rear arches were quite rusty.

I gave them a good clean underneath to get the crap out

then cleaned the rusty bits primed and sprayed.

lasted 2 years needs redoing this year

Also I have recently read you should have your best tyres on the back, even on a front wheel drive. Not sure why.

I have also heard this and the thinking is that it is easier to control front wheels that have broken away than the back. However i still think it is best to have the good tyres on the front for the simple reason that your brakes apply most pressure on the front and i think that going into the back of something is more likely than me spinning out into a ditch the way i drive, especially in the rain with no ABS!!