22 replies to this topic

[baja1969]

Help took the VX to Oulton park today, had 4 easy laps to learn the feel of the car as it was my first time driving it, but on the 5th lap the brake pedal started to feel spongy, i dropped the pace to come in to the paddock area but on approaching and braking in to Lodge corner the brake pedal went to the floor. limped back to the paddock area still no pedal feel pulled up and checked front and rear disks and pads, they were warm but not smoking hot, brake fluid level is ok and there is plenty of meat left on the pads front and rear the disks look ok so i'm at a loss, could it be the slave cylinder or master cylinder??? on the first sighting laps at not even 1/3rd pace the pedal didn't really fill me with confidence, I was convinced that the AP pots on the front would give a better feel and performance than the brakes on our clio (brembo vented c/w padgid RS pads) Now its been parked up for the afternoon I had to move the car to put the clio away, the pedal is still the same the brakes feel very spongy and the pedal has little or no feel to before going rock solid. Any help or pointers for a complete newbie would be greatly received.

[Rickwoo118]

Are they standard discs and what pads you using. You probably won't know but when was the brake fluid changed?

[Captain Vimes]

Sounds like you boiled the brake fluid and it's now full of air. Flush it through with some fresh fluid and see if that improves it. If you haven't done so already, then I'd suggest a super dot 4 fluid like motul rbf600 (halfords 5.1 will also work) for track use.

[fezzasus]

Slave clutch cylinder?

[slindborg]

Yep, boiled fluid plain and simple. Mintex oem dot5.1 is £3/litre and took lots of abuse... Its cheap so you could bleed it monthly if you felt like it

[baja1969]

Are they standard discs and what pads you using. You probably won't know but when was the brake fluid changed?

Hi Rick

Cheers for the reply.

According to the service book it had a fluid and pad change about 3500 miles ago, but cant tell what DOT brake fluid they used, its the lack of pedal when the car i now cold that is bothering me, ill have to strip it down this weekend to get my head round it,.

[Bumblebee]

Did you have your abs turned on?

[slindborg]

Are they standard discs and what pads you using. You probably won't know but when was the brake fluid changed?

Hi Rick

Cheers for the reply.

According to the service book it had a fluid and pad change about 3500 miles ago, but cant tell what DOT brake fluid they used, its the lack of pedal when the car i now cold that is bothering me, ill have to strip it down this weekend to get my head round it,.

My car allegedly had its fluid changed less than 3000miles and 12 months prior to me buying it..... The fluid was like tar and was atleast 5 years old...... Never believe the service book.

[baja1969]

Did you have your abs turned on?

stupid reply but can you turn the ABS off??

Thanks for the reply guys, I'll get the easy bleed out this weekend and will flush the system through, I'm going to get a new set of pads all round to, do you have any recommended type that is best for the track???

[Bumblebee]

Most people go for mintex/pagids depends what your budget is. Not as standard but most people fit an abs cut of switch (if your not on a budget you could go for the 4 channel abs unit) as the abs can cut in and course you to have a lack of brakes, the standard abs is hopeless

[Bumblebee]

Did you have any abs problems on track?

[Captain Vimes]

Track pad choices discussed here recently : http://www.vx220.org...-pads-opinions/ I'm happy with my choice of pagid rs14's which work well from cold but do squeal a bit. The best pad will depend on which compromise suits you best..

[slindborg]

I'd ignore the abs stuff for now and just get basic stopping sorted before cocking about more,

[baja1969]

I have the Pagids on our clio they are awesome, near to no fade and a great feel to the pedal, the only thing i really recall in the VX today was the brake light on the dash coming on a couple of times on left hand bends, no ABS pump/judder from the pedal under hard braking though. It defo sounds like a fluid problem now so this weekend I'll get on it and will go through the whole lot. Thanks for the replies this i why i love forums like this it gives you piece of mind

[Goosenka]

Mine was the same. Shagged fluid. What colour is it? It should be clear unless using blue stuff. Mine was black

[baja1969]

had a quick look when i got back to the unit and it is quite dark possibly black, so it must be the fluid thats knackered, so much for the service book being ticked to say that the brake fluid had been changed.

Ive just ordered a set of Pagid RS14 from elise shop.com, wish i hadn't been on their site as its like a kiddies toy shop, could end up spending a fortune with them, the Nitron 46 pro race shockers look tempting

[Bumblebee]

You won't be disappointed with the rs14 I only use them for the road (probably a bit overkill tbh) but I'm really happy with them

[Goosenka]

The fluid in mone had beenbchanged the month I got it and ibonly had issues after about 5, 000 miles/two years later when the pedal was non responsive. Get it flushed and see whatbhappens. Just don't do anything drastic.

[baja1969]

Cheers goose, fluid and pad change is my first port of call, thanks for the reply

[Boombang]

Don't forget to also bleed clutch.