Hi everybody

I have a MY98 4 door, and I had Mintex 1155 front pads fitted about a month ago.

Soon after fitting I went down to Wales for a blast and nearly went off the road at a downhill hairpin went the brakes just became non-existent. There was a smell of burning socks straight afterwards!

Now the brakes feel a lot less responsive than they did with the standard pads (incidentally I took that same hairpin on standard pads with not a hint of brake fade). There seems like a large amount of travel on the brake pedal before anything happens and I have to push very hard (almost like un-servoed).

This is causing me sleepless nights because the Rally GB is looming and this is going to severely impair my enjoyment (not to mention the safety aspect).

Is this effect caused by the brakes operating at too low a temperature for their compound, or could they be glazed etc. Could it be that they need bleeding?

Has anyone else had this problem? I would appreciate any help.

Yours desperately

Nigel A

PS I look forward to seeing you all at Donington on Saturday (my first track day).

 

Nigel, I am my 2nd set of Mintex 1155 pads all round on my MY98 car.

Yes I get brake fade if the car is really pushed (eg at a track), but not normally on the road.

The pedal is a bit firmer than with the standard pads.

My guess is that something has happened to them, possibly during fitting. Perhaps the pad surface was contaminated with grease or something.

If I were you, I would pop out the pads for a quick inspection before this weekend (there will be a few people at Donington who should be able to assist). They might just be glazed, and a quick going over with some sandpaper should do the trick. Failing that, there should be a couple of people with spare pads (or even ones for sale) at Donington.

 

Thanks John

I am going to ask Listers to have a look at them at Donington.

Nigel A

 

sounds like you have glazed the pads. I dont use mintex on my cars. I use ferrodo DS2000 as they work exceptionally well on road and track. I have never managed to fade them ever on track or road and i drive hard, i did 100 miles of donnington park in one day on a set with no problems, with a car that puts out 350BHP and averageing laps of 1min 29 secs.

 

John

Excuse my ignorance but I'm new here - what disk set up do you have on your monster?

Nigel

 

The 350BHP car is a 2WD saphire cossie running on standard 4pot front calipers and standard sliding rear caliper.
The disks are 6 groove but standard size. The grooves aid bite and help prevent glazing.
The cossie has better brakes than the skooby but you will still benefit greatly from these pads. If you can afford it fit some groved disks. Avoid cheep cross drilled disks as they temd to split due to stress raisers at the drillings. I had 2 go on me at 140MPH once and learned my lesson.