SimonJM

In the continued absense of the search facility I would like to pick your brains.

Recently changed from the standard crap 2-pot calipers with smartie sized disks to 4-pots with 355mm disks (big !!!). Changed to braided hoses at he same time and am now using DOT 5.1 fluid. Currently wearing Mintex 1144 pads.

Whilst the brakes are slowly bedding in nicely (excellent bite) the pedal still feels as soft and spongy as it did before. I was expecting it to be alot firmer (bit disappointed).

To try and improve things the brakes have been bleed three times - no real change.

I was at my local dealer at the weekend and spoke to one of the engineers. He said that he has never felt a Scooby with firm brakes, other than the P1, and that maybe I was looking for something that I couldn't achieve.

Questions:

Am I searching for the holy grail, which is never to be found?

Have heard about a bracket that bolts "something" (very technical term !!!) to the bulkhead. What is this all about? Does it make any real difference? Prices? Where can I get one from?

Could it be the pads? Are Mintex 1144 any good? Anything better to improve the pedal feel?


Any knights in shining armour to help me find this holy grail?

Cheers

Simon

Alberick

The bracket that bolts to something could be a "Master Cylinder Stopper". I never heard of this in Europe but in Japan you can find them in any tuning shop.

Apparently this completely changes brake pedal feel and is a "no-brainer" to fit.

Ramon

Hoppy

Simon, it's called a Brake Support Bracket. I bought mine from ScoobyMania for about £50. V easy to fit. Some people swear by them; can't say I noticed much difference.

I think the fundamental problem is that a Scoob is an ordinary road car, with servo-assisted brakes and ABS, and you're never going to get racing car firmness with that lot in the system.

Mintex 1144s are a good road-only pad. 1155s are well regarded as a fast-road pad, but won't make the pedal feel any different unless you're really giving it some grief.

Richard.

[Edited by Hoppy - 1/22/2002 11:47:29 AM]

Pete Croney

Like Hoppy, I tried a brake support bracket, years ago, with a view to supplying them. I also found no real difference.

I also tried various brake fluids. There are massive differences here. The best two are Silkolene Pro Race 2000 (DOT4) and AP Lockheed Ultra (DOT5.1). They have almost identical wet boiling points, but offer compression resistance far beyond anything else other than the "race only" fluids. Don't worry about the Silkolene only being DOT4, the rubber seals in your calliper will catch fire before you boil a DOT4 fluid.

The DOT5.1 fluids of some well known brands are not in the same class as these two.

Used with braided lines, this is the only route to a truly firm pedal.

Hoppy

Pete, I never knew that. Very useful info. I thought hydraulic fluid didn't compress, full stop. A bit naive I guess, and I think a Scoob has almost a litre of the stuff in the full system so could make a big difference.

As it 'appens, I've already got the AP Lockheed fluid in

Richard.

SimonJM

Cheers guys,

Both changing the fluid and fitting a bracket are fairly cheap so I think I'll have a go at both. Anything to make it a bit firmer.

I'll let you know if I have found the holy grail.

Simon