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MG MGF Technical - What is your experience with brake wear?

Hi folks,

Dave and I have been chatting to a couple of ex-MGR chassis development guys who have set up their own business in the wake of April's sad events. The good news is that they are very keen on our MGs and one of the areas that they're looking into at the moment is brake upgrades (particularly for those of us who enjoy taking their cars around racing circuits! ;o))

I have informed them of my experiences - particularly with regard to rapid rear pad wear (I still wince at the rear pad wedging I suffered from a year or so ago following a track day at Donington) - but is my experience unique and unrepresentative?

Let me know your brake woes, and I'll feed back your comments...

Cheers
Rob Bell

I have had handbrake mech siezing.
Will Munns

My handbrake level into caliper also siezes!

Something better there would be good.
Dan Wavell

To me it seems hard to find a pad/disc combo that for trackdays will give approx. 4 set of pads /disk change.
I have the 280mm (Volkswagen!) discs,even branded discs wear fast if one uses moderate hard pads.
It was also a bit hard to find perfect brake balance front/rear. A bit "nervous" rear end at high speed straight line braking is probably something we have to live with, or?

:O( / Carl.
Carl

Yep, uneven pad wear on the rear and seizing rear guide pins on three different calipers. Guide pins seem to be a variable fit. Some are very sloppy others tight. Rust building up at the base of the guide pin holes in the carrier. That's about everything except the pistons and seals which seem to perform OK for me.
Ken Waring

Silly price for AP calipers,Discs, Pads!!.....:o)

Could they do better/cheaper?? :o)
Mark.L

Wedged & crumbled a set of 1166s in record time. Rear discs are cheap so I'm aiming for something that compares to the SBS Ceramics I have on the front, next stop 1177s but price does become a factor with Mintex pads.

Just replaced a caliper due to seized handbrake, I'm convinced the small pad/disk contact patch causes localised temperature extremes that the caliper simply wasn't expected to achieve (on a Rover 800's undriven back axle). Bigger vented discs please, 304mm ideally, and proper calipers that squeeze both sides equally would be nice. There's room, masses if you have 16" rims...

Hydraulic handbrake kit for a reasonable price? That would open up some possible options.
Mike Hankin

Has anyone looked at fitting Wilwood calipers. They seem to have a complete range and some two piston vareties can only be described as inexpensive.
Ken Waring

Rob, I have groved rotors as they are called here (discs) all round and I use Race Brakes Australia pads which are ment to be the same as 1177's. My car is used daily as well as track, they leave plenty of dust on my wheels and seem to be lasting. They bite better than green pads but they they wont last as long.
Andrew Regens

Thanks guys - it looks as though many of us are in the same boat with regard to rear pad wear. The guys are going to look into the problem - and I have already stipulated that cost is going to be an important issue for many of us...

Carl, are you using the VAG 280mm disc front and rear?

Personally, I've not had problems with seizing calipers. I don't know whether this is something endemic to the R800 rear caliper, but if an alternative rear brake is sought, I would imagine that the rear caliper would have to go too...

Ken, the Wilwood calipers are extremely good value. The problem for the rear brake is that Wilwood don't produce a caliper with a mechanical handbrake mechanism. However, the solution to that is an additional mechanical brake caliper - or perhaps make use of what Marlin Cars' have developed for kit cars - a mechanical addition to a conventional 4-pot Wilwood caliper...
Rob Bell

Hi Rob,
The VAG is on the front only as I suspect that 280mm at the rear will give even more problems.
Instead of changing to anything else than the standard rear I have been experimenting with various pads. As I have ABS I am reluctant to put in any brake-regulator for the rear,BUT things got so much better when "The nipple job" was performed on the Hydragas system.
But as stated in earlier thread, still a bit snaky at the rear when doing high speed braking at the track.
Carl

Carl, I presume that you've got the rear compliance bush spacers inserted in the tie-bar? I am sure you have...

I am surprised that you get so much instability from the rear. How much toe-in do you use?
Rob Bell

If bigger discs upgrades are developped, it would be nice that they would fit inside all styles of 16" rims without spacers, not only Trophy160/TF160 ones ...
Fabrice

Rob
It seems that Wilwood produce a fairly neat mechanical caliper to solve exactly this problem. As usual there's an engineering job to do to fit it.
Ken Waring

Yes, I've seen that Ken. What Marlin have done is to produce a neat little kit that works with their existing 4-pot caliper... I am not sure it is on the web yet, but it was in a recent edition of Kitcar International ;o)
Rob Bell

This thread was discussed between 31/08/2005 and 01/09/2005

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