406oc.co.uk

I'm just wondering if it's just my shed of a 406 that does this.
Day to day I find my breakes terrble, I have to press the pedal hard to get it to stop at a quick pace. The pedal can feel very numb at times and you'd sware your not doing anything. Of course I adjust my driving to this sort of braking and engine brake quite allot.
Now I thought at first my vaccum pump might be nackered, but it seems to be fine! If I pump the pedal so it's hard, keep my foot on the pedal and start the engine the pedal drops a bit. But if I press my pedal a few times quickly it can harden slightly, then go back to normal.

Now yesterday I was comming down my private road doing 105mph and thought I'd test the brakes. So I slam on as hard as I can without locking up to 30mph. As the car was slowing down I could feel the brakes working harder and harder. Then I came off my private road, went to slow down for a roundabout, hit the brakes and I almost went through the windscreen? So it seems my pads like a bit of heat in them to work tidy.
Now when I changed my pads and discs the brake feeling stayed the same and I noticed no immediat improvement in brakeing performance.
I have Eicher pads and Discs.

Anyone shed any light on my brakes? Is this normal for a 406?

Bailes.

Err, which pads were they exactly?

Aerated brake fluid? Brakes need bleeding?
May be worth doing a fluid change Sam, it's a pretty easy job as long as you've got one of those one way valves to pop on the bleed nipple.

Surley if I had air in my fluid though it would make my pedal spongy? Instead it's quite hard and numb.

I reckon the pedal stuff sounds ok, breaking from 105 down to 30 though, you'd expect the brakes to be fading after that, not getting better

Bailes1992 wrote:Surley if I had air in my fluid though it would make my pedal spongy? Instead it's quite hard and numb.

Well for starters check the fluid level. If it's been overfilled there won't be enough expansion space in the reservoir and that'd make the brakes feel hard.

Bailes1992 wrote:I'm just wondering if it's just my shed of a 406 that does this.
Day to day I find my breakes terrble, I have to press the pedal hard to get it to stop at a quick pace. The pedal can feel very numb at times and you'd sware your not doing anything. Of course I adjust my driving to this sort of braking and engine brake quite allot.
Now I thought at first my vaccum pump might be nackered, but it seems to be fine! If I pump the pedal so it's hard, keep my foot on the pedal and start the engine the pedal drops a bit. But if I press my pedal a few times quickly it can harden slightly, then go back to normal.

Now yesterday I was comming down my private road doing 105mph and thought I'd test the brakes. So I slam on as hard as I can without locking up to 30mph. As the car was slowing down I could feel the brakes working harder and harder. Then I came off my private road, went to slow down for a roundabout, hit the brakes and I almost went through the windscreen? So it seems my pads like a bit of heat in them to work tidy.
Now when I changed my pads and discs the brake feeling stayed the same and I noticed no immediat improvement in brakeing performance.
I have Eicher pads and Discs.

Anyone shed any light on my brakes? Is this normal for a 406?

Bailes.

You wouldn't get an instant improvement in braking power, the brakes would need to bed in, but slamming them on at 105 like that will not do them any good at all.
I reckon you have a vacuum pump problem, despite what you say, and if you are going to heat up your brakes with violent braking, make sure your fluid is at least dot 5 and in good condition.

Pads and discs are about 600 or so miles old now.
Won't change the brake fluid now. The cars going in a few weeks.

Well yeah, but presumably you'll be driving it for some of that time, and none of us want to see you end up wrapped around a tree or flattening some dozy pedestrian before that happens

highlander wrote:Well yeah, but presumably you'll be driving it for some of that time, and none of us want to see you end up wrapped around a tree or flattening some dozy pedestrian before that happens

I've been fine up until now with it. I mean the breaks work and they work well. There just not sharp? Yet when hot there superb?

mine are sharp and always have been (283mm DISCS FRONT), especially when compared to 247mm 306 discs

Is 283 right though the range? Someone tried telling me I was bullshitting and they were 258mm

the bigger 306 brakes are 266mm and are direct replacement for the bog standard 247 mm ones on the 306. As far as I`m aware there are no 258mm discs .
mines a phase 1 estate and when I looked it up they were 283 mm suitable for 406 15" wheels but too big for 14"306 cos I`d thought about using that size on the 306 DTurbo.
Mine really are sharp even with a load on board unlike the pansy DTurbo brakes .

Numbness could well be caused by a sticking piston...