Mini Clubman Brakes

[Deb]

Just picked up a 1979 Mini Clubman. Absolutely love it but the brakes are bad! They take a while after pushing the brake pedal before you think you are actually going to stop! Is this a 'feature'? Any recommendations for making them better?

Thanks in advance!
Deb

[R4NDY]

Pretty much a feature of drum brakes i would say! They can be upgraded by fitting uprated or competition shoes in the fronts.
But the best mod would be to fit some discs to the front.
Cooper s 7 1/2" discs if you want to keep 10" wheels or some later 8.4" units if you want bigger wheels to be fitted (12 or 13 inch)
If you are using the car regular i would suggest fitting some disc's.
But if not so regular, and for less expense i'd fit new shoes, change the brake fluid, check the drums for wear and fluid contamination and adjust them up and see if that helps.
Good luck.

[Deb]

Thanks R4NDY,

Should have said before that the car already has discs on the front & the calipers have been changed to 4-pots with green stuff pads.

Cheers, Deb.

[nky_84]

green stuff or any EBC pad for that matter are pretty much crap. The optimal temp rating for greens is too high for the weight of a mini unless your going to be driving it very hard. A good quality standard pad is plenty for your average mini especially with the 4pots.

[Kirsty5150]

Sounds like you may need a different master cylinder. I doubt the original is up to the job of pushing 4 pots around, when it's should only be moving 2 (assuming it used to be twin leading shoe) brake cylinders. With it set up you should have a "normal" pedal with great stoppers on the end. It may end up a little stiffer than you're used to, depends wether you have a servo or not.

[R4NDY]

In that case i'd be tempted to replace the green stuff pads with standard unipart ones.
Unless you do alot of hard braking or regular trackdays, or have a powerful engine to stop??
I'm running unipart pads on my mini with a 1380 engine and cooper s twin pot callipers and find them to have more initial bite than green stuff pads for everyday use.
Although would put green stuff in for a track day.
Hope this helps.

[vrooom]

Ditch those green stuff pads, and install new pads and rear brake shoe, new fluid, and make sure evberything is free (not rusted up)

[Kirsty5150]

Interesting. I fitted green stuff to my Cooper S set up and found a huge improvement. Good bite, and never once fadded them. And not for lack of trying either! I have heard less mixed (ie more good, less bad) reports about the Mintex 1144 (IIRC) pads.

[R4NDY]

The only problem i found with the green stuff pads was that the cooper s callipers didn't apply enough pressure to give full contact to disc. As i ended up with 6 1/2" used contact area on the disc, since found softer pads better day to day.

[Kirsty5150]

OK. I did used to drive mine pretty flat out everywhere. I did have an 8.5 k red line and SC everything to play with, so I didn't mind.

[Cara Jynwyth]

Deb said:

Thanks R4NDY,

Should have said before that the car already has discs on the front & the calipers have been changed to 4-pots with green stuff pads.

Cheers, Deb.

You're obviously too used to the Mondeo. I run S Discs, green pads and drive like a chump and it stops fine. That is also giving it some mega welly with a hillclimb spec engine. They can be a bit exciting when cold though, personally, I use the right gear, whether accellerating or decellerating. That probably does take the duty off them a bit. If I was to stop (like they tell ya on the driving test) the brakes would probably be well under the job. Drive the thing properly!!!!!!

[Cooperman]

Just a thought, but does it have a servo? With the discs, 4-pots and up-rated linings the pedal will seem very heavy if no servo is used. I tried my 'S' without a servo once and it seemed to lack any sort of 'bite' untli I pressed hard, then I locked it up. Maybe that was because I was not used to it, but in the wet I definately didn't feel happy without the servo.
Regarding pads, the best ones I have used for road and tarmac/gravel rally are the carbon-metallic ones from Mini Spares. Guru will tell you the spec I use as it's on his computer. They are the finest pads I've ever had on any Mini. However, they are only available for 10" 'S' set-ups (or so I believe). On the 12" wheel calpiers I've used a Mintex 1166 to good effect.

[Cara Jynwyth]

Cooperman said:

Just a thought, but does it have a servo? With the discs, 4-pots and up-rated linings the pedal will seem very heavy if no servo is used. I tried my 'S' without a servo once and it seemed to lack any sort of 'bite' untli I pressed hard, then I locked it up. Maybe that was because I was not used to it, but in the wet I definately didn't feel happy without the servo.
Regarding pads, the best ones I have used for road and tarmac/gravel rally are the carbon-metallic ones from Mini Spares. Guru will tell you the spec I use as it's on his computer. They are the finest pads I've ever had on any Mini. However, they are only available for 10" 'S' set-ups (or so I believe). On the 12" wheel calpiers I've used a Mintex 1166 to good effect.

Do they last well? (I know they wear discs) I'm going to try some next. The green stuff last well considering they are "soft"

[Deb]

Thanks for all the replies! Much appreciated! Think we'll get rid of the green stuff and try the uni part pads then.

Stu - didn't expect the superb braking performance of a Mondeo but thought it might brake a bit better than the M100 Elan I used to have

[Cooperman]

Cara Jynwyth said:

Cooperman said:

Just a thought, but does it have a servo? With the discs, 4-pots and up-rated linings the pedal will seem very heavy if no servo is used. I tried my 'S' without a servo once and it seemed to lack any sort of 'bite' untli I pressed hard, then I locked it up. Maybe that was because I was not used to it, but in the wet I definately didn't feel happy without the servo.
Regarding pads, the best ones I have used for road and tarmac/gravel rally are the carbon-metallic ones from Mini Spares. Guru will tell you the spec I use as it's on his computer. They are the finest pads I've ever had on any Mini. However, they are only available for 10" 'S' set-ups (or so I believe). On the 12" wheel calpiers I've used a Mintex 1166 to good effect.

Do they last well? (I know they wear discs) I'm going to try some next. The green stuff last well considering they are "soft"

I have to say that I've used all sorts of pads from Ferodo DS11's back in the 60's and 70's, through the Mintex 171 (super, but contained asbestos), the Mintex 1144 (useless for rallying), 1155, (not much better than 1144) and 1166 (OK), Ferodo 3000 (great, but use one set per rally at c.£60 per set), but the Carbon-Metallic ones are in a league of their own. Disc wear seems reasonable so long as quality discs are used, not the 'cheapie' ones, and they outlast everything else currently available. I've never managed to fade them, despite getting the discs literally red hot. I use AP600 racing fluid and change it every year, by the way.