Brake upgrades

[balders118]

Hi,

I've recently bought a Puma 1.7 (98 S reg). I love the car, drives great and a *massive* improvement from my last car. The only thing is that the brakes aren't up to much IMO. Its just been through an MOT, so they work as they should, just not the best brakes I guess. Discs on the front, drums on the back.

Would it be worth upgrading to discs on the back? Will I notice a big difference just upgrading the drums to discs.

A friend said I should just upgrade the fronts to better discs? I wouldnt want to do this without making the backs better too, or is this me just being stupid?

Or upgrade the whole lot?

I have heard later pumas have better brakes. Would swapping to these be the best idea (i'm thinking probabaly yes)

Never done anything like this before so i'm a total noivce to tis kind of thing, but its also the first car i've had that I consider it worthwhile to do any upgrades to.

Any ideas on costs for these? ATM I spent every penny getting the car in the first place, but if costs are realistic it would definately be something i'd save the pennies for next year at some point.

[jbi]

fit mondeo or cougar disks and calipers all round.

job's a good-un

[balders118]

jbi said:

fit mondeo or cougar disks and calipers all round.

job's a good-un

Any idea on £££?

[jbi]

www.brakeparts.co.uk

£25 per disk
£28 for a set of pads
£50 per caliper (roughly)

You will need to source the other parts such as the carriers and whatnot from ford or a specialist

[balders118]

jbi said:

www.brakeparts.co.uk

£25 per disk
£28 for a set of pads
£50 per caliper (roughly)

You will need to source the other parts such as the carriers and whatnot from ford or a specialist

Cheers

not cheap, but not too bad. Probabaly worth doing in the long run.

[herewego]

The brakes are fine, you have to push a bit harder than your last car that's all. There's nothing wrong with drum brakes. If you upgrade the rears only of any car you could get yourself into big trouble as, in the rare event of having to bang the brakes on, you may find the rears locking up and you facing the wrong way.

[balders118]

herewego said:

If you upgrade the rears only of any car you could get yourself into big trouble as, in the rare event of having to bang the brakes on, you may find the rears locking up and you facing the wrong way.

Makes Sense.

About the brakes being fine, and just having to push harder. When being out for a few b road drives, I have found myself pushing fairly hard on the stop pedal and not slowing down anywhere near as much as i'd like to. Once I get used to this i'm sure I won't notice it as much, but I would definately like to have more stopping power and more confidence under braking.

[bigdods]

balders118 said:

herewego said:

If you upgrade the rears only of any car you could get yourself into big trouble as, in the rare event of having to bang the brakes on, you may find the rears locking up and you facing the wrong way.

Makes Sense.

About the brakes being fine, and just having to push harder. When being out for a few b road drives, I have found myself pushing fairly hard on the stop pedal and not slowing down anywhere near as much as i'd like to. Once I get used to this i'm sure I won't notice it as much, but I would definately like to have more stopping power and more confidence under braking.

Might be a simple as putting some grippier pads on the front

[jbi]

some of the grippier pads can really eat your disks as well as chucking plenty of dust everywhere.

IMO you really can't beat increased surface area.

[balders118]

It seems later puma's had 258*22 discs, compared to the 240*20 of mine. Would this be a worthwhile difference, and would it be an easier upgrade to later puma brakes than say mondeo ones?

[balders118]

bigdods said:

balders118 said:

herewego said:

If you upgrade the rears only of any car you could get yourself into big trouble as, in the rare event of having to bang the brakes on, you may find the rears locking up and you facing the wrong way.

Makes Sense.

About the brakes being fine, and just having to push harder. When being out for a few b road drives, I have found myself pushing fairly hard on the stop pedal and not slowing down anywhere near as much as i'd like to. Once I get used to this i'm sure I won't notice it as much, but I would definately like to have more stopping power and more confidence under braking.

Might be a simple as putting some grippier pads on the front

Hadn't thought of that!! Like said thought, would it eat discs? Maybe a cheaper option short term, but long term may cost more with worn discs. Saying that, I would probably have to have the car a long time for it to turn out more expensive .

[jbi]

if your upgrading the disks you could chuck the grippier pads on in the meantime since you will be replacing the current disks anyhow

[Arj256]

Thought about bleeding the current brakes with new fluid?

[balders118]

jbi said:

if your upgrading the disks you could chuck the grippier pads on in the meantime since you will be replacing the current disks anyhow

Thats pretty much the best idea ever. Seeing as the new brakes would be a 'next year' thing anyway as i'll need to save up a bit to do it, I can do the grippy pads soon, and save for when they chew through the discs.

Now, where can I buy grippy pads from? (Apologies, as I said, I have not done anythng like this before so a bit clueless)

[balders118]

Arj256 said:

Thought about bleeding the current brakes with new fluid?

No, its just been serviced, so I assumed if this needed doing it would have been done...?

[jbi]

give these guys a try


http://www.performancebrakes.co.uk/

[shalmaneser]

It's just a bolt on upgrade to put on some bigger calis and discs. TBH you're better asking about this on a puma specific forum, it's the sort of stuff that gets covered time and time again.

[balders118]

jbi said:

give these guys a try


http://www.performancebrakes.co.uk/

Thanks

shalmaneser said:

It's just a bolt on upgrade to put on some bigger calis and discs. TBH you're better asking about this on a puma specific forum, it's the sort of stuff that gets covered time and time again.

Yeah you're probabaly right with that, i'll get myself signed up to a puma forum

[PhillipM]

Both 1144's and XP8's are nice and grippy and fairly gentle on discs.
In fact, with 1144's I've had discs last better than standard pads!

[balders118]

PhillipM said:

1144's and XP8's

Sorry, I have no idea what these are I'm assuming they're a pad?