156 brake pedal effort

[Avocet]

Driving my wife's car yesterday, it just struck me how ridiculously over-servoed the brakes are. The 1.8 only has solid discs instead of the vented ones that it's 2.0 brother has. I don't know if the pads and the rest of the system are the same but if I so much as THINK about touching the brakes on my wife's car at low town speeds or parking speeds, it practically puts me through the windscreen!

Does anyone else find this to be the case or has my old 164 just turnd me into a rock ape?!

[DamienCBR]

I have got a 1.6 156 and my brakes are not like that, far from it in fact. I think they are crap!! If breaking at high speeds to go round a roundabout they go very light and you have to push much harder to get anything out of them. Mentioned it to the dealer they looked but nothing wrong.

D

[tr7v8]

Try JTD they are even worse, mine improved slightly with Rossini grooved discs
but I suspect it's a calliper issue.

[Planman350i]

My 156 brakes are also crap. I realised this once I borrowed 147, which seems to have much better anchors.

[saxmund]

The 2.0 has solid discs as standard (at least my 2001 model does) and there's nothing wrong with the brakes as far as I can see. I have had problems with them feeling a bit woolly - but the first time was sorted by replacing the brake fluid, and the second by replacing the front tyres.

[Avocet]

I agree hers aren't the best if you give them any real work to do. Pedal effort increases quite noticeably when they get warm. In fact, there are a couple of long downhill bits near me where I can just about start them fading if I'm a bit "keen". My question was, however, more to do with the initial "bite" at very low speeds. It makes the car quite unpleasant to drive. Maybe not so different from most modern cars but after my old 164, I need to be really gentle on them!

[JohnEM]

I also have to pussy foot my 2.0 145, espcially at low speed and when cold, but took her on a few circuits of Landow and felt that they where the one thing that needed improvment!.
John

[jwyatt]

My first 156, a 98 V6 SP3, needed quite a bit of pedal pressure and I liked that. They lacked power under extreme use, however, and the feel was not the best. They were definitely not over-servoed.

My GTA has the 330mm brembo 4-pots from the fezza 360, Boxster S, Evo 8 and others and they are great - there is possibly a little too much bite at low speeds and too little feel on really heavy applications, so I'll be changing the pads at some stage, but even on track they don't fade seriously.

Pad material makes a huge difference to brake feel in any car in my experience...