Poor brake performance Clio 182

[ashy_gtt]

Hello, need some advice.

The wife has had a 182 for around 2 years now, I don't drive it very often so need some feedback from you chaps that use 182's everyday.

I took it for a spin a few weeks back and noticed the brakes felt very bad, almost to the point where it didn't feel like it would stop quickly enough from speed.

Anyway as the wife uses it for work and transports our 10month old in it I thought it best to check the brakes. I bought a new set of discs and pads (nothing fancy just the replacement bits from Eurocarparts). I whipped the old ones off, which had plenty of meat on them, but the pads looked glazed over I wondered if they had been overheated at some point.

So I fitted the new discs and pads, cleaned all the sliders up, and greased all the caliper/pad contact areas up.

I just took it out for a quick test and its better but still not what you would expect from a modern car?

The pedal feels as if theres air in the system, however, I have fully bled the brakes with fresh fluid!

When you press the pedal there is approx 1" of travel then it starts to slow the car down, you can press it down another 1/2" until it feels like it hits the floor (but it hasn't its well clear) then you can push it even further and they work better. It just feels like you have to press it far too hard to make it stop... For example the brakes on my TDI Passat are 100 times better than on the much lighter clio!

Any ideas chaps?

Thanks Ashy

 

[TimR26]

If you just fitted them they won't feel good until they're bedded in. You've changed the fluid so if it's still bad once bedded in it's probably a dodgy caliper or the master cylinder.

 

[Marv-C]

Judging from what you have written, your brakes feel just like mine (see brembo calliper thread) so I suspect that the callipers have seized. Seems to be a common thing on RS Clios.

I am no mechanic though.

 

[ashy_gtt]

Judging from what you have written, your brakes feel just like mine (see brembo calliper thread) so I suspect that the callipers have seized. Seems to be a common thing on RS Clios.

I am no mechanic though.

When you say seized do you mean the piston in the caliper? Surely if this happened it would just be one caliper which you would feel as the car would pull to one side? I'll have a look at your thread...

 

[Marv-C]

When you say seized do you mean the piston in the caliper? Surely if this happened it would just be one caliper which you would feel as the car would pull to one side? I'll have a look at your thread...

In my thread, both front callipers have seized!!!!

 

[Mike_182]

In my thread, both front callipers have seized!!!!

But they're entirely different calipers between the 197 and 182? And how does you +1 person equal a common thing?

 

[Mike_182]

What pads did you use? And did you just bleed the brakes or flush them through completely? As they're pretty good as standard until you do very, very fast road. Couple of theories on bedding pads in as well... My bike seems to prefer the go very fast and slow down hard a few times, allowing them to cool, but different people have different methods.

 

[ashy_gtt]

well i stripped them back down and the pads were pretty tight in the carriers so I ground them down and are now a nice sliding fit!! I also stripped and re-greased the sliders. With the caliper in bits i checked that they werent seized by pumping the pedal a good few times to draw the piston out then pressed it back in so they're deffo not seized.

Since doing that they are much better and they stay cool (they were getting pretty hot on the first trial run) I still don't think they're as good as they should be but maybe now just need bedding in. I'll leave it a week and check again.

MOT on Wed so they should test the brakes and report back which should give me a good idea of how well they're working!

 

[Gaz_]

There was a recall on them (182's) back in the day, something to do with the vac pipe off the servo giving said symptoms

 

[Munson]

They are not as servo assisted as many modern cars. Perhaps this could be why they feel 'bad' to you?

 

[Rico]

There was a recall on them (182's) back in the day, something to do with the vac pipe off the servo giving said symptoms

182 brake caliper recall? What's this? :S

 

[Gaz_]

No, vac pipe off the servo. When they first came out, so a few years ago now lol.

 

[jack_davey]

Was searching for something completely different and this came up, the Missus 182 has the same problem! I'm assuming it's the fluid that needs changing, as I have put new front and rear pads on it, bled the lines and checked the discs (which are fine)!