Hi Again,

 

Thought I was going to plough straight through a roundabout this AM. Thought I'd left plenty of time for braking but after the initial grab, the brakes just faded to nothing - no matter how hard I pushed, ended up with both feet on the brake pedal and only just made it :-(

 

Is this most likely down to sh*t pads, fluid, brake lines or air in the pipes - probably a combination...?

 

Cheers!!

 

RobH

You will have to look, but a good set of pads and discs will make a difference.

How long was you driving for. I struggle to stop at the end of my street in the morning when the brakes are cold. If I blitz it for a few mins my brakes are nice and hot and I feel like my eyes are gonna pop out when I brake.

So take that into note. If you are looking for a whole new brake system, Skyline brakes fit under 17 inch wheels on a Z nicely.

 

 

Stuart

 

 

Thanks Stuart, I'm on standard discs (I think) and some crappy pads that the garage that sold me the car put on to get it through the MOT - some cheng shin rubbish or other.

 

This is when I've been driving for 1/4 of an hour and done a few stops.

 

Discs hot=crap/no braking (=poor pads??)

 

Cheers,

 

RobH

Cold brakes = poor braking

Hot brakes = good braking

Too Hot brakes = virtually no braking.

 

So it is a possibility that the pads are not good enough. The weight of the ZX puts a lot of stress on the pads and discs causing them to get very hot. If the pads or not made for the ZX then they would not be made to with stand very high temperatures and you experience whats called "fading". This is where the brakes just seem to stop working. Its quite complicated how it works, but its basically that pads get so hot all the resin that holds the pads together boil to a gas and it escapes through the pads and forms a layer between the pads and discs, which is not good. I hear that once this happenes it will more likely keep happening through the life of the pads. This is how I remember it. I read the article ages ago.

Also if the pads get glazed, so they have a very shiny side, they will not grip the discs. We all know how slippy a polished table is, or at least my cats do when they take a run and jump on it, only to slide off. Thats is kind of what is happening to your pads if they are not good enough and are glazed.

 

Hear is a little story that I heard, if its not true people dont shoot me.

 

EBC make brake parts and make some great pads, called Green Stuff, Red Stuff, and Black stuff.

Green is for road use / motor way use. Effective very quickley but not used for racing becuase they will get too hot.

 

Red stuff, is for general use but for use for thrashing round a track a little. Take time to warm up, and when warmed up will brake better than the Green Stuff, but before they are warm work worse than Green Stuff pads

 

Black Stuff, made purly for racing. You will have to do a few laps of hard racing and braking to get these pads hot enough to work well. They will probably make the car stop faster than ever then. But for normal road use they will be terrible, probably dangerous.

 

Now

EBC started off saying Nissan 300ZX the reckomended pads are Green Stuff. But now they have changed thier minds saying for normal use, Red Stuff is the best, because Z brakes get too hot for normal pads.

 

Hehehehehe. Long, and probably totally wrong, answer from me.

 

Anyway. Get some proper pads on there, Nissan charge I think £60 for a set, which is expensive, but they are made for it, plus you get the heat shield with them too. Or you can go EBC for about £50-70 I think. All this may sound expensive compaired to normal cars, but the brakes are not a thing that people should be cheap with.

A ZX can go 0-60 in 5.2

A tree can stop you 60-0 in 0.0

 

Stuart.

 

Long post over. (Probably full of spelling mistakes )

 

[This message has been edited by SRRAE (edited 03-09-2002).]

Rob

Not sure about imports but my UK car had 2 of the 4 pistons in each caliper that were pretty seized. The outer gaiters perish with road salt after 10 years and allow muck and water in. So she pulled up straight enough but obviously not as efficient as could be - even passes MOT like that.

 

Once I rebuilt them with new seals and cleaned the gunk off the pistons they are really good. Got new 3G discs as well. Brake too hard now and your face is against the windscreen!

 

Remarkable thing is being able to push caliper pistons back in with your fingers when rebuilt properly - not a lever!!

Yet to try on a track but obviously no competition with big disc mods.

Willie

these never let me down lol. http://www.300zx.co.uk/rides/lack300/disc_on_car.jpg

 

[This message has been edited by lack300 (edited 03-09-2002).]

Originally posted by lack300:

these never let me down lol.

 

[This message has been edited by lack300 (edited 03-09-2002).]

 

It's all in the spacing and brackets mate !

I second that,

 

thanks for all the info guys - particularly Stuart (take a breath mate!!) looks like it's red stuff for me (after payday :-\)