probs with brakes!
Turbo Mini Forums

hey up, just a quick question or two for you all,

i finaly got my mini back in for mot on saturday after all the crap with the other tester not testing it because it was a turbo!, anyway this tester never even bothered about it, or even questioned it which was a bonus. but on the down side it failed on emmisions, and the rear drivers brake under performing.

my problem is ive tried everything i can think of to make it work better but im still not having much luck with it :S,
ive swapped the wheel cylinder, (which was siezed before), changed the flexi (which was blocked), and bled / adjusted it as best i can, but its still not working as well as the other side! and tbh im getting stumped :(
its a lot better than it was but in comparison to the passanger side its still not cutting the mustard anyone think of anything ive missed?! because i dont have time to take it back and it fail again :( will be another week or two before i have time to get it in again after tuesday. only thing left is the pressure reducer on the rear subby but if that was faulty id have thought it would affect both sides?

just out of intrest what does the brake have to score on the test to pass? the other 3 made 100% i think
cheers steve.

doh! why did i start messing with it!

are the brake shoes saturated from fluid for example if the wheel cyl was leaking before it seized?? this will reduce braking effort?

also how do you know it isn't working well, the brake test rollers are quite sensitive to different braking force.

another tip is to put a lot of weight in the boot... brings up the rear efficiency apparently...

How is that Iain?!

On cars with a load regulating valve I could see how that would work, however as we know, the Mini works purely on pressure regulation to stop the back brakes locking up, there is no sensitivity to load??

Must be an urban myth, never figured it out myself just something i was told, plus its a freebie

guess those with load compensation are the ones that it effects thinking about it!

hey thanks for the replies, i forgot to mention ive swapped the shoes and drum too! so literly everything on that rear brake is new or near as. ive also made sure ive got it adjusted right, doing the old adjust tap with hammer adjust again trick :S
only way i can test it is to jam the brake pedal down with a bit of wood and try turning both rear wheels when their off the ground, the difference is noticable enough. :S
cheers
steve.

doh! why did i start messing with it!

Have you got the same diametre wheel cylinders each side they come in about 3 different piston diametres

Metro turbo weekend driver,Mini turbo in the making again!

iirc there are 2 tests for the rear brakes, one is on normal brakes the other is under handbrake. Does it fail on both or just one. You could iliminate problems that way, i.e if it passes on the handbrake and is equal on both sides then there is nothing wrong with the pads/drums etc and it must be a hydraulic problem.

Personally i never replace brake stuff singally as the other side is likely to be just as bad etc. Hence i always replace shoes/pads/hoses/cylinders/calipers/discs/drums on both sides, not just one.

I've seen the future and tbh its Pie

yeah it passes handbrake with flying colours so it must be hydraulic, actualy someone else told me about the wheel cylinders having differnt piston sizes tonight too so will have to check that.
i would normaly do both sides when im doing brakes etc but i was reluctant to mess with the other side when it was getting full marks! didnt want to tempt fate and that one fail instead! the mot blokes gone on a 3 day training course now anyway so ive got to wait till saturday now anyway :( so might as well change all that side too and have done with it.
cheers
steve

doh! why did i start messing with it!