Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Brake Pedal 'Pulse'....

I never use the handbrake in the garage.... Ever. So was quite surprised to find the brakes quite tightly bound to the discs when I took mine out for a spin today.

Then I found there was a bit of pulsing or chattering when applying the brakes (felt through the pedal) I didn't hear any noise of any sort. No rust present that I could spot.

Any thoughts?

I would be amazed if the discs had warped - it can't be that. But odd that the brakes were so firmly stuck.

Advice welcome.

You'll probably find ghosting (rusty outlines)on the disc surface where the pads were stuck. The insides of the discs tend to be worse then the outsides. A few applications "from speed" should help, but once marked it will never go completely.

Most probably the pads were lightly rusted to the discs. If you are lucky the pulsing will go away after applying the brakes several times relatively hard to get rid of the rust traces.

Not to apply the hand brake is good but don't use the foot brake either if possible. If the brakes ar applied and the the car is left standing the pads tend to stick to the discs especially if the brakes are wet or if the environment is damp. It is good practice to warm the brakes up after washing the car to get the discs dry if the car is left in the garage afterwards for more than a day.

I've had similar problems last winter with one front disc really sticking a couple of times and then letting go with a bang! Luckily no damage to the disc or the pad but I'm taking precautions this year!

That's also my idea about this problem.

The pads are realy close to the disc and if you've driven under rain before (or washed the car) some light rust on the discs can stuck the pads on them.

Thanks chaps for such speedy replies....

So no lasting damage done?

No - occupational hazard.............

Beware parking it just in gear if its laid up a few year ago we had the coldest winter on record . I kept out of the garage due to the snow when I went to start the car the gearbox oil was so thick it refused to go into any gear . I had to let it run for a while till it thinned out . If it had been in gear I would have had one hell of a problem .
I use silicone brake fluid have done for 20 year dont seems to get any problems .

Good tip.

My garage is a relatively new oak barn and has a dead level concrete floor. So the cars in there are all in neutral and brakes off. The Morgan is the only car to have bound brakes, perhaps having bought the car in the Autumn and not driving it much as a consequence, combined with its light weight, means the tolerances are still very tight. Maybe. It's a theory.

A painful lesson I also learned a few years ago... I washed my M3 Evo and put it away in the garage for a couple of weeks. The front disc pads rusted solid onto the floating discs. I had to slip the clutch hard to free them with a large bang. This left pad marks and surface rust on the discs which I tried to remove with steel wool (Brillo pads) and fine wet and dry wrapped around a mild steel block. Despite this and several heavy application attempts to clean them it wasn't possible (as Dave W says above the marks remained) and the juddering remained. The only solution was to replace the discs and pads

Ever since, every time I wash my car I run it round the block and preferably left foot brake (note some new fly by wire throttle/engine management systems won't allow this) or failing this give them several hard applications until the brakes are dry and hot before putting the car away. Interestingly, the new BMW handbooks now advise this

Neil, I hope your discs clean up... good luck!