Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Roadster brakes - a question of feel

So.. I am putting some miles on our Roadster and getting to know the car ( plus the weather has been good in our area ). Its all positive and I am adapting, but I have a question.. The brakes.. I am finding that they feel fairly wooden in their action, to describe this, they feel like they need a fair amount of brake effort for normal braking but will lock up in hard braking.. Considering they are servo assisted I would have thought the braking action would be more linear to the point of locking.. Now I know the car is light and has no antilock, plus my "normal day car" is a heavy Volvo xc90 so there is no comparison in brake feel.. Would you consider my take on the feel of the Roadsters brakes as being normal?, or if not, are there improvements to be had with brake pad materials..

That sounds pretty normal Dave. Mine were just like that. I went the expensive route of ventilated discs and billet calipers, but with the supplied Mintex pads they were worse on a cold application. In fact on the first MoT like that, after 1,000 miles they were marginal on balance. So I switched to Greenstuff pads, which not everyone likes. I had Greenstuff with the standard calipers, so I knew what to expect.
Now the brakes are OK, but still without much feel. Slight improvement on standard, but not the step change I expected.

The change to the larger ventilated discs gives more braking power, but the "feel" remains more or less similar. Even after 60k miles there only been a minor change for the better.

I actually prefer to use road pads rather than Greenstuff, I just don't like the excessive "dusting" with the latter, and I cannot detect enough of an improvement to warrant the change.

+1 for Greenstuff pads which improved the initial bite, with standard calipers at least.

You can adjust the piston travel & with it pedal height.
Loosen the 13 mm lock nut behind the clevis pin and by pumping the pedal the road should turn with you finger tips or with pliers but them protect the rod with padding.
I found if the pedal is too low the travel is longer as you describe, if very low then the braking is very poor.
If it is higher the travel is less and the braking more pronounced.

If you do this you will need to adjust either plate for the brake switch or screw the micro switch in or out.
Don't forget to retighten the locking nut.

Minor rod rotation / movements make big differences & I would advise you to thoroughly test the brakes in a safe way if you do change anything.

Are you on the original tyres by any chance? I’ve found these light cars to be very sensitive to the tyre compound age hardening and the brakes locking. Five years is my limit regardless of mileage.

Dave, assuming your 2016 car is still on factory pads, it will be well worth removing them, wash everything out with brake cleaner then check for any sticking pistons, lube around the piston dust seals with Mintex Ceratec

Then after all that I would replace the pads, (a bit basic on quality the OE ones) personally I like the feel of genuine Ferodo ones, from memory FDB 832

I had a similar problem on my Roadster when I bought it which was surprising given the Tarox 6 pot conversion a previous owner had fitted.

So I spoke to Tarox and the tech man explained that some pads can be prone to glazing on light cars which need relatively little pressure to slow the them down.

His tip was to "de-glaze" the pads by rubbing the faces together in very hot water with washing up liquid.

I couldn't believe the amount of muck that came off the pads and the braking surface looked like new after I had finished. (Rinse them with clean hot water when you've finished).

I also cleaned the callipers and discs with brake cleaner and applied fresh Ceratec grease before re-fitting.

The transformation was amazing with much better bite and very progressive braking all the way to lock up.

I've done 3000 miles since the cleaning and I can just start to feel them going off a bit so I will do this as part of my annual main service in future.

Might be worth a try for you before you spend money on upgrades.

Yes the car is still on its original Avon ZV5's which I believe are now replaced with the Avon ZV7 ( interestingly the spare is a ZV7 ) to be honest I have only locked up once due to a kamikaze cyclist who rode out into our path without stopping. Luckily this was on a Somerset lane, so no vast speed involved. The point raised of tyre life is valid though.. it certainly impacts grip.

I think you may be onto something here.. Jon M's similar comment ref checking pistons, cleaning etc is almost the same.. I suspect the pistons are ok, as the brakes don't pull, they are just without much feeling, but they could be glazed.. That might be the first thing to try, followed by a change of pad manufacturer if a clean does not help...