I replaced the brake hoses on my Suzuki Cappuccino this weekend to improve brake pedal feel. I'm a little disappointed with the result. I did switch from Halfords brake fluid to Silkolene. It's hard to describe in temperate language how much better the silkolene is. It bled so easily. There were 3 tiny trapped air bubbles in one calliper and none in the others. I used half as much fluid because I didn't need to pump through so much.

Anyway, the pedal is quite soft under gentle braking and become firmer as you approach tyres locking up. Push beyond this (when stationary) and the pedal gets firmer but still moves quite a bit. It feels like pushing against a spring. The car brakes cleanly at all pedal pressures and round corners in both directions, so I believe it to be bled correctly. The kit car had a little travel on the return spring before a needing firm pressure to apply the brakes. There was little travel and once the brakes were on, the pedal was solid and barely moved any further when pressed very hard. Is what I'm seeing on the production car just a symptom of a long pedal design that takes little foot force to apply the brakes?

Guessing here, do they build some 'feel' into the pedal to cater for the servo

Stuck caliper or misaligned caliper --- classic symptoms.

In the real world changing hoses will never make a detectable difference to pedal feel unless something was wrong to start with, like wise changing fluid from anything other than bog standard universal DOT4

Misaligned calliper? I've never heard of this. What is it?

...or the simple answer... There's still air in the system?

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Originally posted by smart51
Misaligned calliper? I've never heard of this. What is it?

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Originally posted by britishtrident

In the real world changing hoses will never make a detectable difference to pedal feel unless something was wrong to start with, like wise changing fluid from anything other than bog standard universal DOT4

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Oh dear dear dear, you're at it again. Obviously you've never changed from rubber hoses that stretch and balloon, to braided teflon as in Goodridge and similar.

Chalk and cheese. Why do you think racecars use braided/teflon, if by any chance the rubber would be better?

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Thanks Justin,

Yes, the cappuccino has rear callipers with handbrakes. The bleed nipples are on the top of the calliper, which should aid bleeding. Are you supposed to bleed with the handbrake on or off? I pumped it several times and then bled with it on. I figured that with the pedal depressed during bleeding, the brakes would be on anyway.

I haven't checked the rear brakes for 2 years, since I rebuilt the callipers with new slides and seals. I've never checked the front callipers, or any of the alignments. I suppose bending a brake disc to suit a partially working calliper would feel like a spring.

Hi Colin,

Yeah I guess misalignment could behave like a spring - but I'd have to say it seems quite unlikely to me that it's either misalignment or a sticking slider. Quite easy to check and worthwhile I guess before undertaking anything bigger/more complex.

If it were me I'd focus my attention on re-bleeding those rear calipers.

The nipple at the top is helpful but the biggest issue is air trapped in and around the internal handbrake mechanism. Inside your calipers there are cam's, springs and a cone clutch arrangement. It all helps to hold the air bubbles and stop them making their way upto the bleed nipple.

In my previous role we have had to re-assemble this kind of caliper under the surface of a bath of brake fluid to ensure that all the parts were properly filled without air bubbles. In service we used to supply some VM's calipers pre-filled with brake fluid

Best tip I ever found for getting a good bleed was to bleed as normal, handbrake position makes no difference. Close the bleed nipple and then pump the rear caliper piston all the way out (without it popping out of the seals of course). Then open the bleed nipple and wind the piston back in. This should release some more air from the internals. Then re-bleed as normal. You need to do this on each rear caliper.

If you still have a poor pedal feel and think it's still bleed related then you have to repeat the process. I'm afraid that's not an easy fix but, as far as I'm aware it's the only thing that works other than extended bleeding for hours with no guarantees!

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Originally posted by JAG

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Oh dear dear dear, you're at it again. Obviously you've never changed from rubber hoses that stretch and balloon, to braided teflon as in Goodridge and similar.

Chalk and cheese. Why do you think racecars use braided/teflon, if by any chance the rubber would be better?

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I'm afraid it is YOU who are wrong. Modern rubber hoses are as good if not slightly better than the braided steel/stainless steel hoses that everyone seems to recommend. I would suggest you start being a little more circumspect with your replies

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Neville, Justin used to design braking systems for a living. I'd take his word over almost anyones.

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Originally posted by smart51
Neville, Justin used to design braking systems for a living. I'd take his word over almost anyones.

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Ok on a 2002 WRX I swapped the rubber hoses for Goodridge ones, it did make a difference to the feel but it was not the huge difference I would have expected from past experience on motorbikes.

So I would expect on a servo assist car you are never going to get the same direct feel as on a non-servo assist system such as in a 7 or on a motorbike.

Aeroquip hoses do make a big difference on bikes, but then you are applying pressure with your fingers which are a lot more sensitive than a foot with a shore wrapped around it, and the brake lines tend to be quite long compared to car lines.

Never been very impressed with them on cars, they just don't seem to have enough flexibility to deal with the amount of articulation they get (especially as they tend to be quite short) and it can be difficult to stop them rubbing on things as they twist up under steering lock. I wouldn't even consider them for a road going tin top, but for a kit car the ability to get custom lengths made with whatever end fittings you require is extremely useful.

On the caliper flex situation...

Consider this. With the average single piston being say 50mm, and the m/cyl being 22mm, then the area ratio is ~5+. If the caliper flexes 1mm,then the m/c moves 5mm.

If the pedal ratio is 4:1, then that 5+mm at the m/c translates to 20+mm at the pedal end. Multiply this by the number of pistons in the system, and the flex be 0.1mm, or much more as it can be and often is.

This can be,and is felt as 'spring' at the end of the effective pedal movement. The 'sponginess' is the caliper metal operating in the elastic range of the metal. It will happen with all calipers, regardless of material.

And as ripley said, 'believe it or not'.

( As an r&d exercise for a customer more than 20 years ago, I made a carbon fibre caliper body. Even that flexed, in spite of being made from high modulus carbon and claved to within a micron of its life!)

I know this flex to be a reality, and not easy to deal with. Most road cars will never have to contend with the consequences, as they rarely operate at sufficient line pressures for it to be discernable or a concern. Racecars on the other hand, have the ability to 'life' parts so that failure is not a consideration.

Cheers,
Nev.

[Edited on 2/8/11 by Neville Jones]

This thread has gone off topic a bit, but it's worth pointing out at this stage that a race cars usage of braided brake hoses is far less about feel, and far more about temperature handling.

Braided hoses tend to handle a lot more temperature - if rubber hoses were used on race cars, the heat would make their longevity very unpredictable.

I can't say I've ever noticed a pedal feel improvement just from braided hoses alone, but then I have never fitted them without changing something else at the same time too, so it's hard to tell really.

Totally irrelevent to this topic, but I was always impressed with the high pressure systems on the Citroen GS that didn't use any rubber hoses - even the flexible ones to the rear wheels were metal.


Stu

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Originally posted by JAG
In service we used to supply some VM's calipers pre-filled with brake fluid.....

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