Spongy brakes?!

[Toby@ToyTuning.com]

Rory and Luke are spot on..

T

 

[Monkfish]

to be fair i think 3g discs and mintex pads are just shite imo.

I'm afraid to say, I'm of a similar opinion. I fitted braided lines, 10 groove disks an Mintex 1144 pads and bled the system through with DOT5.1 fluid and I was less than impressed with the performance. The pedal feel was terrible. They do stop the car, but they don't inspire much confidence, plus they cracked after a few months. I've currently gone back to stock disks (Which are for some reason, slightly too small) and the mintex pads have got fuck all material on them, but the braking feels better.

I've got the replacement 3G's waiting to go on and I'm going to source some TRD pads I think. I was holding off fitting them as I'm waiting for a mate to sort his 350mm disks out on his s13 so I can trial fit the 280mm s14 disks and calipers to faff about with, but he's run into money problems so I'm going to have to wait for them.

I might just throw caution to the wind and buy some new stock [s14a] disks and source some second hand calipers and bollock them onto the car.

 

[WallaceGlanza]

Well I've bled them again and they feel better again, thy have a lot more feeling than before but still a bit of dead travel.

I bled them like the way I said atthe start and how rory suggested as thats the method I've always used. Hopefully the pedal stays firm for a bit longer this time.

@Monk: As I've spoken to you about I'm not too impressed either, its still an improvement over stock imo though. Its strange that you say your brakes have more feel back on the stock discs though.

 

[Toby@ToyTuning.com]

A spongy pedal won't be directly down to poor disk/pad combination but it can contribute. Someone mentioned a Cusco BMCS, these are great mods. They just sit in between the reservoir with a simple adjustable support bracket, this literally stops the reservoir from moving when the bulk head flexes every time you stamp on the brakes.

I'm a great believer of sorting out issues and not masking over them but once they are up to scratch they are a wise investment as you sound like you want/need good brakes.

T

 

[Monkfish]

@Monk: As I've spoken to you about I'm not too impressed either, its still an improvement over stock imo though. Its strange that you say your brakes have more feel back on the stock discs though.

There have been a number of topics on the 3G's of late. My brakes now feel better than the old 3G/Mintex setup, but they might not necessarily work better. Perhaps I was just expecting too much and they under-delivered, but I'm still not convinced by the overall setup.

 

[WallaceGlanza]

Yeah I know about the bmcs's and its one of the next things on my list, but I still don't think it will do much to the feel (or lack of) braking force that I had.

Its certainly improved (again) with bleeding them but its still not perfect.

 

[Dave@TM-developments.com]

I have used 3g/Mintex on 3 starlets and never had a problem. Most problems are down to fitment/bleeding with some people even using 55mm instead of 54mm discs. Mike you must have abused the f@ck out of those discs, even Kev @ 3g said he'd never seen a set like it.
Remember these are a road upgrade not track brakes. Just to add I find the starlet one of the hardest cars to bleed properly and only get good results with a proper suction type bleeder