scared myself a little yesterday

[chris285]

driving along behind a corsa, road is a b road but you can do 50-60 quite easily with no danger

anyway the road goes over the brow of a rise and drops down and then a pretty tight right you have to slow for, anyway just as the road begins to drop there is a turning to a farm on the left and this corsa indicated late and practically stopped in the road while turning

well i put my brakes on and i know that the road was wet, but i just skidded along and though oh sh*t i am going to go into the back of them. but luckily i got some grip and already had the wheel turning right to avoid so managed to avoid them, but needless to say it mad me drive more cautious after this

the thing is i know that the road was wet, however i was only doing about 45mph and i had dropped back probably about 30yrds or so behind the corsa. i know i maybe should have anticiapted this and i know it was partially my fault, but i have never been 100% confident in the brakes on the car

i have standard 1.4 vented disks and pads on the front which were changed a couple of months ago, drums at the back have not been changed in 30k since i have had the car. but i have had it before when doing say 60 or 70 and having to slow for a roundabout or junction, the car has just felt like there is no stopping power and its worse when i have a fully laden car

i know the 1.4 does not have abs which would have helped, but it doesn't exactly give me great confidence in my car. problem i have is due to moving out i do not have a great deal of money to say look for another car, plus with my insurance i cannot get a quote for say a mk2 gti or similar despite being 24 and having 2yrs ncb

meaning a change of car would mean a change of insurance policies as well and i started my current one in august, and i don't want to have to start again being nearly 4 months in

anyone any ideas on the brakes, you have to apply quite a bit of pressure to the pedal to brakes so i am not sure if the travel needs looking at. the brakes have been this way for almost the 3 years i have had the car, but i have never had a problem with them in mot's at all

 

[Boi Ninja]

oh no,

...a change of car wont mean starting again ...not when i done it anyway. ive had a few of them and i know i got myself to blame for it. i know i need new tyres on the gti. on the 1.4 i had uniroyal Rainsports and they were sooo good, seriously i was struggling to wheel spin no matter how wet it was etc. mk2 quotes aint that bad, insurance has 'seasons' too, i was getting quotes of over £1200 and then just a few months after i got somthing like £800, so keep checking quotes mate.

...maybe u need to bleed ur brakes?

 

[chris285]

oh no,

...a change of car wont mean starting again ...not when i done it anyway. ive had a few of them and i know i got myself to blame for it. i know i need new tyres on the gti. on the 1.4 i had uniroyal Rainsports and they were sooo good, seriously i was struggling to wheel spin no matter how wet it was etc. mk2 quotes aint that bad, insurance has 'seasons' too, i was getting quotes of over £1200 and then just a few months after i got somthing like £800, so keep checking quotes mate.

...maybe u need to bleed ur brakes?

yeah possible brake bleed, its due a service after xmas anyway and the place i take it is good as i know the bloke as he is my mates dad

may get them to check the brakes at the same time

i am going on the fact my insurance company will not quote me from scratch on a gti 16v, may be different if i call em up and ask them though

my tyres are pretty good, got plenty of tread on them. i am using toyo pr1's at the front and khumo on the rear, so i don't think its the tyre's

as i say its the fact the brakes have always been a bit odd in my opinion, hell when i bought it i specifically asked them to be checked because of it

 

[IbizaAddict]

I have a 1.4 and recently got a GTi, i didnt really notice the difference in the brakes untill i took my old 1.4 out for a spin today, i had to press alot harder on the pedal to make them work and they felt absolutely useless compared to the GTi brakes. The old 1.4 had new discs, pads shoes and brake cylinders about 1000 miles ago too!!

 

[chris285]

could be that then, will just have to make sure i take it steady although i did find my tyre pressues were down a bit which won't helped when i checked them today

as i say car situation is a bit of a dilema as i am not sure if my current policy would allow me on a gti, and i don't want to cancel and start my years NCB from scratch again

plus i really want to save for a mk3 cupra ibiza as well as i know the mk2 gti engines will last a long time, but finding one about 60-70k which is what i would want is likely to be fairly remote

 

[Dolly_Gti]

i always keep my ABS on its toes, i got some serious cheap tyres, trying to put down 150 horses, turn them and brake them.... but as much as i get it slipping and sliding it always comes back.... so far lol

 

[SofaGeeza]

If you do go for a 16v gti try adrian fluxx insurance, got a really good deal with them, it is for modded vehicles though so depends what you want to do with yours?

On the brake side can't help you though, soz

 

[chris285]

well insurance wise i want to get to the 3yr marks really as soon as possible

then i will over 25, have 3yrs NCB and also it will have been 3 years since i made a claim so certain places i will no longer have to declare

think i will just have to hold tight for now really, car has never given me any problems i think it was just the conditions and my fault for not being a little more cautious even though i wasn't driving like a nutter

least it will cause me to be a little more cautious lol

 

[Adrok]

Im very fussy with brakes, I was never satisfied with the brakes on my fiesta Si.
They werent particularly small brakes and the car is pretty light but I was never happy with the braking power. It seemed a bit odd to me to put a quite powerful engine in a small light car but not fit it with decent brakes, but thats what they did. I just learned to be more cautious when driving.

The brakes on my Gti are much better but still sometimes it would be nice to have a bit more power.