No confidence in brakes anymore

[Sunsetter]

Hello everyone.

The last months time or two I've noticed I don't feel confident in my brakes anymore. This is a bit surprising as I've always felt extremely confident in the brakes, coming from an old car the brakes in the Leon felt razor sharp and hard. I've always felt that if I brake the car will stop or slow down in time, not doubting the confidence of it stopping. This has recently changed. If I for example drive up to a traffic light with a bit of extra speed and late braking so I'll make the turn before it turns red, I no longer feel confident the car will actually slow down in time for the turn. Now it does slow down in time and I can just press the brakes even harder, but I don't feel the confidence anymore and have to press harder than, I think, I've done before.

A note, I've also recently began noticing the amount of travel the brake pedal has. I'm not sure if this is just one of those things where you notice one thing and then begin being more observant. I can't say there's more travel, I've simply begun noticing there's a decent amount of travel, and don't know if that's because the amount of travel has actually increased or I'm just more aware after losing confidence in the brakes.

The weather here is all over the place, I'm form northern Europe so it currently swings a lot, but it didn't do a month or two ago. I don't know if this influences anything. Winter was fine.

• Have I finally just forgotten how bad the old car was and adjusted to these new brakes? We do forget how good an upgrade is with time.
• Could there be something wrong? Brake fluid level is normal.
• Is this an indicator of brake wear? The car is only a year old, I never felt anything like this with the old car.

I find it hard to gauge as I don't have any actual scientific evidence, I've done no brake tests or similar things. But I do know I don't feel confident anymore, but I don't know if something has indeed changed or I've adjusted to the car with time.

 

[Cuprabenwytm]

Have you had the pads checked, all that late breaking will have done them in lol

Sent from my MRD-LX1 using Tapatalk

 

[Image2000uk]

Have you had the brake fluid changed in the past 3 years if you haven't that will make a difference when you hit the brake pedal.
I had a Golf which was awful on brakes until I had it changed that made a massive difference.

 

[BigJase88]

Change brake fluid and change the pads

they don’t last forever.

pads will help with fade, new fluid will help with initial bite.

if the discs are corroded / heavily lipped then new discs required too.

 

[Sunsetter]

Have you had the brake fluid changed in the past 3 years if you haven't that will make a difference when you hit the brake pedal.
I had a Golf which was awful on brakes until I had it changed that made a massive difference.

Change brake fluid and change the pads

they don’t last forever.

pads will help with fade, new fluid will help with initial bite.

if the discs are corroded / heavily lipped then new discs required too.

Have you had the pads checked, all that late breaking will have done them in lol

Sent from my MRD-LX1 using Tapatalk

The car is only a year old so hopefully the brake fluid doesn't already need a change. I'll get the pads checked out. I can't see any material, but I don't know if that's because it's kind of hidden by the caliper or if it's because it's almost entirely gone. I hadn't even though to check the pads as my old car had pads that lasted for years.

Thanks for the answers.

 

[Andy Knoxville]

Just my thoughts, but it is possible to boil brake fluid and radically reduce its efficiency with some spirited driving and braking.

Not saying that's the case, but it can happen. As others have said, get the simple things checked first (any decent brake and tyre place should be able to use a device to measure how good the brake fluid is now). I always use a local independent place as I know there not there to make a quick buck.

 

[BoomerBoom]

Get them tested; in the UK our road worthy test includes a brake force test on a rolling bed and I'd guess you can access the same in yours. If the car actually has a fault then you need to find and fix it.

It could just be that you got used to the brand new car brakes, which on the Leon are very sharp indeed and does decrease sightly over time, but if you have noticed a real difference then it's well worth getting them tested.

 

[black_sheep]

Get them tested; in the UK our road worthy test includes a brake force test on a rolling bed and I'd guess you can access the same in yours. If the car actually has a fault then you need to find and fix it.

One of the biggest issues I’ve found with all VAG cars I’ve owned since Mk5 Golf (8 in total) is that the rear pads are particularly susceptible to seizing in position, and/or the grove in the rear pad that is supposed to allow removal of the gases created under braking filling up with brake dust/rust from the disc degrading braking efficiency.

Every time I swap between winter/summer tyres I strip out the pads, Scotchbrite the machine finished faces on the calliper and lubricate with non-metallic high temperature grease (e.g. ceratec), re-lubricate the sliding pins and reassemble. This significantly improves the braking performance of the car. The above is significantly worse if the grease is jet washed away, when there is a lot of salt on the roads or the car is stood still for several weeks at a time.

In response to @BoomerBoom one of the issues with the brake tester is that when you fully apply the brake you achieve the braking force required, but the brakes aren’t actually performing across the whole pedal travel unless stripped/cleaned/lubricated.

I also replaced the brake fluid at 18 months on my current Cupra and this made a big difference too.