Tacking on to this thread. Working on getting my norway-bought roadster to be road legal in the rest of europe (technical inspection)
Braking was really poor on the roadster, I suspected multiple culprits:
- Car had been sitting in Norway for over a year. Lots of rust on rotors
- Braking fluid was brown
- Brake pads may be crystalized?
- Other possible issues with vacuum pumps/master cylinder?
Today I changed the break fluid for what was recommended by Conrad Busch from Mars Orbiter. (ATE dot 4 sl.6)
Braking has not improved significantly.
I did pass the technical inspection, but had to do a second go at the braking part - guy saw the massive rotors and thought there had been a problem with the machine detecting the friction...
Trying to figure out what to do next:
First of, how bad is braking on roadster? I've heard it's bad, but it's hard to stop this one.
My next step was to replace break pads which might have either crystalized from sitting over a year unused or have been clogged by the rust from the rotors?
There's still plenty of pad left - should I grind it down instead and try again?
I was looking at EBC Yellow stuff. After checking in 3-4 different places, my conclusion was that the models should be DP4885/2R and DP4197/2R, except the place where I could actually order them is saying I can use the EBC-DP4197R (which are 16mm thick instead of 14mm for the /2R). Can anyone confirm the correct model and/or if I can use the thicker pads - i guess grind them down?). Is there a big difference between carbotech and the EBCs?
Talking to my mechanic he didn't think resurfacing/coating the rotors was necessary - there would be rust on there shortly - coastal town in NW Spain with similar weather to NorCal.
Should I be thinking about other potential issues first for such poor braking performance? Something to do with vacuum system or master cylinder system? That's what my mechanic was suggesting, but not sure where to start.
P.s.- never buy a roadster from norway… rust everywhere