Help....my brakes are sh*t!!...plus suspension problems!

[A3Tom]

Hello!

I've got a bit of a problem...

When I brake I have loads of judder through the pedal and the brakes dont seem to 'bite' very well. I put new discs on last year and green stuff pads and they were OK but now my brakes are just scarey when coming down from high speed.

Feels like it could warped discs but I cant see how that could have happened unless the ones I put on where poor quality (not poor quality money thats for sure!).

I'm thinking about putting my old discs back on as they have plenty of meat left on them and seeing how I get on. When I got my car MOT'd the tester said that the front left caliper wasnt performing as well as the right one (but well enough to pass) so I'm hoping its nothing more serious. I'm going to swap around the discs and bleed the system and make sure the calipers are all in good order (no leaks). Has anyone ever had anything like this before?. I've whipped the wheels off and spun the discs and they dont appear to be 'running out' but without a guage on them I might not be able to see by eye

Also, I have a right nasty clunk when going over bumps at the minute. I'm going to change both front ball joints I was advised to when it had its MOT but the tester also stated that one of the Mcpherson struts had play in it. The car had new wishbone bushes and all new shocks and springs about 10K miles ago. Where am I looking for the mcpherson strut and are there bushes that can be changed?.

Many thanks!. I really need to get it sorted as the clunks driving me around the bend

T

 

[L3WJX]

Could need just a clean up mate,i had this problem only took hour,also mabie get a brake fluid test see if the fluid needs changing.
For the noise could still be the bushes lowerball joint,mabie just somthing as easy as do a bolt up what come loose,but im sure there will be another member on here who can give you a lot more info..

 

[Lee172]

I dont know about the knocking (im having a similar problem at the moment) but have you tried jacking the car up and spinning the wheel to see if the disks are warped?

 

[A3Tom]

Yep, tried that, I'm sure I can hear some slight rubbing when I'm driving at low speeds so fingers crossed thats all it is. I'm going to strip the calipers down, refit my old 'non warped' discs and rebuild everything back up with plenty of copper slip and see how it goes. I'll change the fluid as it needs doing anyway, anyone got any recommendations of good fluid to use rather than the usual euro car parts stuff I've had in the past?

As for the knock I'm a bit puzzled. I had new front wishbone bushes last year, as well as new top mounts, shocks, drop links, ARB's and ARB bushes. I'll switch the ball joints as they're only cheap and hope it cures it but I dont think a ball joint would clunk if it was knackered. i've given the wheel a ****** good tug and shake and cant get it to clunk that way.

The only thing that puzzled me was the MOT tester saying 'slight play in the mcpherson strut'. He didnt tell me where abouts or which bit of it...tsk!.

 

[jojo]

Time to get yourself an S3 tom.

 

[A3Tom]

Ha, I wish mate.

The house is swallowing all the spare pennies at the moment so I need to just keep the A3 in good health for now

T

 

[s3dave]

tom, i had a pad siezed on my front brakes that made the same sort of thing you are describing, so def worth checking

 

[A3Tom]

Cheers Dave, I think a total strip down of the front brakes is on the cards