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MG MGF Technical - Brakes unresponsive

Hi
My wife bought a 99 MG TF 1.8i in August. It looked like a nice car and had loads of receipts & paperwork. Two weeks later the head gasket went. Had that fixed by the local garage, then one of the rear brakes was sticking on due to the handbrake mechanism. I sorted that out then the power steering failed (she forgot to tell me that the speedometer stopped working at the same time) but I checked this site and found out it was probably the speedo cable. It was and I have now fixed that. So I would like to thank the people on this forum for the technical assistance and thought I should register on her behalf.
Now for my question.
I'm more into bikes than cars so I drive a Nissan. When I drive the MG, I find the brakes are really bad compared to my car. You really have to press very hard to get any response and I am worried about my wife driving the car. I have already replaced the front pads and freed up the offside front, as it was sticking on. (I broke two locking wheel nut keys trying to get the wheels off!)The rear pads had been replaced just befor she bought the car. The new pads should now be bedded in but the brakes are no better.
Is there any way of checking if the servo is working as I can't think of anything else? Would the brakes work at all if the servo had gone?
Any assistance would be gratefully received.
Peter Hargreaves

I will offer the same advice as I gave Ati a few weeks back, he too was new to his wife's MGF and thought the brakes to be less than perfect:

Have you assessed your brakes under 'laboratory' conditions or is it just an impression that they are not as good as the saloons that you are used to?

The very first Austin / Morris 1100s with hydrolastic suspension in the '60s were recalled because customers said the brakes were cr*p, the brakes weren't cr*p, they felt cr*p because there was an almost total absence of nose dive under braking. The suspension was tweaked under recall to give a bit of nose dive and everyone was happy apart from BL (or whatever they called themselves at that time) 'cos they had to pick up the tab. The F is a sporty vehicle with not a lot of ground clearance and probably nose dives less than you are used to hence giving the impression of cr*p braking performance.

I would suggest that you find yourself a bit of straight road with a good surface and no traffic and bring the F to an emergency stop from, say, 60mph and then do the same with your other car, hitting the brakes at the same spot and noting where you stop. I think you might be surprised.

btw, if anything goes wrong during the tests don't blame me... ;-)

(I too admit to favouring the bikes, 78 Honda CX500 and two Panthers from the sixties)

Adam
A H Price

Oops, shouldn't have mentioned the Panthers, they're from t'other side of t'hill. ;-)

Adam
A H Price

how did you fix the handbrake?

to test the servo, put you foot firmly on the brake and start the car, you should find the pedal moves further with the engine running.

the servo on the F is quite weak (by design) to give more direct feel of the brakes. A servo is just an assist, the brakes return to "normal" operation if it fails, but any modern car driver will feel this as poor because (in my opinion) modern brakes are highly over assisted so the feel really sharp from very little pressure.

Remember - it not brakes that limit how you stop, it's tyres

Will Munns

Thanks, I feel a bit more reassured now.
Maybe the brakes on my X Trail are a bit sharp, I could do with trying another MGF to compare it with my wife's car. I thought Harley brakes were good (even though people say they're not)until I bought a Yamaha so I guess all vehicles are different.
When I get the MG off her, I'll try starting it with my foot on the pedal.
I think the people who owned the car were being ripped off by their garage as they had a recent bill for fixing the sticking rear brake. Their method was to leave the handbrake cable so slack, it didn't work. It only started sticking when I tightened the cable. The lever on the caliper was all gunged up with rust and brake dust. I just cleaned and lubricated it.
I must say though, apart from the above problems, it's a great little car.
Peter Hargreaves

The quickest way to check the brakes is to take the car to your local MOT Station and get them to put it on the rollers.
I suspected a problem with my other car whereby the front offside brake efficientcy was shown to be 10% down. A sticking caliper had caused the pads to glaze.
Geoff F.
Geoff Farthing

Had a similar problem with my brakes seemed much worse than the Audi 80 / VW Bora I also use. The brake discs looked OK on the outer face but the inner face was making very poor contact on both sides.

Just changed the discs and pads for Ferodo standard versions and the brakes seem to be working they way they should ie very well.

My car is a 98 VVC with only 20K miles, the discs were nearly impossible to remove, with a bit of help from the archives and a carbon arc brazing torch I managed to get the old ones off. Put plenty of copper grease on the hub before fitting the discs if you need to replace your own.
Paul Robertson

This thread was discussed between 11/11/2008 and 14/11/2008

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