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MG MGF Technical - Disc brake upgade

Hi all,

Just aquired my first MG since I sold my MGB in 1987 & fancied something a bit more modern.

I have bought a 1998 MGF and have noticed some wear of both front & rear disc's.

I am going to replace them as mot is due shortly and have come across an upgrade set of disc's on E-bay.


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MGF-ROVER-FRONT-EBC-PERFORMANCE-DISCS-AND-PADS_W0QQitemZ180028046302QQihZ008QQcategoryZ10414QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem

Question is will this upgrade improve the braking without changing any of the hydraulic system or will the standard disc at half the cost give same braking?

Thanks, Steve
sc sylvester

I fitted these discs and pads with absolutely no noticeable improvement. I was disappointed with the quality of the discs, rough casting. Having said that they are still in decent condition after 10k+ miles.
Cheap disks from ebay(from Weston-Super-Mare I think) on my daughters car have worked well for 18K miles.
If the disks haven't been off recently be prepared for a bit of fight. The inside of the bell rusts quite badly and the hub is a close fit:-)
Ken Waring

I also have the ebc pads and disc's fitted and although there is not a massive improvement the bite is definitly there. Must say quality was supurb Also far less brake dust to keep of the wheels. For normal use stick to the OE parts.
With 15" wheels only upgrade is to ebc or 280mm disc with a adapter. If you have 16" 11 spoke then the MG/AP kit with 304mm disc's is the way to go. Good luck. Jamie
j.peirson

I have fitted EBC Greenstuff pads (new compound not to be confused with the older Greenstuff) and I have to say they have been a fantastic improvement on the OEM pads, there is no way I would fit OEM pads now. The braking has gone form marginal to being able to lock all four wheels in the dry. This is one worn OEM disks I am just about to fit the new EBC Ultimax disks.
C Tideswell

Hi
@ C Tideswell : Do you know when EBC change the compound of the Greenstuff, because i bought some this spring and i wonder if i have the new ones or the old ones.
thanks for the reply
pascal
pascandrea

Pascal, I beleive you can identify the newer compound pads by the fact they have large chamfers on the leading and trailing edges. The newer pads are also supplied with a coating applied to the surface designed to aid bedding in.
If your pads don't have either of these features then I suspect they are the old compound.
Steve White

Can anyone shed light on this??

I am also looking at upgrading brakes, but am under the impression that rears are not worth spending too much money on... stick to something like the EBC black stuff pads & discs, but go for nice big AP / Greenstuff combo on the front. Is that right? Or should you even up on every corner?

Ta
nick
Nick D

Hi Nick,

The rears work pretty hard, since 55% of the weight of the car is on that axle, plus when you stand on the brakes they're having to decelerate the engine as well as the car. Agreed it's not recommended to alter the balance of braking, so the safest approach is to fit the same pad compound to both ends. Having said that, my track car has Mintex 1177s at the rear and SBS carbon ceramic in the AP 4-pots at the front and it's near-perfect balance, while the Trophy has OE pads all round but locks the front alarmingly early.

I've not used EBC pads or discs, due partly to the mixed reports. Bear in mind that some harder compounds don't work well until they're up to temperature, and in the case of the race-spec ones that temperature can be a very big number...

Unless you have a problem with fade, i.e. glazing pads, drilled or grooved discs won't improve braking efficiency; they look good though ;o)
Mike Hankin

The fronts will ALWAYS work harder than the rears owing to the fact you get forward weight transfer under braking.

That said, on the TF with ABS there is more braking effort at the rear than on non ABS cars since the ABS can effectively change the brake bias in a dynamic sense.

The LAST thing you want is the rears locking before the fronts since you will get yourself into BIG oversteer if there is any steering deflection when they lock (like a handbrake turn).

I run the same set up as Mike both on and off track. The carbon-ceramics need virtually no heating for them to become effective (unlike the Mintex 1177) and allow me to brake far later when commiting to a corner (they do produce a lot of dust though!).

As Mike says, grooved or drilled discs only really help if you are getting fade since they allow a better dispersion of hot gasses/particulate matter away from the disc and, hence, help to prevent heat soak into the pads and brake fluid (they do help with unsprung weight but that's a different story).

It's also worth poining out that the more 'agressive' compounds like the Mintex 1177 promote more disc wear.

Deborah Evans

yep, I wear out discs quicker than pads! Fine at the back where they're cheap as chips, but the 304mm rotors are not so cheap.

It isn't just the discs the 1177 munches either - the dust eats into the lacquer on the wheels unless its removed frequently & thoroughly.

Going back to Steve's original posting for a moment, it's worth checking how much flex there is in the brake servo mountings. This varies a lot from car to car, and can cause a mushy pedal when braking hard. Many have found that a £20 brace bracket is a very good investment. Rob Bell's site has an excellent explanation of this.
Mike Hankin

Hi,

Thanks for all the comments has made intresting reading.

Steve.
sc sylvester

Just had a reply from EBC Brakes Direct(not EBC, they don't answer) and they say they don't know of an upgrade or change of spec. Someone must know the "what and when".
Ken Waring

As Mike knows, I can also vouch for his statements about 1177s. I've had to replace the rear discs along with the 1177 pads twice now. But, as Mike says you can use cheap rear discs and they work fine.

The front 304mm OEM discs (with the AP calipers) have survived two sets of 1144s (with a bit of a skim) but I've now replaced them with the EBC 304mm discs at approx 50% of the OEM price.

I've not tried Mike's ceramic jobbies, but 1144s on the front and 1177s on the back work for me.
Dave Livingstone

So...

Considering Im not looking to take mine on track, and i do tend to drive like a bit of an old woman, can anyone recommend a good compromise of brakes for me: IE. one that has decent performance but that i wont have to worry overly about excessive wear or dust eating my nice new TF wheels (smug grin!)?!!?

Ta!

Nick D

This thread was discussed between 14/09/2006 and 19/09/2006

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