Nearly spun out again to avoid a car - new brakes needed?

Associate
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dogbreath.. i think you just said exactly the same thing as amigafan.. :p

for reference; my mini (998cc) also used to lock the rear wheels before the front wheels, i had 13x7" rims with conti sportcontact 2 tyres on.
 
Soldato
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Like what has been said above, you need to sort out the brake bias. Too much at the rear will be equivalent to doin a handbrake! This will of course cause the back end to swim around.

Now its been many years since I had a few mini's but driving them does teach you how to brake properly without that abs trickery :D Just jumping on the pedal does not give the best results ;) And I can remember having several mini's that didnt want to heavy brake in a straight line :eek:

Ooh takes me back to tuning the A series engine..man I'm old :(

Do a search for David Vizard, back in the day he was a God at tuning for the mini. I might even still have his book somewhere..

Mick
 
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Ooh takes me back to tuning the A series engine..man I'm old :(

Do a search for David Vizard, back in the day he was a God at tuning for the mini. I might even still have his book somewhere..

Mick

vizard.jpg
 
Soldato
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Now thats a quick reply..Impressive..But My book was white.....A google search has found the book still available thru amazon 2nd hand 'How to Modify your Mini'

Its probably in my mums garage somewhere...where I built up a 1400 big bore A-series engine..Oh I had time n money to burn when I was young!

Mick
 
Soldato
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If its passed a MOT I expect the garage wont find anything to do unless you tell them to do it
I gather you werent doing 30 :o Best to take some personal initiative


I would imagine the rear is doing exactly the opposite of locking up, and the bias is so forward (due to the far superior brakes), that the slightest bit of momentum either side of straight on when braking is causing the back end to move around a lot, so when trail braking etc, you'll get a lot of snap oversteer. I'm just guessing though


Sounds about right. A steep hill would exagerate it and topping the crescent of a hill so the car goes 'light' then immediately braking hard also would. Did the ABS help out at all ?

it has no ABS.
opps, guess not then. I thought all modern cars had abs pretty much.
Everyone should practise emergency stops when able, where there are no consequences. Also you need to know when to pump the brakes if you have no abs
 
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Associate
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I had this issue with my Mini. I almost bought a new pressure regulator, but ended up just adjusting the rear brakes which fixed everything. I don't know why moving the shoes closer to the drum /reduced/ rear locking up, but it did.
 
Soldato
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Car did go in for a service today and got this braking problem sorted. ;)

Apparently brake fluid was leaking on the rear drivers side wheel and local garage guy said that would have been the reason why the wheel(s) locked up when I had to brake hard before - and I forgot to tell him about the incident before going in for a service so I may have dodged a bullet here. :o
 
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