Alfa brake/suspension Question

always change both bushes together -sods law says the one you don't will perish

:)The new pads will need to bed in and will feel "odd" till then. Does the pedal travel seem excessive?

Is it just the anti roll bar link bushes that need replacement?

I am not sure I agree with the 'do not hammer' the brakes statement

I was told that you are supposed to break them in fairly hard -

Install new pads (swap fluid at the same time), then accelerate to 30mph and brake gently - do this three times, then on the fourth time stand on them.

Then repeat this to 50MPH - 3x gentle/progressive stops, followed by a stand-on them.

Let them cool and repeat this regime twice.

Once you reach the third heavy brake you will be stopping hard than you have ever done.

I believe that this will prevent glazed pads and is a real good way to burn of oil and grease that made it onto the pads when you swapped them.

I am super-hard on brakes and get to change my brake pads every 12K miles, whenever I do I always do this, the only brake fade I experience on my MR2 is caused by fluid boiling on really hot days (120F or more), when I am belting around Willow.

I use Hawk HPS pads for track and street duty, I tried the HP Plus pads once and they where utterly fantastic, but replacing the rotors with the pads is somewhat annoyingly expensive.

If it is just the anti roll bar bush and you cant get them from Alfa seperately (Which I doubt), then Id have a look at Superflex website and just get some Taper seat bushes from them

You have the drop link and the washers etc, just get a bush the right Diameter and bolt it all up

Tester sees new bushes therefore happy

They might even have replacement Bushes for the wishbones as well - probably cheaper than New wishbones too

Seriously Russ, an alfa with sorted handling is an absolute Joy to drive.... car cost you nowt, do it the justice suspension wise that it deserves

It maybe depends on pad material, and I know its not as important as with older asbestos materials.
Any person I know who has driven their car hard with new pads has had a very short life, with poor brake performance. This has been with standard pads and kevlar pads.
I remember once on a stage rally at otterburn we had put a set of kevlar pads in my brother in laws avenger and he had been told they needed no bedding in and would work better if used pretty hard from the start. They lasted 3 stages (20 mile) so they were replaced with a half used set of old mintex pads (pre-1144`s cant remember the code) which lasted teh rest of the day.
Its very difficult to put a mileage on brake pads between different cars. My wife used to get 12K miles with her 306 diesel (3 months worth of driving) and she wasnt especially hard on the brakes. I have got nearly 20,000 mile out of the pads in my primera and I don't know how long they were in the car before I got it and I am pretty hard on the brakes.


Have you got any pics of your MR2 cant remember seeing them. MK1 or MK2 style

yes.
Really spongy pedal - no feel


Fluid was clean - topped up with new dot 4

any ideas? of replacement?

found those pages I was on about here

and there's some stuff on bushes here

This is where I got the idea that you could do it all with poly stuff. I would try and do it all as the anti-roll bar bushes only work when you're turning and it felt wobbly in a straight line and braking as well.

Easy to say now I've moved it on to you now, I know