Fiesta Brakes

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Mon 28 Jan 2002 11:13
Fiesta Brakes - Mike W
My girlfriend has a 2000 X Fiesta Zetec with 25,000 mls on it. The brakes have always felt quite spongy but have always stopped well. She had to perform an emergency stop the other day and only just made it, she says that the brakes have been getting poorer. I took it out last night on a bit of deserted road and did lots of hard braking. It was slightly damp but for the first four or five attempts it wouldn't even lock up and took an age to stop. However the next one after that seemed to work and stopped much quicker and this dust flew up from the front. After that it was much better and I could feel the front end digging in. The pads are fine because the first 20k were motorway, but recently her journey to work has been stop start in town. Am I right in thinking that the braking was being affected by crap building up because the brakes aren't being used heavily? If so is the best thing to carry on doing is to mash the brakes reguarly? Or should there be cleaning of anything involved? Also is the spongy feel just to be put up with or is there anything that can be done?
Any advice would be much appreciated.
Cheers
Mike
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Mon 28 Jan 2002 15:23
Re: Fiesta Brakes - Andy Bairsto
Pads and fluid change might help and have the rear brakes checked out.
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Mon 28 Jan 2002 15:50
Re: Fiesta Brakes - Dwight Van-Driver
I have always understood that 'feathering' the brakes -light applications from advanced observations and slow Town driving, builds up a very smooth surface on the pads and a resultant deterioration of the brakes. To counter this, it is advised to brake heavily now and again to roughen the surfaces. But please pick your moment and check the rear view mirror.

DVD.
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Mon 28 Jan 2002 20:09
Re: Fiesta Brakes - Andrew
Hi

I have been previously told that light braking will 'polish' the brake pads so that when you do brake sharply they appear not to be working properly.

After driving round town or 'light braking' for a couple of weeks or so I used to brake hard a few times from motorway type speeds. You will soon notice that the brakes are working better.
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