Hi All
I bought an EU-import Subaru Impreza 2.0RX (the 'old' saloon, not the new hatch) on 1st September. After a nearly three months ownership I remain highly delighted with this car. It really is a great car to drive in my suburban/rural driving and feels incredibly well engineered and "together". I dont have any rattles or other problems as yet. I now "get" why Subaru owners can be so enthusiastic about their cars, I already know what my next car will be!!
One thing that causes me some slight concern is the feel of the brakes first thing in the morning. For the first couple of applications they seem to lack "bite" and require a slightly firmer push on the pedal, probably 20% more effort, although it is very difficult to estimate such a thing. Once the brakes have been used a couple of times they are great. Why would this be? I have looked at the discs and they seem to be bright and shiny. I have also checked the servo operation, by holding the pedal down and then starting the engine, you can feel it sink. I had it at the dealer and they looked at the brakes and drove the car and say it is exactly the same as any other Subaru and that there is no problem. Any ideas guys?
Edit: I just had a look at HJ's car-by-car breakdown for the Impreza. Under 'What's Bad' he writes, "UK stocks of I.5R sold out in its first month on the market.". Why is this bad? Surely its good, because it shows that there is good demand for the model, does it not?
Edited by qxman {p} on 28/11/2007 at 11:33
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Having also bought a Subaru recently, a 15-month old Outback, I've been scouring the interweb for general information. Brake performance does seem to be be one of the few things to criticise Subarus for.
Given the demands placed oh Imprezas with much higher power than yours, the are plenty of options to upgrade the brakes - uprated pads all-round may well do the trick.
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I don't really feel the need to upgrade them though, the standard discs and pads look quite big enogh for the size of the car, they are 300mm I think. They are fine once they've been used a couple of times in the morning. I can lock the brakes easily enough with a decent shove on the pedal (or rather I can get the ABS to operate!). I can't see how uprating would improve the stopping performance because the limiting factor is the tyre grip. Its just the lack of bite on the initial couple of brake applications of the day that's the problem.
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Think it is the pad compound that will give you this feeling.
These cars tend to be heavy on their brakes and a decent compound only really works well when it gets up to temperature; hence the better feel when the brakes are warmed up. Lesser materials wear out very quickly on this car, or provide insuficent braking when hot.
Rarely will you need to use the brakes heavily/often when they are cold (stood overnight etc) so its better for the brakes to be poorer at first and get better than the other way round; which is probably what most vehicles suffer from.
As a general note, people expect competition brake pads to be better at stopping a car than normal pads. Not fuly true, althoough some pads are better than others; generally competition pads stand up to heat better than conventional and so provide better braking when needed. Driving a car through town on pure competition pads can be a scary experience!
hth
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Think it is the pad compound that will give you this feeling. These cars tend to be heavy on their brakes and a decent compound only really works well when it gets up to temperature; hence the better feel when the brakes are warmed up. Lesser materials wear out very quickly on this car or provide insuficent braking when hot.
Thanks. This does make sense. After a bit of firm braking they do bite really well. This must be the effect of heat on the pads. One thing I have noticed is that there is very little brake dust on the wheels, which is quite unusual in my experience. The pads must be hard and not wearing much.
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It may be because the hubs, discs, calipers etc are all cold and there may be moisture on the discs and pads. Discs will also form a microscopic layer of corrosion very quickly. A couple of applications of the brakes and a bit of heat in the assemblies restores the status quo.
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Do you park it overnight in a dry garage or outside, exposed to the elements?
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