does everyone have probs stopping in the wet?

Was driving home last night and it was raining. The car's been left standing for about a week so I brought it up to temperature and gave it a little bit of a gunning (nothing outrageous). A car a fair way ahead of me stopped suddenly and I hit the brakes and couldn't stop quick enough If I'd applied any more pressure I would have locked up so had to work the gears to slow it down. Got up this morn and it's dry did a quick stop on a straight bit of road and it was fine. Is this a common prob. I'm running on continental tyres so don't know if there might be better rubber out there?

By the way I'm not an idiot I know it takes longer to stop in the wet than in the dry just this seemed extreme.

if your wheels didn't lock, the tyre quality would not be much of an issue - sounds more like pads/discs

if your discs are slightly rusty from lack of use, and the discs/pads were both wet, braking would have been less effective

what kind of pads do you have?

for instance uprated pads may not work well from cold;

standard discs and pads. Will have a check tonight

I'm sure mk1 brakes comments could fill several librarys…

I swop from my mk1 to cars with much 'better' brakes, but I think you just have to work the mk1s a bit harder…

The mod I do recommend is Goodrich braided hoses - best 50 GBP I ever spent on braking.

The servo isn't the biggest (which is why there are so many recommended upgrades) but I found that getting new o/e ventilated discs improved braking over the old scored discs, but I did that years ago and many miles too and I haven't had to do it again - and good pads are a must with every car…

I've run lots of different types, but Mintex are good, M1144s are excellent for road use on standard discs but NEVER GET THE STANDARD MINTEX PADS, and Tar-ox are as good as they say but expensive.

OBC are good, but not without getting their discs as well, and then they seem too good - a friend tried Red stuff pads on OBC grooved discs, and that resulted in brilliant braking but too harsh for a daily driver. I tried Green stuff and they were adequate but disappeared quickly being used on o/e discs

unless you are a track-day hound, or have uprated the BHP, IMHO get new o/e ventilated discs (cheap) and some Mintex M1144s and a braided hose set, and you'll have excellent brakes for a car that weighs 900kgs

 

you could also try Ferodo DS2500 pads they are pretty good in my opinion

Cheers Stu

richyrich said

……….I hit the brakes and couldn't stop quick enough If I'd applied any more pressure I would have locked up

I don't understand, this isn't completely clear. Do you mean you couldn't apply more pressure? Or that you could apply more pressure but would have locked the wheels?