Dax Rush brakes upgrade - ADVICE HELP REQUIRED

[AshleyO]

OK

Owner of a 2016 finished Dax Rush. 1988 Sierra Sapphire base with Rover 3.9 V8 engine

Brakes are just not super sharp, so I am looking to do an upgrade to the car

99% road usage, but to be frank, a lot of Pyrenees and Welsh Mountain stuff, so they do need to work!

Some talk of Hi-Spec upgrades. ANyone got any advice on what is simple to fit and what does the job?

THanks in advance

[greenwoo]

Hi Ashley, depends what you mean by 'super sharp', sometimes just changing the peripherals can make a substantial difference;
master cylinder size, to get more pressure....
pads for better feel/stopping
pedal ratio if its 'off'
FWIW i have hi-spec's front and rear, billet 4's on the front and 2's on the rear... i never knew the other 'stuff; before i upgraded some years ago, otherwise i'd have given a few of those a try.

for example, mine had a sierra Master cylinder and research seems to show that it would be better to switch to a non servo size, like fitted to early fiestas and the like.....ie/ smaller for better pressure etc.

[SJLB]

Ashley, in my experience, the non servo brakes on both the kits I've had have never been that sharp, you have to give them a good hard poke. If you have sierra front uprights and 15" rims you may be able to do the upgrade I did on my Zetec. After some Googling I found guys on the TVR forum talking about a popular mod where the standard Ford callipers and discs were swopped out for Cosworth ones, from memory, the disc size went from about 260mm to 320mm and the callipers were twice the size. It gave a lot more brake power for a lot less than a Wilwood upgrade or similar. There was about 3mm clearance on the rims.

[Nash]

Ashley, I went for the hiSpec fronts on mine. The rears are stock Sierra discs. MS is stock Sierra and I run Mintex 1144 pads. The brakes work. Would I do the same upgrade again? No! If I had a blank canvas I'd put an AP Racing set up on it. NOT cheap but after I'd gone my route i had a go in an R300 with the AP set up and it was chalk and cheese! The AP setup had great feel and stopped on a penny! Eye wateringly expensive but.......

[Alextreme]

I would say the first upgrade would be to try the 1144 pads as suggested below. No idea what they are like for track usage, but on the road it transformed the braking and gave me much more confidence and for relatively outlay it would be worth a try.

[greenwoo]

The AP setup had great feel and stopped on a penny! Eye wateringly expensive but.......

don't forget though Neil, the r300 is prob 150kg lighter than yours, that must make a difference. Without going too far off tangent to the OP's question, gotta say that i like the stopping power of the hi-spec's, not the company so much tho!

[Crunchie Gears]

I would try the pad swop to Mintex 1144. It will not make any difference to the feel of the brakes but they will serve you well in the Alps. Having fried a set of brakes on a Morgan in the Alps changing the pads stopped the problem.

Regarding your upgrade I would ask questions like:

Are you getting any fade?
Is it the pedal you don’t like?
Do you need the brakes to stop you quicker?

If it is just the pedal then changing the master cylinder may give you more feel for small money.

[andyf]

Of course we're all assuming that it has braided hoses all round

[jeffw]

New braided hoses (old ones swell up as well as plain hoses).

Fresh fluid (RBF600 or similar), decent pads (DS2500, 1155, Hawk etc but not EBC).

Duncan Cowper's Dax runs Alcon calipers/discs all round

[Nash]

The AP setup had great feel and stopped on a penny! Eye wateringly expensive but.......

don't forget though Neil, the r300 is prob 150kg lighter than yours, that must make a difference. Without going too far off tangent to the OP's question, gotta say that i like the stopping power of the hi-spec's, not the company so much tho!

You make a good point about the weight, stopping power and the Company M.

Given AP do brakes for ALL cars and weight classes I suspect they will have an application for my car and the company's reputation suggests they'll be there to help.

@Jeff not heard of Alcon? Do you have any details?