Activa Pads/Discs
Moderator: RichardW
Activa Pads/Discs
Hi,
I am about the change the front pads/discs on my Xantia Activa and wondered if anyone could recommend a good upgrade?
Cheers,
Antony
I am about the change the front pads/discs on my Xantia Activa and wondered if anyone could recommend a good upgrade?
Cheers,
Antony
I can´t really say if they are better than originals, because the disks that I took out were well beyond their limit, and braking had become a little uneven.
Also since the tyres are quite crappy I avoid havn´t had the chance to do an intentional hard breaking experience.
In general the car does what I want...
Also since the tyres are quite crappy I avoid havn´t had the chance to do an intentional hard breaking experience.
In general the car does what I want...
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- Kowalski
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Grooved discs can make a difference if you're racing, they stop any gas that is produced by the pad acting on the disc from making the brake pads float, so they only really make a difference when the brakes are really hot.
Cross drilling is to get more cooling air through your vented discs. If you badly overheat cross drilled discs the holes are stress concentration points and the brake disc can be prone to cracking from them, I've seen this on AMG Mercedes that have been driven hard to the point of abuse. I'm not sure whether they straight forwardly crack or whether they take several heat/cooling cycles to start to crack but it does happen.
Basically, unless you're using the Xantia for hard driving or some sort of motorsport, you are wasting your time with grooved or cross drilled discs. If you are likely to start causing cracking or faster wear of the discs / pads you don't really want them on a dailly driver, you'd want them on a racing car where parts are removed and inspected on a very regular basis.
Cross drilling is to get more cooling air through your vented discs. If you badly overheat cross drilled discs the holes are stress concentration points and the brake disc can be prone to cracking from them, I've seen this on AMG Mercedes that have been driven hard to the point of abuse. I'm not sure whether they straight forwardly crack or whether they take several heat/cooling cycles to start to crack but it does happen.
Basically, unless you're using the Xantia for hard driving or some sort of motorsport, you are wasting your time with grooved or cross drilled discs. If you are likely to start causing cracking or faster wear of the discs / pads you don't really want them on a dailly driver, you'd want them on a racing car where parts are removed and inspected on a very regular basis.
I have run grooved disks before on a different car, and i found the braking noise to be a really loud groan as you slow down, it wasnt nice and i fitted green pads to minimise brake dust and the combination of the 2 actually made my braking worse, it needed more effort and was noisier,
I would recommend plain vented disks with standard pads, if you do want to enhance your braking slightly, you could fit some softer pads, but you will get more dust and shorter pad life, but the brake pedal force is reduced and it will feel like you have more responsive brakes
I would recommend plain vented disks with standard pads, if you do want to enhance your braking slightly, you could fit some softer pads, but you will get more dust and shorter pad life, but the brake pedal force is reduced and it will feel like you have more responsive brakes