I recently fitted braided hoses on, and frankly can;t notice a blind bit of difference before or after. I have bled the system to death to get rid of any trapped air (indeed got through �60 worth of carbone lorraine fluid) and yet there is no improvement.
Should it be rock solid, or does the presence of the ABS system etc add some sponginess to the pedal? I was expecting it to be solid, but am rather disappointed. I bled it initially with a pressure bleeder which was a mistake, and ended up doing it the ‘old fashioned way’ as I had left my Eezibleed elsewhere. Wouldn’t be surprised if there is still air trapped in the fronts - going to have another go at the weekend.
On a separate note - I have read that the air comes out of the fluid if it is left for 48 hours - is this true? If so it would be nice to be able to reuse the fluid - though I don’t think its a good idea - it kills me to chuck the best part of �60 away for nothing!
What year is your car? I’ve played extensively with my brakes etc over the years and I can get my '04 car absolutely solid except for the first 1/2 inch of play. I’m just about to change to braided lines as well to try to improve further as when they get very hot they go a bit mushy.
Did you do the “invert caliper” trick on the fronts and to the clutch slave at the same time?
It is difficult to get all of the air out of the front callipers.
They should have a bleed nipple on each side and the brake line should enter in the centre on the calliper on the inside. If you look you can see a raised round casting. That is where the fluid should enter the calliper.
This needs to be drilled and a face machined on it. Once done the pedal will be stiffer and you can be assured that all of the air will be out of the system.
Not wanting this to be an advert, but we can do it for you.
TBH I wouldn’t have thought you’d notice any difference after fitting braided hoses, until you went on track (or a spirited drive at Stelvio etc). The benefit is only felt under prolonged/frequent heavy braking when the complete braking system gets rather hot!
S2 has inherent long pedal travel…which can be reduced without braided hoses.
The clutch will have minimal affect. IME it’s all down to the air in the fronts. You need to make sure the pistons are truly back in the calipers and flush the lines carefully doing the invert etc.
Do that properly with the rears and the clutch and you should have solid pedal bar the first 1/4-1/2 inch of play.
Having said that, it took me 2 litres, inverting the calipers and enough pumping for a days walking to get mine ‘rock hard’!
Using R600+ brake fliud, never had any more fade either.
I will now be very interested to see how the ‘new’ Elise goes at Anglesea on standard disks, rubber pads, cross ply tyres and 87 BHP! To make matters worse I will be driving it too!
Is the only answer to remove the servo and ABS and replace with independent master cylinders, would i be right in saying one for the front, one for the rear and one for the clutch.
On the brake bleeding issue i use a bleeder that uses compressed air to suck on the bleed nipple, its always worked well for me.
