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MG MGF Technical - Brakes follow-up FAO Rob Bell/ Steve Childs

Following up on the Brake upgrade thread from 18th July ish, my '96 F now needs new discs and pads so am considering an upgrade rather than the standard parts.

1. How noticeable is the noise if grooved discs / harder pads are fitted? Just had other work done at dealership and mechanic reckoned they might "sound like a bus". I would like better braking ability but it's for general use as I don't take the car on a track etc and wouldn't want to harm resale value should I sell in a year or so.

2. I picked up a leaflet advertising EBC "turbo grooved brake discs" at Brown & Gammons. Any knowledge of these versus the Rover Sport ones you guys have fitted.

3. How can Rover Sport discs be ordered? Normal dealership claimed there's no such thing (there's a surprise) and haven't seen them advertised in Moss / B&G / Satur brochures.

4. Found a great road if you drive east from B&G at Baldock towards Bishops Stortford / M11! Single open winding road with good visibility and little traffic.

Thanks,
Jim
Jim

Hi Jim,

>>
1. How noticeable is the noise if grooved discs / harder pads are fitted? Just had other work done at dealership and mechanic reckoned they might "sound like a bus". I would like better braking ability but it's for general use as I don't take the car on a track etc and wouldn't want to harm resale value should I sell in a year or so.
<<

The grooved discs themselves aren't noisey, but my Mintex 1177 pads are- and to some extent so are the softer 1144s that Steve has fitted. I live with it for the performance advantage, but in the most part, EBC green stuff are excellent road pads and are pretty much silent.

>>
2. I picked up a leaflet advertising EBC "turbo grooved brake discs" at Brown & Gammons. Any knowledge of these versus the Rover Sport ones you guys have fitted.
<<

Not a huge amount of difference TBQH, and not much in it in price. Techspeed fit them because it is convient for them to source them from X-Power Motorsport, and perfect for me thanks to the sprint championship regulations (they specify only MG-Rover tuning products).

>>
3. How can Rover Sport discs be ordered? Normal dealership claimed there's no such thing (there's a surprise) and haven't seen them advertised in Moss / B&G / Satur brochures.
<<

They are ordered through the competitions department, or through Techspeed. If you don't have a Motorsports licence, then Techspeed will be the only route open to you. EBC Turbo-Groove discs are much more freely available.

>>
4. Found a great road if you drive east from B&G at Baldock towards Bishops Stortford / M11! Single open winding road with good visibility and little traffic.
<<

I've never been to Baldock (!!!) so I'll bare this in mind if I ever head off in that direction- cheers! :o)

Rob
Rob Bell

Jim, firstly - Dave Livingstone can also answer this Q, he has the same brake setup as I do. erm, actually, that's the other way around, I had the same as him, but anyway....

1) No extra noise from Discs, but pads to tend to squeak abit if travelling around town (stop-start type of movemnent), no squeak at all if you get up to 30 or so for a decent strech).

2) Nope, although my brother has just had these fitted to his Rover 220 Turbo. Nothing to do with your question as such, just me deviating from the question in hand.

3) You have to go through someone like TechSpeed, or if you have a Motorsport Competition License, you can order direct from MG Rover's Sport department. (As Rob said above, I've just noticed!)

4) Too far down South for me ;)

If you are interested though, I can get the Trophy Disc & calipers for £300 for the set, but you will need the Trophy Alloys though, which I can also get for £375. Obviously a discount if you get 'em both ;)

Steve.
Steve Childs

Jim,

As Steve says, I have the same setup from Techspeed, namely, grooved discs and Mintex 1144 pads with braided hoses. Another friend of mine has also just had the same, also from TS. So you have a sample of 3.

I would say that in general there is little to no noise from this combination. Steve explains that he has experienced some brake squeal. I too have had the odd situation at v. low speeds (e.g. traffic jams) but I think less than Steve has experienced. Also initially I noticed an occasional 'grind' feel through the brakes, again at low speed but this was even rarer than the squeal and now non-existent.

HTH,

Dave
Dave

I should point out that there are other people who can get things from Rover Sport than Techspeed. (e.g. I know Meltech, my neighbour can still...)

I would assume (since he races an F or 2!) that Malcolm G at B&G has a Motorsport Competition License so could probably order a set for you if you asked nicely (but it wouldn't be in the catalogue, as they're not a "normal" item....)

Neil.
Neil

I have just ordered online from www.spareshq.com the FRONT EBC grooved/vented discs and EBC pads. Total cost including VAT and carriage £100.15.
What a bargain, about £60 cheaper than other sources.
Usual disclaimers.
Tim
H10 VVC
Tim Sanders

I don't understand how they can do the EBC grooved discs for 59 quid, while B&G does them for 99...

Have I missed something?

Chris
R585 ERO
Chris George


re no 4., I believe you mean the A507 from Baldock to Buntingfield. A great bit of road - I've driven it quite a few times whenever I've felt like doing a cross-country from the M1 to the A10. I can well recommend it!

Cheers
Andy
Andy

>>>>4. Found a great road if you drive east from B&G at Baldock towards Bishops Stortford / M11! Single open winding road with good visibility and little traffic.

Now you're talking! Try the following:

1. Baldock to Buntingford

2. Littlington to Thersfield.

3. Hitchin to Toddington.

And best of all:

4. Watton-at-Stone to Ashwell. Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Rrr! Rrr! Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! etc.

And who said Hertfordshire was boring?
David Bainbridge

Believe me he is a nutter!
Ashley

To, Chris George,
The EBC pads and discs just arrived. They are of course the genuine article. Well packed and delivered as their promise. Also included in the package was a T shirt and various stickers, EBC brakes,NGK plugs etc.
Total cost £100.15.
I dont know how they can do it, but they do. A really good deal. I highly reccomend SparesHQ.
Tim Sanders

Makes you wonder how much of a markup other places put on products doesn't it!

Thanks for confirming the good were genuine, I'll have to reconsider my brake 'upgrade' path now. Was going to get B&G to do the lot (supply and fit EBC all round, discs and pads), for 379 (inc vat), which I thought was very good....

Chris
Chris George

Chris (and everyone else)
Think Tim Sanders has just bought front pads and discs for his 100 quid if you look at his first posting. Still I suppose that does imply B & G wants about 180 quid labour. I've been quoted 2 hours labour by a non-mg specialist I know who said they'd do it "at cost" for about £320 all round.

Re the roads, yes it was the A507. Thanks for listing the other ones.

Only prob is I noticed a slight burning smell at the weekend and my coolant level has dropped somewhat though I must admit I hadn't checked it for ages. Gulp. Taking it into the local MG dealer on Friday. They said they'd do a coolant system pressure test. Would that highlight leaks (risk of HGF etc)?
Jim

Forgot to mention...
Admiral says they want £30 extra on the insurance if I upgrade the brakes. Figure it's worth it, but just a warning to those that change that they need to notify their insurer that they might be viewed as more of a boy-racer than before.
Jim

Jim,

The point I was getting at; was that to get front pads and discs from B&G would cost about 140, so labour would in fact be about 110 quid which I thought was pretty good.

Would insurance really need to be notified, even if the changes are the 'consumable' items. Surely upgraded brakes would been a large brake kit, or modified calipers etc?


Chris

Chris George

Be careful on the insurance front. There was a story on Watchdog a couple of years ago of a woman whose insurance claim was not allowed for a crash becuase she hadn't told them she'd put alloy wheels on her car despite them having nothing to do with the accident.

Also, if you try getting an on line insurance quote with Eagle Star (I think), it had a list of common modifications to click on. One of them was "Stickers indicating modifictions"!!! I assume this would include things like the K & N filter stickers that come with the kit as well as the things like BMW drivers who pretend they have M3s etc.
Jim

Some Insurance firms will use any excuse to wriggle out of paying, so I would tell them. I told mine about the uprated brakes, along with the suspension, splitter, K&N.... (sigh).

Steve.
Steve Childs

Steve,

Just out of interest how much (percentage) did your premium increase by? (and who with?)

(K&N, Splitter, MS Exhaust, Quick Shift, Dampeners, Lowering Knuckles) (still thinking about that Hard-top as well.) (No stickers indicating modifications though)

at present paying £700.

Paul
paul weatherill

I read recentley that any brake mods had to be within 15% of the manufactures OE design.
If it was out of this then its a mod and the insurance co need to be told.
Joe

15% of what though!?

Steve.
Steve Childs

15% of manufctures OE design for braking system.

I think it would be hard to measure

Is it known for example how better Trophy brakes are
as compared to the stanard ones.

Its also known that many aftermarket brake pads are inferior to OE spec.Thus these may be out 15% under OE spec.
Joe

When I inquired about mods when my policy with Admiral was up for renewal, they quoted me about 80 quid extra for Uprated brakes, K&N, and knuckles (lowered suspension < 5cm).

While they are not the cheapest for mods, they are very good with claims and things so makes me loathed to change...

Perhaps I'll have a chat with them and discuss what the 'uprated brakes' means...

Ho Hum.

Chris
Chris George

Paul, I'm currently with Lancaster, but only because they were the only one to quote me in triple figures. Currently paying around £800 with 4yr NCB. - Which they wouldn't protect >:(

Steve.
Steve Childs

My Admiral deal is about £500 with no additional cost when I added the K & N filter a couple of years ago. As I said they want about 30 quid if I upgrade the brakes. They said "any non-standard" brake pads or disks woould incur this charge which I note is not the same as someone else's insurer who didn't seem to mind what pads were fitted (but were interested in disks).

So seems interesting that they're more worried about suspension changes £50 (80-30).

Of course the K & N is just to save fuel :-P
Jim

I can understand their worry with suspension changes cause this will directly affect the handling of the car, whereas the k&n only affects the engine which doesn't cause a car to crash (directly!).

Not sure whether there is no charge for the K&N now, I suspect there is. Need some investigation I think. I suppose 30 quid isn't that bad at the end of the day. Just seems ironic that you have to pay more when the car will be safer cause the brakes actually work ;-)

Chris

Chris George

They told me £64 and some pence to change to a K&N
Will

This thread was discussed between 04/09/2001 and 14/09/2001

MG MGF Technical index

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