V-esi

Hi!

The brakes on my S2000 were pretty poor when I first purchased the car mid June. I ordered Bremtech OEM front discs, DS2500 front pads, Ferrodo Premier rear pads, HEL braided brake lines and Ate Superblue fluid. All fitted and run in although the brake performance is still (in my opinion) pretty weak. The rear discs were relatively new when I purchased the car but I am about to order OEM rear discs. The car is used daily and isn't driven 'hard' - so to speak.

Have tried re-bleeding the brakes incase there was any air in the system and none of the calliper's seem to be sticking.

I'm not sure where to go from here. Would it be worthwhile investing in new calliper's? Would the master cylinder be playing up?
The car has covered 120k has decent history and drives well, just the brakes letting it down.

Any help appreciated..

PhilipGB

When you say poor performance, is it not able to trigger the ABS?

flybikeslee

seized calipers

RobAp1

How long have you given the brakes to bed in since changing your discs and pads? It will take a couple of hundred miles for them to be 100% effective. If you're sure than you've got no air in the system (see if you can get the abs to cut in at fairly low speed then re-bleed to purge the abs valve block)i'd be looking at caliper slider pins & pistons. When you drive the car and get things up to temp, stop and see if any of the wheels are noticeably warmer/cooler than the others. It's a very good indicator of brake performance

I'm running ds2500's all round with ate super blue and my brakes are spot on so it's a good combo in my experience.

chrispayze

You're not confusing the over-servoed, switch-like brakes on many modern cars with more power, are you? The brakes on the S are very powerful, but don't expect them to bite with the slightest touch of the pedal. The servo power is nicely balanced so that the braking power can be easily modulated, but with a little more pressure than the average car, you'll develop much more stopping power than the average car ever could. I used to jump into hire cars (Astras, A3s, Passats etc) and nearly fly through the windscreen because the brakes become far too powerful even before you've reached the 'biting point' of the pedal, really hard to modulate. This gave the illusion when jumping back into the S that there wasn't as much power, but there is. It's just fed in more progressively.

If you know all of the above, but there's still not much power, get someone else who owns an S to try it and determine if it really is different to other S2000s. If so, then start looking for sticky pistons (assuming there's no leak or air in the system).

V-esi

The rear offside caliper was sticking now and again but was cleaned up during the brake overhaul.

V-esi

It has done 300+ miles since. Will have the fluid checked again, the abs hasn't come on even under the hardest braking. Including a track day in the wet. Is that a concern?
Thankfully since cleaning up the rear offside caliper none of the wheels have been excessively hot, all bare able to touch and roughly equal temps.

V-esi

This has crossed my mind since driving my girlfriends new KA as the brakes are very sudden. But in terms of the S2000 if I floor the brakes the car wouldn't come to an immediate stop/lock up/activate ABS. I have had numerous different Hondas all with varying brakes set-ups but this is my first S2000 and I'm not overly impressed with them. Maybe I'm just expecting too much..

PhilipGB

If it's not triggering the ABS when you are really stepping on them then you definitely have a performance issue. Around 30-40mph I've always felt the car requires more brake effort than even a normal hatch, often exaggerated by the fact the normal hatch pitches forward so much on their suspension. But I've shocked myself how quickly it will really stop when actually giving it the kind of pedal force that triggers the ABS. The braking power on offer is one of the things that makes it unnerving to drive on poor road surfaces as you feel individual wheels grabbing for grip and pulling you every which way.

If you aren't getting that kind of stopping power with new pads, discs and fluids and your callipers are free to move then I would suspect the master cylinder.

Craig.h

100% you should have had the abs kicking in on a wet trackday! I run carbotech xp8's all round and on recent wet trackday the abs was working all the time! Even in the dry it kicks in, and as others have said it's one of the best systems I have tried, I actually actively try to use it on track!

I would say you definitely have an issue somewhere.