Ford KA crap brakes!!

#1

Mate has owned a 03 ford KA from new & done about 25k miles (think it's just
a basic 1.3 model). I drove it for the first time and although the brakes
seem to work ok it has a long pedal travel & have to apply much more
pressure - like driving a car with non sevo assisted brakes. Just doesn't
feel as sharp as other cars I've driven. Said I'll check it all over but
was just wondering if the brakes on these KA's are known to be crap or a
possible fault on this car?

#2

"Redwood" <not (AT) home (DOT) net> wrote

Quote:

Mate has owned a 03 ford KA from new & done about 25k miles (think it's
just
a basic 1.3 model). I drove it for the first time and although the brakes
seem to work ok it has a long pedal travel & have to apply much more
pressure - like driving a car with non sevo assisted brakes. Just doesn't
feel as sharp as other cars I've driven. Said I'll check it all over but
was just wondering if the brakes on these KA's are known to be crap or a
possible fault on this car?

check the rear adjusters are working/wound out correctly on the rear shoes,
they are sposed to be automatic adjusters but they dont always work.

#3

On Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:39:01 +0100, Redwood wrote:

Quote:

Mate has owned a 03 ford KA from new & done about 25k miles (think it's
just a basic 1.3 model). I drove it for the first time and although the
brakes seem to work ok it has a long pedal travel & have to apply much
more pressure - like driving a car with non sevo assisted brakes. Just
doesn't feel as sharp as other cars I've driven. Said I'll check it all
over but was just wondering if the brakes on these KA's are known to be
crap or a possible fault on this car?

Ford brakes generally seem to need fairly high pedal pressures. At the
opposite extreme, Vauxhall always seem too sensitive to me.

Does the pedal travel reduce if you drive it with the handbrake pulled up
a click or two? If so, check the rear adjusters as reg has suggested.

Chris

--
Remove prejudice to reply.

#4

"reg" <reg (AT) nospam (DOT) com> wrote

Quote:

"Redwood" <not (AT) home (DOT) net> wrote in message
news:7f80v6F2k9th2U1 (AT) mid (DOT) individual.net...
Mate has owned a 03 ford KA from new & done about 25k miles (think it's
just
a basic 1.3 model). I drove it for the first time and although the brakes
seem to work ok it has a long pedal travel & have to apply much more
pressure - like driving a car with non sevo assisted brakes. Just
doesn't feel as sharp as other cars I've driven. Said I'll check it all
over but was just wondering if the brakes on these KA's are known to be
crap or a possible fault on this car?

check the rear adjusters are working/wound out correctly on the rear
shoes, they are sposed to be automatic adjusters but they dont always
work.

Thanks reg, will check the rears are properly adjusted. It's probably never
seen fresh fluid either so might as well put some new pads in & go over the
lot while I'm at it.

#5

In message <7f80v6F2k9th2U1 (AT) mid (DOT) individual.net>, Redwood <not (AT) home (DOT) net>
writes

Quote:

Mate has owned a 03 ford KA from new & done about 25k miles (think it's just
a basic 1.3 model). I drove it for the first time and although the brakes
seem to work ok it has a long pedal travel & have to apply much more
pressure - like driving a car with non sevo assisted brakes. Just doesn't
feel as sharp as other cars I've driven. Said I'll check it all over but
was just wondering if the brakes on these KA's are known to be crap or a
possible fault on this car?

My wife had one for a few years. As you say, the brakes are crap. They

seem under servo'd. I fitted grooved discs to keep the pads de-glazed
and I fitted fast road pads. The fast road pads were better when they
had some heat in them but were worse when cold.

--
Paul Giverin

My photos:- www.pbase.com/vendee

#6

"Paul Giverin" <paul (AT) giverin (DOT) co.uk> wrote

Quote:

In message <7f80v6F2k9th2U1 (AT) mid (DOT) individual.net>, Redwood <not (AT) home (DOT) net
writes
Mate has owned a 03 ford KA from new & done about 25k miles (think it's
just
a basic 1.3 model). I drove it for the first time and although the brakes
seem to work ok it has a long pedal travel & have to apply much more
pressure - like driving a car with non sevo assisted brakes. Just doesn't
feel as sharp as other cars I've driven. Said I'll check it all over but
was just wondering if the brakes on these KA's are known to be crap or a
possible fault on this car?

My wife had one for a few years. As you say, the brakes are crap. They
seem under servo'd. I fitted grooved discs to keep the pads de-glazed and
I fitted fast road pads. The fast road pads were better when they had some
heat in them but were worse when cold.

I did wonder if the servo was actually working but no sign of leaks and it

does hold pressure. Did notice though with engine off and I pump the servo
dry, on other cars I've owned you get a solid feel to the pedal with not
much movement but on this the pedal still goes down quite a lot and feels a
bit springy & not solid.

Handbrake works very well locking even on both sides on 2 clicks but there
doesn't seem to be free play in the cable - so I'm wondering if the cable
has been adjusted at some time to take up the gap between the shoes & the
drum instead of the shoes been properly adjusted first before adjusting the
cable. I suppose that would account for the long pedal travel as the rear
cylinders need to be pushed out further? Will check it out next week.

#7

Redwood wrote:

Quote:

"Paul Giverin" <paul (AT) giverin (DOT) co.uk> wrote in message
news:qIXBLpBIMvjKFw$P (AT) 10 (DOT) 0.0.3...
In message <7f80v6F2k9th2U1 (AT) mid (DOT) individual.net>, Redwood
not (AT) home (DOT) net> writes
Mate has owned a 03 ford KA from new & done about 25k miles (think
it's just
a basic 1.3 model). I drove it for the first time and although the
brakes seem to work ok it has a long pedal travel & have to apply
much more pressure - like driving a car with non sevo assisted
brakes. Just doesn't feel as sharp as other cars I've driven. Said I'll
check it all over but was just wondering if the brakes on
these KA's are known to be crap or a possible fault on this car?

My wife had one for a few years. As you say, the brakes are crap.
They seem under servo'd. I fitted grooved discs to keep the pads
de-glazed and I fitted fast road pads. The fast road pads were
better when they had some heat in them but were worse when cold.

I did wonder if the servo was actually working but no sign of leaks
and it does hold pressure. Did notice though with engine off and I
pump the servo dry, on other cars I've owned you get a solid feel to
the pedal with not much movement but on this the pedal still goes
down quite a lot and feels a bit springy & not solid.

Handbrake works very well locking even on both sides on 2 clicks but
there doesn't seem to be free play in the cable - so I'm wondering if
the cable has been adjusted at some time to take up the gap between
the shoes & the drum instead of the shoes been properly adjusted
first before adjusting the cable. I suppose that would account for
the long pedal travel as the rear cylinders need to be pushed out
further? Will check it out next week.

springy pedal can show that the calipers are seized, which gives longer
travel and less braking (to confirm get two hose clamps and clamp off the
front brakes, pedal should now be almost solid). wrongly adjusted rears
will usually only increase the travel and the braking should be normal once
the pedal moves far enough to make everything work, obviously do check out
the rears at some stage , but a quick strip and sort of the front end will
probably improve things the most (from your description)

#8

In article <esSjm.70735$OO7.21565 (AT) text (DOT) news.virginmedia.com>,
Mrcheerful <nbkm57 (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote:

Quote:

springy pedal can show that the calipers are seized, which gives longer
travel and less braking (to confirm get two hose clamps and clamp off
the front brakes, pedal should now be almost solid). wrongly adjusted
rears will usually only increase the travel and the braking should be
normal once the pedal moves far enough to make everything work,
obviously do check out the rears at some stage , but a quick strip and
sort of the front end will probably improve things the most (from your
description)

On my SD1 which has self adjusting rear drums, the brakes are noticeably
keener when the self adjusters decide to work - which isn't often. Maybe
something to do with the leverage of the pedal to master cylinder being at
optimum when fully up?

Do any drum self adjusters work properly? I've replaced them several
times and shoes and cylinders and drums - but they've always been poor.

I've got a disc conversion waiting to be fitted when I get some tuits
spare. Hopefully that will give a short pedal travel at all times.

--
*Shin: a device for finding furniture in the dark *

Dave Plowman dave (AT) davenoise (DOT) co.uk London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

#9

ford brakes are usually crap, old escorts and fiestas were awful...

"Redwood" <not (AT) home (DOT) net> wrote

Quote:

Mate has owned a 03 ford KA from new & done about 25k miles (think it's
just
a basic 1.3 model). I drove it for the first time and although the brakes
seem to work ok it has a long pedal travel & have to apply much more
pressure - like driving a car with non sevo assisted brakes. Just doesn't
feel as sharp as other cars I've driven. Said I'll check it all over but
was just wondering if the brakes on these KA's are known to be crap or a
possible fault on this car?

#10

On Sat, 22 Aug 2009 15:59:55 +0100, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

[...]

Quote:

Do any drum self adjusters work properly? I've replaced them several
times and shoes and cylinders and drums - but they've always been poor.

They have worked fine on all the Fords I've owned in the last 25 years; I
always clean the drums out and use Copaslip on all the friction points
every other year though.

I can tell by the pedal travel increasing that it is due to click up
another notch, and can sometimes make that happen by standing hard on the
pedal. (Whilst stationary of course!)

Quote:

I've got a disc conversion waiting to be fitted when I get some tuits
spare. Hopefully that will give a short pedal travel at all times.

It should give a more consistent travel, but not necessarily shorter. It
will depend on the degree of disc runout, and how much play there is in
the wheel bearings.

Chris

--
Remove prejudice to reply.