CDTI 120 brakes

**raddish** · 15th January 2010, 02:00

Wife has a Signum 54 1.9 CDTI 120. The brakes don't feel up to the job. Going to get new fluid fitted, pipes checked etc. Is there a uprated brake pad? e.g. red stuff, ebc, ferrodo etc.
part number would be handy. Also what grade of fluid 4.0, 5.0, 5.1

Car gets used for towing, motorway, town driving. Need a brake pedal that feels better and stops better

**gdansk** · 15th January 2010, 09:21

i had a 120 life, the brakes weren't up to much, they overheated on mine round MK, had smoke pooring out of the front wheels, was gonna upgade when the time came, instead I just upgraded the car to 150 sri

**Maverick** · 15th January 2010, 10:18

Vauxhall OE pads are one of the best on the market, alot of the tuners acutally use OE pads. But don't forget that Vauxhall also do an 'aftermarket' pad which is half the cost but is not as good.

gdansk, you must have been hammering the car around MK to get smoke pouring out. I drove 4 laps of the Nurburgring in my last Signum on standard brakes and never once did I get brake fade, or smoke coming out. The same the year after in my Astra CDTi when I did 6 laps on standard brakes. No fade or smoke.

If you want a cost effective upgrade, fit the 314mm set from the GSi/V6 CDTi. They are bigger brakes and dicsc and are not over the top expensive.

I had 345mm VXR brakes on my current Signum and to be honest although they were awesome, I can drive quickly without being heavy on brakes, so they were a bit of an overkill for me.

**gdansk** · 15th January 2010, 11:27

You lucky person,I'd love to go round the Nurburgring. I'd got stuck in the british GP traffic and was hacked off, so was cutting accross MK as a short cut. I wasn't hanging around, it was quite funny, we come up to this round about and i really struggled to stop, I said the mrs i think the brakes have over heated, she then clocked the smoke coming from the front wheels, she did panic a little.

The life model came with smaller discs than the rest of the range for some reason, it was real shock after coming from hyundai coupe which had outstanding brakes, even though the sri's are better they're still not a patch on the coupe

**raddish** · 15th January 2010, 12:18

Will these fit?
EBC say there for all 1.9td cars

Part No: DP21414
http://www.brakes4u.co.uk/supersearc...pMake=VAUXHALL

Does anyone else have a part number for pads. And any idea what grade fluid?

**Jezzy** · 15th January 2010, 13:21

Originally Posted by gdansk

i had a 120 life, the brakes weren't up to much, they overheated on mine round MK, had smoke pooring out of the front wheels, was gonna upgade when the time came, instead I just upgraded the car to 150 sri

Your 120 must have had faulty brakes then fella, as the 150 and 120 have identical brake hardware.

**snapsnap** · 15th January 2010, 13:27

If the discs are showing wear, then I would have thought that new (OE) pads, discs and a fluid change would help no end; you can inspect the pistons while you are at it. The difference between any of the off-the-shelf DOT fluids is immaterial for road use. Parts = £80-ish

IMO, any day-to-day benefit form ‘updated’ pads is questionable (i.e. they might work better when hot, but give rubbish performance form cold, so its swings-an-roundabouts really)

**Maverick** · 15th January 2010, 15:38

Originally Posted by gdansk

The life model came with smaller discs than the rest of the range for some reason, it was real shock after coming from hyundai coupe which had outstanding brakes, even though the sri's are better they're still not a patch on the coupe

Nope, all 120 and 150 Vectra's regardless of model had the same set up, as stated by Jezzy.

**Maverick** · 15th January 2010, 15:38

Originally Posted by gdansk

You lucky person,I'd love to go round the Nurburgring. I'd got stuck in the british GP traffic and was hacked off, so was cutting accross MK as a short cut. I wasn't hanging around, it was quite funny, we come up to this round about and i really struggled to stop, I said the mrs i think the brakes have over heated, she then clocked the smoke coming from the front wheels, she did panic a little.

So with the above in mind, your weren't driving very well then

**Signumcdti** · 15th January 2010, 22:39

I did over 20 laps of the `ring and a full day at SPA last May in a Rental 1.6 Astra Design and had no problems with fade, I seemed to loose the servo assistance a few times but was very impressed. The vrakes on my 150 SRi Auto feel very wooden `tho.

Here`s a pic of the mighty Astra just about to pass the CSL (dent was already in the bonnet when I collected it).