brakes on a 180 bhp td5 defender

[muddy4x4xfar]

hi my project vehicle the defender td5 110 is going to be putting out around 180 to 200 bhp when im done.

my question is do i use ordinary brakes or performance brakes,

the vehicle will be 50% offroad and 50%on road. what do i do?

any sugestions.

chris

[q-rover]

Three? factors affect your braking

-Vehicle weight

-Momentum (speed)

-Surface friction (tyres+ roadsurface, brake components)

All your brakes do is turn one type of energy into another, so if you adjust any of the

three above you are going to affect your braking.

Simply uprating the braking components can be enough of a compromise.

To optimise your braking you'll have to look at all areas.

Reduce weight, better tyres, better discs, better pads, reduce speed,etc

[Dave W]

There's not much relationship between power output and brakes, especially at such low levels of power to weight.

In theory higher power will give you higher speed but from 70MPH it takes exactly the same braking performance to slow down a 50BHP vehicle as it does a 500BHP vehicle if they are the same weight.

Of more importance will be the tyre size you choose. Tyre size directly effects braking performance, the bigger the tyre radius the more stopping power you need from your brakes to achieve the same deceleration. Vehicle weight is also a factor with a heavier vehicle requiring better braking systems.

On a TD5 110 you already have pretty efficient brakes so I'd leave them as standard. If you're "enthusiastic" when driving along tight twisty country roads and find you're getting brake fade and/or smoke/burning from the front pads then look at putting vented disks on (you might already have them) and maybe some EBC pads as they run better when hot but aren't as sharp when cold. I've smoked a set of EBC front pads before now (off road on gravel tracks) but compared to the huge plumes of smoke issuing from the 110 following me the EBC pads were in much better condition and I still had a pedal. That was also on 35 inch tyres so the brakes were working very hard.

[DaveSIIA]

As Dave W has noted, the Td5 110 brakes are pretty efficient as standard. You should already have vented disks up front.

I used to run a td5 110 CSW with a Jeremy Fearn stage 2 tune and that was reasonably brisk for a large bus. Standard discs and Mintex pads worked fine. Braking performance was let down by the BFG MT's (particularly in the wet). A change to General Grabber AT2 was a big step forward.

Make sure that all the brake components - discs, pads, calipers, lines/hoses, master cylinder and fluid - are all in good order. There is no point in expecting good brake performance from worn discs & pads or old brake fluid. Standard pads (AP Lockheed, Ferodo, Mintex brands) are up to quite enthusiastic driving but will fade sooner than EBC.

Also, the suspension needs to be in good order so check for worn bushes and tired shock absorbers.

[Aragorn]

The tyres are generally the limiting factor in most emergency braking situations. The stock brakes can generally lock the wheels, so a 365mm vented disk and 8pot caliper from some ferraborghini cant stop the vehicle any quicker.

The main advantage of braking upgrades is in heat dissapation. As dave has said if you take your tuned 110 down a backroad and drive it like Petter Solberg, you wont get far before you have no pedal and smoke pouring from the disks. Even a few fast stops on the motorway can be enough to fade the stock components, especially if they're rubbish

Worn or glazed standard parts can fade quickly and be rather ineffective. A car i used to own had larger disks than stock with some poverty spec pads, and standing on the brakes at 90mph could get them to fade before the car stopped!

If you find them poor, I would start with a complete overhaul if you've not already. New disks and pads all round, with good branded pads (mintex and the likes), accompanied with good fluid. Something like castrol SRF is top of the line, but even new DOT5.1 will be better than some ancient fluid thats been in there 5 years. Good pads will tend to "come on" quite nicely when they get warm, with a nicely increased bite, and assuming the system isnt underspecced should stay like that. Cheapo pads tend to go from cold to fade so quickly you never even get the sweet spot.