The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

My brake discs are warped after only 4000 miles. They were from good old rimmers who obviously don't know what brand discs they were or care. There's some ebc discs on eBay for £110 or £183 for the better ones. I don't want or need to change the braking system as I'm happy with it on my 1500 but do want some reliable discs. I've heard so many bad things about the greenstuff pads so are their discs the same quality?
Recommendations for good quality discs that are still made please.

I also had a spot of bother with my RB discs, they had run out, so I took them to my friendly machine shop who skimmed them and now they are fine.

I would have assumed that when discs warp it is due to excessive heat but I doubt that for a road car.

Malcolm

It is also a good idea to make sure the hub is nice and clean and not warped as well before fitting new discs

Cheers,
Tony.

A trick I came up with when I had a TR4 in the 70's was to araldite some emery cloth to the surface of the old pads and drive the car VERY GENTLY with very light brake pedal this trued up my discs and the car performed fine after putting new pads in. Some pad makers do the same these days and the first layer of their new pads is abrasive.

I have bought Rossini discs for my dolly with Mintex pads. Not cheap but I think a reasonable compromise.

I had EBC pads on my Spitfire - not impressed.

Drilled and/or grooved brake discs are, IMO, snake oil for suckers! They don't improve the brakes on a road car by any perceptible amount, cost twice as much, wear the pads out twice as fast and generate twice as much dust! And they definitely don't address the Dolomite's biggest braking problem, which is not effectiveness, but brake FADE from overheating. (this also warps discs)

So no, I can't really recommend a brand of standard disc, cos the standard discs are the first things I bin, in favour of a TJ vented conversion, which DOES cure all the Dolomite's braking woes.

Steve

Carledo wrote: ↑Wed Feb 28, 2018 8:44 pm Drilled and/or grooved brake discs are, IMO, snake oil for suckers! They don't improve the brakes on a road car by any perceptible amount, cost twice as much, wear the pads out twice as fast and generate twice as much dust! And they definitely don't address the Dolomite's biggest braking problem, which is not effectiveness, but brake FADE from overheating. (this also warps discs)

So no, I can't really recommend a brand of standard disc, cos the standard discs are the first things I bin, in favour of a TJ vented conversion, which DOES cure all the Dolomite's braking woes.

Steve

The standard brakes are perfectly adequate for a 1500, they certainly shouldn't warp unless they are seriously abused and I have never managed to get them to fade. To be fair I haven't managed to do that on any car.

I have very little faith in the good old brothers. Robsport do them and I have found them to be a reasonable supplier, but I don't know what brand they are.

Just some experience from racing my Dolomite and using larger ventilated Brembo rotors on the standard Dolomite hub, where even with these I would get run out on new rotors.

My first check was to ensure the wheel bearings were in first class condition and while free running, had no perceptible play. I would replace annually with Timken bearings (ex Chris Witor) and good grease forced through the rollers. I would double check the play and adjust up after a few miles on the road to bed everything in. Next would be to thoroughly clean the mating surface on both the hub and new rotor, fit and measure the run out, using thin paper 'shims' to get this right. I doubt the latter would be needed on a road car. Drilled and grooved are a complete waste of money.

During the course of over 100 race meetings, wheel bearing issues would have accounted for over 90% of the times I suffered with judder and vibration through the steering wheel on heavy braking.

I've not experienced warped discs on either road Sprint (standard brake setup) in 20 years and I have 'yellow stuff' on one and Mintex (ex Holden.co.uk) on the other. Believe me, both can be driven pretty hard from time to time. I've only changed discs once in all this time and fortunately those were NOS ones I had picked up locally.

How have you diagnosed the warping?

Geoff

Drilled and/or grooved brake discs are, IMO, snake oil for suckers!

But Rossini are a respected brand. I have TRWs for my Herald, these are much less expensive but not available for my 1850.

Anyway most of the people who see me stuck under the Dolly most weekends do have doubts about my IQ.

Carledo wrote: ↑Wed Feb 28, 2018 8:44 pm Drilled and/or grooved brake discs are, IMO, snake oil for suckers! They don't improve the brakes on a road car by any perceptible amount, cost twice as much, wear the pads out twice as fast and generate twice as much dust! And they definitely don't address the Dolomite's biggest braking problem, which is not effectiveness, but brake FADE from overheating. (this also warps discs)

So no, I can't really recommend a brand of standard disc, cos the standard discs are the first things I bin, in favour of a TJ vented conversion, which DOES cure all the Dolomite's braking woes.

Steve

Yes of course which is why I did it way back in the late 90's

AlanH wrote: ↑Thu Mar 01, 2018 10:05 am

Drilled and/or grooved brake discs are, IMO, snake oil for suckers!

But Rossini are a respected brand. I have TRWs for my Herald, these are much less expensive but not available for my 1850.

Anyway most of the people who see me stuck under the Dolly most weekends do have doubts about my IQ.

Just because a respected company make them, it doesn't make them any better! If there is a market for something, justified or not, some one will make and sell it. Like Go faster exhausts, aerofoils for wiper blades and £10 chips to uprate your ECU, it's not about performance, it's about perception!

Cynically yours, Steve

I've never bought discs for a Dolomite and on the Spitfire I just used the generic ones from James Paddock with Mintex M1144 compound pads.
James fitted the TJ conversion to Binny, so I won't be buying standard Dolomite discs for her either.....

However I've been led to believe that EBC D196 discs are suitable for Dolomites. I think these are standard "OE Replacement" discs. But I can't confirm.
Proceed with caution!

Just because a respected company make them, it doesn't make them any better! If there is a market for something, justified or not, some one will make and sell it. Like Go faster exhausts, aerofoils for wiper blades and £10 chips to uprate your ECU, it's not about performance, it's about perception!

You've honestly lost me there. What about my Mintex 1144s

I can’t believe the price difference between Triumph & MG with brakes. I got a pair of discs for my midget for £11.98 and about £25 for my dads MGB. I can’t understand why the Dolomite discs are so much!

LJColeman wrote: ↑Sun Mar 04, 2018 7:44 pm I can’t believe the price difference between Triumph & MG with brakes. I got a pair of discs for my midget for £11.98 and about £25 for my dads MGB. I can’t understand why the Dolomite discs are so much!

Greed from suppliers and the fact that Triumphs are more exclusive and MG's litter the roads with their loud exhausts and low performance (well standard MGB'S anyway).