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Familiarity breeds contempt, or how I crashed the shitbox because it had bad brakes.


terrabytetango

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So most of you are aware I own an old Toyota Starlet. One thing I had neglected to get fixed immediately were the brakes; they were there, but they didn't have much bite when slowing from high speeds. Since I had to do a timing belt change as well, I never really pushed the car beyond 70kmh, even on the highway. However my procrastination came to bite me in the ass last week when I crashed into an idiot in a Vitz who cut into my lane from Hemas Hospital trying to a U turn and stopped right in front of me. It was like a movie playing in slow motion, I stood on the brakes and hit the car just hard enough to crunch the bumper, left signal light and slightly bend the fender.

Things were sorted out, but suffice to say, it was completely my fault because I put off maintenance. Turns out, both discs and drums need resurfacing, along with new brake pads all around.

The worst part is that I don't really put off maintenance either, but for some reason I had put this on the mental back burner, and instead focused on trivial things like broken power window switches and door panels.

Edited by terrabytetango
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This is one of the things I always tell people.

Don't procrastinate on tyres and brakes. Some people use tyres till they  are completely bald and I have driven some vehicles where the pedal goes all the way down even when you hit the brakes just to slow down or come to a smooth stop

Also when you do replace them try to go for the best that's available.

Btw sorry to hear about your accident. Hope you are alright

Edited by Magnum
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Sorry to Hear that, But this always comes to my Mind, Resurfacing, is it always good to Replace with New Discs and Drums or Resurfacing only suffice? reason is, find out that there are aftermarket (Brembo etc,) Discs / Drums available in Panchi which is equal to Recon part prices.

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Sorry to hear about the accident. At the same time, glad it wasn't a kid that ran across the road you hit. :) 

There are three things you need to drive a car in Sri Lanka, apart from your license.

1. Good brakes

2. Good horn

3. Good reflexes

 

1 hour ago, Ruslan said:

Sorry to Hear that, But this always comes to my Mind, Resurfacing, is it always good to Replace with New Discs and Drums or Resurfacing only suffice? reason is, find out that there are aftermarket (Brembo etc,) Discs / Drums available in Panchi which is equal to Recon part prices.

If there is still sufficient amount of meat in the rotors/drums, and if it's the original ones, I'd just opt to resurfacing over buying new ones. Resurfacing not only bumps up the friction on the surface, but if the surface is warped, it will straighten those out as well. So they will be as good as new once done. 

Also, these cheap Brembo spares in Panchi, are they the real deal or counterfeit ones? Worth checking first. 

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Sad to hear the accident.

Other than that, pay attention on all rubber parts related to  brake system. No matter what the mileage is, rubber parts keep  decaying and  loosing their properties due to time factor. Once I had very bad experience with my previous Jap Alto , lost brake completely while driving, due to property change of a rubber washer in mater pump due to time factor even mileage is  low as 40,000km and car was about 10 years old. It was a narrow escape and I could manage and stop the car with the the assist of parking brake and luckily it was a M/T too.

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