Hello

My 2009 1.25 (Mk7 I think - never sure) has the sliding caliper type front brakes. I've never been a fan of these. Is it possible to fit 2-pot calipers of some kind?

A few years ago after lots of rattling, sqawking and graunching I changed the discs and pads and ended up fitting some Delphi vented ones. These seemed about twice the weight of the OE originals and totally changed the feel of the front end but they worked extremely well. They still do. But I'm back with lots of chuntering and rubbing noises because these type calipers never seem to quite free off properly.

I'll clean them all out and re-grease them etc. and they'll be OK but I'd prefer to fit some two pot ones. Is there another car in the range I could pinch some off? I'm happy to change struts if necessary but don't want to get too outlandish - might just be easier to change the car!

Thanks for your thoughts . . . . . .

Not sure on 2 pot upgrades for the Mk7. I upgraded the later ST180 brakes, not because of noise but i just simply found the standard front brakes crap. They used the same calipers on all of the Mk7's regardless of engine size/power. Even the ST ones rattled like mad until i adjusted (bent) the metal pad holders a bit.

Just checking, when you grease the sliders you use a high temp silicone grease? And dont grease the end of the slider?

The only non-slider calipers I can think of are 4 pot Mk3 Focus RS calipers. Definitely overkill for a Fiesta and I can't recall seeing anyone retrofit them so far.

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Well colour me surprised. Ford really do like their cheapo sliding calipers don't they? I had assumed they would just be used on the 'budget' option - ie my old crate - not on something with 'sporting' pretensions! I'd assumed ST models (I know duck all about them TBH) would use 'proper' opposed piston calipers. Hey ho

Those Brembos look very nice but they are probably more than my car's worth . . . . . .

Well I'll fettle them us as best I can on the basis there's not much can be done about it. I honestly don't remember what greasing I did when I fitted them - I just used the grease sachet that came with the pads. I probably would have done 'as little as possible' - possibly not enough. Still. they were good for years - and still work great - only starting getting noisy again in the last few months.

Nothing wrong with the 'sliding' ST brakes, they're a massive improvement over standard jobbies with bigger discs and pads.

The standard brakes are perfectly fine for the 1.25 as its only around 80bhp at most anyway. As stated above 2 and 4 pot calipers are massive overkill for anything under 200bhp really. Which is why they are normally only fitted to the Ford RS models which are well over 200bhp.

Any brakes will need some kind of maintenance after a few years, personally i make sure i give them a good going over at least once a year for peace of mind. Brakes are probably the most important part of the car afterall.