only down side its brake dust on alloys looks awful and pain in !Removed! to shift

only down side its brake dust on alloys looks awful and pain in !Removed! to shift

Brake dust isn't difficult to remove in the slightest..

You need a reactive Fallout remover

I have some on my website :)

www.yorkshiredetailing.co.uk

£3.49 for 500ml of Wynn's alloy cleaner, takes it right off... I do apply some wax after as I expect it will eat the alloys if you're not careful with it!

£3.49 for 500ml of Wynn's alloy cleaner, takes it right off... I do apply some wax after as I expect it will eat the alloys if you're not careful with it!

Reactive wheel cleaners are USUALLY pH neutral believe it or not.

But yeah, you should always protect what you've just cleaned :). It makes cleaning next time much easier

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

Hi Folks, I'm about to buy a 1L 2017 Ford Focus Titanium. I've just noticed with horror it's got rear drums! How much does it cost roughly to change rear brakes to disks?

Thanks, Al.

How long is a piece of string ?

Are you doing the work yourself or getting a garage to do it ?

Are you using all new parts or getting used parts from a scrap yard ?

The car has after all managed fine for 5 years with rear drums. So I'd seriously leave as it is or buy a different model with rear discs. Remember it will be considered by your insurance company as a modification so expect your premium to be adjusted.

Why the horror? I've had lots of cars with disc front/drum rear and they've been fine.

Front brakes do most of the work anyway and quite often a drum rear gives a more effective handbrake.

I've now got a car with regen braking. Might as well take the discs and pads off, maybe fit a focus?? 🤣🤣🤣

1 hour ago, unofix said:

How long is a piece of string? 

6 inches 

Just be thankful that you did not buy a British Leyland car in the 70's.  Apparently one Friday afternoon, some Marinas came out with a disc brake on one side and a drum on the other.......

14 minutes ago, Paulkp said:

Apparently one Friday afternoon, some Marinas came out with a disc brake on one side and a drum on the other.......

I must have been lucky then, mine had the normal arrangement. Though they were still at it in the 80's - my Metro came with the wrong instrument panel!😀

I have seen many posts about people wanting to change rear drums to discs. Unless you are going racing if seems pointless. What’s wrong with drums? I agree drums on front on old cars weren’t too good but they are perfectly fine on back. If you put some discs on the back will the balance between front and back be ok?

59 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

I must have been lucky then, mine had the normal arrangement. Though they were still at it in the 80's - my Metro came with the wrong instrument panel!😀

Must have been a vanden plas with an instrument panel. I'm supprised your admitting to owning a metro. What age was it? 

I had a metro that drove well but there were two annoying things.   Hydragas suspension which meant for some aspects of suspension work it needed depressurising and the paying to have it pumped up again.  And some had metric size tyres  which cost a fortune as there was little choice, they didn’t catch on . My brother had a montego that had bigger metric size tyres.  I recall people with metric tyred metros changing for older non metric metro wheels to avoid excessive tyre costs. That was so stupid trying new metric tyre sizes.

I had one of the first metros , mfl4447w. 1.0 hle. Suspension was it's weak point. Broken rear  radius arm pins and bearings, front ball joints snapping off. Repaired on the side of the road many a time. Bits of wood wedged in suspension arms. This was only 12 months old as well. Took the engine out and put in a 1400 cc (overboard 1275 engine ) and then it went well for it's day even if the brakes weren't. 

2 hours ago, iantt said:

Must have been a vanden plas with an instrument panel. I'm supprised your admitting to owning a metro. What age was it? 

Lol it was actually quite a good little car once they'd swapped the instruments. It was a 1.3S which should have had a rev counter, but came with the instruments from an HLE so big clock instead. Very quickly sorted though by the local family owned dealer who, amazingly, is still going, but does Ford now. 

The S was a pretty short lived version - they launched the MG soon after.

 

13 hours ago, isetta said:

What’s wrong with drums? I agree drums on front on old cars weren’t too good but they are perfectly fine on back. 

I had a bad experience with drums in my first year of driving and have been very weary of them ever since. 

NSR drum locked solid with no prior warning just as I'd come round a blind bend on a 60mph NSL stretch.  The car juddered like mad, so much that the CD came out of the CD player, and then came to a sudden halt.  Unable to move anywhere without a lot of revs and risking clutch damage.

That was bad enough in itself, but then I had a huge farce with the RAC trying to get it recovered home.  "Send a truck, the rear wheel is locked solid, it can't be towed".  An hour later a tiny RAC van arrives and the guy says 'have you tried reversing to dislodge it?'.  Obviously I tried that calling the 'recovery' services.   It took another 2 hours or so for the truck to arrive.  I wasn't far from my Nan's so Grandad came and picked me up to use their bathroom in the meantime.  I'd have shat myself if not!  When the truck eventually arrived I had an awful 8 mile ride in it...that really reinforced the fact that my digestive system can't manage bouncy vehicles!  Then we overshot my road and ended up down at the beach...I wrongly assumed the truck driver had my address from the RAC system. 🤦‍♂️

To this day one of the worst experiences I've had on the road...  It could have been caused by a few other faults.  (Although not many render a vehicle untowable!) but as it was the drum brake, I've tried to avoid them ever since...  I'd rather bodge something and drive home, risking much higher cost in damage, than go through another recovery farce!  (Should also say that about 6 months before this incident in a different car, I blew a radiator hose in the town centre, went off like a gunshot echoing around the terrace, and it took the AA over 4 hours to arrive before recovering that...that's why I switched to RAC!)

The reason it locked was because the shoe material had come off.  RAC guy said he'd had a lot of similar age Peugeots and Citroens with the same issue after the extra cold weather that year.  The cold and damp froze the 10 year old shoe material into the drum with more force than the adhesive could withstand...so when forceable released, the shoe material came off the shoe, which in my case, then got wedged under the other shoe at the worst possible moment.

3 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

The reason it locked was because the shoe material had come off.

But equally, I've seen disc pads where similar has occurred.

3 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

But equally, I've seen disc pads where similar has occurred.

Yes, but when pad material comes off, it just drops out and the brakes don't work as effectively.  It doesn't lock the wheel solid.

1 minute ago, TomsFocus said:

Yes, but when pad material comes off, it just drops out and the brakes don't work as effectively.  It doesn't lock the wheel solid.

Lol, never put that to the test! Wonder if anyone on here has a story to tell about that?😀

Just now, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Lol, never put that to the test! Wonder if anyone on here has a story to tell about that?😀

Lol, the 306 rear pads used to fall out quite often.  (Whole thing, not just the friction material.)

They had a locking bar with a small pin to hold the bar in place...either people weren't refitting the pin correctly, or it was just not up to the job after being reused!  

7 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Lol, never put that to the test! Wonder if anyone on here has a story to tell about that?😀

When that happens, all you need us a piece of wood and some glue. This was found on MOT test apparently.

5 hours ago, iantt said:

all you need is a piece of wood and some glue.

...... said Valery Singleton.

It's the age of recycling don't you know 🤣

They certainly had their money’s worth out of them pads, it looks like they were down to the metal the fist time round, I hope they used a high temperature glue.🤣

An early attempt at asbestos free brake pads perhaps.