classicwagon2

Had a couple of really bad brake fade moments recently. On a tight budget so a big upgrade is out of the question. Rear discs are badly scored and corroded, fronts are relatively new. If I were to replace all rear discs and pads, performance pads on the front. Braided brake lines and DOT 5 fluid. Car is a 97 UK turbo. Priced it all up and can do this for £150ish. Will this make it better. Basically back to standard as new, how easily will they fade?

Chelspeed

Can you describe your brake fade moments? Two different things, both often called fade, but only one really is.

Did the pedal go to the floor after a series of heavy braking incidents? Or did the pedal stay hard but the car didn't slow down however hard you pressed it?

Pedal to the floor is generally knackered brake fluid, basically water dissolved in the fluid, when the brakes get really hot the water boils and you have steam bubbles between the pedal and the caliper, hence the pedal goes to the floor. Cured by a change of fluid, cost perhaps a tenner. Can be made worse by pads completely worn out so the heat gets to the piston, hence to the fluid, quicker. Almost certainly related to the front as 80% of braking is on the front so there's seldom enough heat in the back to cause a problem.

DOT 5 fluid is silicon so not recommended. DOT 5.1 is the good stuff but there are many DOT4 fluids which are extremely good if not better. Personally I'd rather go for a known make DOT4, eg Castrol response, rather than a generic Halfords type DOT5.1.

Hard pedal and no slowing down is caused by overheating the pad itself and is genuine brake fade. Cure is to either have less heat or change the pad to a compound that keeps working at this temperature. Again I would think it's 99% certain the problems are at the front rather than the back, if the back were fading you'd be hard pressed to notice, definetely wouldn't cause "bad fade moments".

Less heat by ducting air to the disc hub on the inside face (cost few quid for bits of pipe, tyraps etc), bending the disc back plate out at the front (free mod!), removing disc backplate (free again), better quality disc with spiral air ducts rather than straight ones (expensive mod). Different compound pad is probably the best bet though, what do you run now? Ferodo DS2500 seem popular on here. I use Pagid RS4-2-1 but they're not cheap!

From your list and if you have a limited budget I'd do fluid and front pads first, priority depending on which type of moment you have had. Then tidying up the rears.

Changing to braided lines won't stop fade. It will give the final stiffening up to a slightly spongy pedal but it should be the last thing you do rather than the first.

classicwagon2

It is the latter. I changed the fluid recently for a generic dot 4 as I had no idea when it was last changed. The pads are of unknown origin so will poss uprate them. I completely forgot about removing dust shields on thback of discs. Had a problem like this with my old Golf GTI a while back and removed them, what a difference. Are they easy to remove as it looks like a pain or am I best to remove them with a grinder and hacksaw??

Chelspeed

They're easy to remove. Undo caliper and swing it clear (no need to disconnect the pipe), lift the disc off, undo three 12mm (from memory) spanner headed bolts and it can be turned round the hub until at one position it lifts clear.

I sheared one of the bolts undoing it (1 week old car so hardly weathered in place) but if you're not planning to put it back later then that hardly matters.

Can't really understand why they fit them, meant to be to keep the disc dry but I love driving thro puddles and fords so if anyone would benefit from them it would be me, and I have had them off for 4 years without any noticeable bad effect.

If you've changed fluid already sounds like it's a pad change next.