My brakes, my brakes, why doth my brakes not work...

[rgh0]

Pads generally do not wear absolutely square so they move a little when applied to take up this taper wear. This movement of the pad cause a slightly longer peadal stroke

so its probably not your imagination

cheers
Rohan

[types26/36]

Pads generally do not wear absolutely square so they move a little when applied to take up this taper wear.

This is true but dont think that by fitting new pads the longer pedal stroke will be a thing of the past (if it is due to a pad clearence issue) the new pads which are not matched to your discs must now "bed in" and conform to your discs.
I would seggest you clamp the flexible pipes one at a time to determine where the extra movement is.

[rgh0]

As pads wear the "conformance" to the disk actually gets worse over the rest of their life after the initial bedding in. The initial bedding in just matches the pad surface to the irregularities in the disk surface and piston alignment. After that wear in the pad means that the the much of the pad surface is further from the disk than the closest point and further pedal travel is required to press the full pad surface against the disk.

This is due to taper wear from one side to the other of the pad due to temperature gradients and wear material flow in the pad and taper wear from the inside to outside of the disk due to caliper deflection. As the amount of taper increases over the life of the pad the extra pedal travel to take it up and press the full face of the pad against the disk increases as pad wear increase.

The effects of this are small but can be felt and exist even if the rest of the brake system is in perfect order. The effects are greater on race cars with high pedal pressures and high brake temperatures but can exist on a road car used enthuiastically also.

Excessive pedal travel will rarely be due to this taper wear effect just a small increase in travel over the life of the pads. Faults with excessive pedal travel will almost always be due to some other fault in the braking system.

cheers
Rohan

[handi_andi]

We are talking about an inch and a bit of travel before the brake pedal goes hard, which is somewhat more than is along under the MOT tests. The rear brakes are down to like a millimetre of lining and so need replacing, the fronts still have about 6mm left on them so will probably leave them be and just replace backs.

Thanks for all infromation

Andy