chrispayze

Yep, agreed, if you're hoofing the brakes and your face isn't being pulled off or triggering the abs, it does sound like there's an issue. And if there's no leak, no sticky caliper piston, then the only thing left is mechanical in the master cylinder or its actuation.

Dembo

Depends how well you're driving.

In the warm and dry you'll probably struggle to get the ABS to do anything unless the road surface is rough, but you should be able to manage it in the wet. What are Ferodo premier? If they don't have the initial bite of the DS2500s you have on the front your rears won't be doing any of the work. Always best to have matching pads.

I wonder if as you're used to FWD cars you're expecting the car to dive forwards more and mistake that for poor braking? Just a thought.

CHIPPO

Interesting , I certainly agree the brakes are good but operate differently to the norm in terms of feel and operation , never really considered it much .


Now I think about it Jump in my A4 or Jaxx and peddle pressures are much reduced as are vans at work .
The S I rarely get that bang bang bang feeling of ABS working unless I absolutely try and provoke it , so it's rare and usually as the car is getting to a relatively low speed.


Last night for instance coming down a longish hill not to steep , having over taken two cars and accelerating up to around 100 leptons , I have to anchor up for a left turn through a mini roundabout , nice open sight lines . But the road is pretty crappy with bad undulations , the car hops and skips with one or more wheels. locking up and squealing momentarily no sign of ABS coming in the car remains straight controllable and stable despite the fairly harsh treatment . One more stop after that down to 30 and again about a mile up the road and agin into my drive , brakes will still smell and be very hot as will tyres , but no sign of fade or lack of power . Bi discs , OEM pads , and refurb callipers all around .

So I would say you have either a problem or a problem of perception , you maybe need to use a tad more muscle than norm in the S to make the brakes work as they should

V-esi

Just took it on a danger run giving the brakes some heavy use, no abs light came on/flashed but I think chippo has nailed it in terms of giving it more muscle than I previously had been. I'll get the rear discs changed and another bleed then take it from there!

Craig.h

Just noticed the user name, black s2000 that was at knockhill?

You should def have been getting the abs kicking on Saturday night if you were pushing them! If your local your welcome to come try mine!

PhilipGB

Honestly I've never even noticed the ABS light the few occasions I've triggered it, but you can definitely feel it. Was the first car I've driven with 4 channel ABS and you get a funny pulsing through the pedal from it

V-esi

Yes! Spun at Clark's on my 4th lap, new tyres and no confidence in the brakes paired with weather made me call it a night. Stayed till 7:45 as my mate had his turbo'd EP3 on.
Appreciated, I'm based in edinburgh but next time you're at KH I'll give you a shout/shot and you can tell me if I'm imagining it

lower

How does the pedal feel? Is the travel short or long? Does the pedal feel solid or spongy?

With DS2500 pads on the front you should have noticed a big improvement from the first time you drove the car after they were fitted. When you go from a standard pad to one with a higher coefficient of friction you should notice the difference straight away as you have to learn to use less pedal pressure for the same braking effort.

twibs

theres a how to on bleeding the brakes and the abs unit on here somewhere.
I found that once I had got the abs to kick in on gravel a few times then re bled the calipers they were a lot better.

Nottm_S2

if they need bleeding the pedal usually goes a fair way, more than normal, and feels soft as lower says

i think the brakes on the S are quite wooden compared to my M3 and the missus Golf, they need effort. But i can easily trigger the abs in the wet and ultimately they work fine once you're in the mode.

are you driving another car some of the time? i had a citroen xsara vts years back (I know) and the brakes on that were so over assisted it was awful (not just the brakes )