Touched on this before a bit but still not sure where i stand.

The brakes on the P38 have always felt poor. But its a big heavy car thats fairly old, and comparing it with modern cars is quite difficult, modern stuff always feels a LOT more powerful due to much greater power assistance (some might suggest too much). Its the heaviest car i own, and also has the smallest brakes of any car i own or have owned for a number of years. So i'm unsure if its right, or it has an issue.

When i bought it the accumulator was burst, so it got a new accumulator and a full system bleed following the instructions in rave. It all worked well enough, but the pedal always felt a bit "wooden", There wasnt a lot of bite to the brakes, and you needed quite a lot of pedal effort to stop quickly. If you heaved on it, it did stop, as we discovered when my mate was driving and didnt notice a motorcyclist, and full emergency stop spec braking had it stood on its nose.

Last year, one the the rear calipers had siezed. Upon inspection the opposite side had been replaced recently (it was shiney silver vs the siezed one which was very rusty) so i replaced the siezed side and bled the new rear caliper only, using the hydraulic pump (ignition on, open nipple, press pedal, wait till nice clear stream of fluid, close nipple, release pedal)

After that the brakes felt noticably better with a more positive pedal feel, which puzzled me at the time, given i'd only replaced one caliper.

When i did the front suspension a few months ago, i noticed the front caliper dust boots were all torn, and shortly after the drivers front started sticking, and also developed a horrible "warped brakes" vibration. I decided to fix it all properly, so ordered a pair of new calipers, and nice new brembo disks and pads (not fancy drilled or owt, just decent quality standard parts). I guess, after things improving so much when i replaced the rear caliper i expected big things...

Today i managed to get them fitted, and bled the system following the rave instructions, except i didnt touch the rear booster or rear caliper bleeders as i figured those hadnt been disturbed.

Took it for a drive and i'm still not convinced its right. Maybe the new parts just need some time to bed in, but the pedal feels (i think) softer than it did before, and not really any more effective. I had expected it would have improved a decent amount once i replaced the siezed calipers, instead its left me feeling a bit "meh". I did 20miles, mostly motorway so not a great deal of braking, and it did seem to be improving towards the end of the trip, so potentially it does just need bedding in.

I'll put some miles on it and see, maybe i should redo the whole bleeding procedure including the rears... what would be really handy would be having a go of a good working P38 to see how it compares. Unfortunately i'm not sure anyone on the forum is particularly local to Fife/Lothians area.

Doesn't sound right. Stamped on mine once at around 40 mph and it was downright scary. Nice dry road, antilock banging away like crazy and we pulled up in about half the distance I expected. Major room for Mr Magoo to pull out in front of me. Good job there was no one behind or the tow hook would have collected a front bumper!

Brakes are bit heavier weighted than the modern norm. Most of which I think are too darn light anyway. But thats by design. Underneath all the leather and nice toys is a supremely capable off roader so decently weighted brakes (an long travel throttle) are essential for smooth control when rocking'n rolling across country.

Suits me just fine but then I pretty much live in lace up boots, either walking style or hard toes. Don't think I've worn what would be called normal shoes this year! Or last.

Clive

You’ve got to let the brakes bed in before you go looney with them, we used to say to customers, 50 miles ( London driving) .
I would then go through bleeding again, including the rear, I know it’s a pain, but no point doing half a job,

They can feel excellent, which is actually good news :)
They're definitely heavier than modern cars - I borrowed a Fiesta from the garage the other day and just could not get on with the brakes. The Fiesta is set up for a dainty size 3 with reduced ankle movement due to driving in heels!

yeh i'll do some more miles and see how it goes, then give it all another bleed. Is it just me, or is getting to the two booster bleed nipples really difficult?!

i recently replaced the front discs and pads on mine and for the first few miles the brakes felt worse that they had before I'd changed them but they soon bedded in. If you have air in the power circuit you don't get a spongy pedal like on a conventional system, you get a slight delay between hitting the pedal and the brakes coming on (as it has to compress the air bubble before anything happens). When I first got mine the brakes felt OK. They worked and stopped the car but, like you, I had nothing to compare them against. Then I flushed the system and bled it all through and the difference was very noticeable, much more bite and no delay. I had a bus change lanes in front of me a few months back, hit the pedal and fooled the ABS by locking all 4 wheels at 70 mph. If I hadn't been wearing a seatbelt I would have put myself through the windscreen!