Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[P6UL K]

Hi all,

I'm wanting to sort the ride out on my new car (see siggy) as its woolly to say the least!! I've already got the Powerflex bushes to sort the front end out, just need to get it closer to the ground!

The car has the self-levelling rear end on it but i read that disabling that is just a matter of pulling the relay and detaching the small rose jointed arm that operates it.

Any good suggestions on a handling kit? Pi? KW? Koni? Spax? I'll avoid coilovers if i can as i know now my budget won't stretch to them, I'm looking at around £500ish.

Has anybody got any experience of lowering these barges? lol

And lastly, what's the crack with the brakes? I've not long got shot of my AUQ VW Golf GTi and that was running the standard 312mm, in comparison the brakes on the Omega are terrible!!

Is there anything from the GM group that will fit on the hubs, i wanna avoid the likes of Hi-Spec, Brembo and AP if i can as were talking ££££ with those guys..... Not that i'm tight, i just have a budget lol... The standard Omega brakes are definitely NOT confidence fillers!



Cheers!

[SJKOO01]

Hi all,

I'm wanting to sort the ride out on my new car (see siggy) as its woolly to say the least!! I've already got the Powerflex bushes to sort the front end out, just need to get it closer to the ground!

The car has the self-levelling rear end on it but i read that disabling that is just a matter of pulling the relay and detaching the small rose jointed arm that operates it.

Any good suggestions on a handling kit? Pi? KW? Koni? Spax? I'll avoid coilovers if i can as i know now my budget won't stretch to them, I'm looking at around £500ish.

Has anybody got any experience of lowering these barges? lol

And lastly, what's the crack with the brakes? I've not long got shot of my AUQ VW Golf GTi and that was running the standard 312mm, in comparison the brakes on the Omega are terrible!!

Is there anything from the GM group that will fit on the hubs, i wanna avoid the likes of Hi-Spec, Brembo and AP if i can as were talking ££££ with those guys..... Not that i'm tight, i just have a budget lol... The standard Omega brakes are definitely NOT confidence fillers!

Cheers!

Standard brakes are good on an Omega, if they are fitted with Genuine GM disc's and pads.
If you think that they're not that good, could it be because that they have been replaced with cheap autoshop/ebay/etc replacements?.

Maybe worth taking a look to see what brand are fitted, and check that you brake pipe flexiable hoses are in good condition to.  As well as making sure that the fluid is in good condition, correct specification and not few years old 

Hope that's of some help ? 

[Abiton]

...And lastly, what's the crack with the brakes? I've not long got shot of my AUQ VW Golf GTi and that was running the standard 312mm, in comparison the brakes on the Omega are terrible!!...

As above.  Your brakes are broken.

[05omegav6]

Retail price of a front brake kit (pads and discs) for one of these is about £95 at my local stealers. Police spec pads are also available and seem to be a bit more resistant to fade.

Also your car should already have the Lowered Sport Chassis as fitted to the MV6.
You could try renewing the rear self levelling shocks, (£90 each, retail). This made quite a difference to mine.
See also Chrisgixers suspension maintenance guide on here, as it explains all the do's and don'ts of properly setting up mig suspension.
HTH

[Andy B]

.... I've not long got shot of my AUQ VW Golf GTi and that was  .....

 ..... 2/3rds the weight of an Omega! 

and what the others have said 

[2woody]

I disagree, but that won't help you in the short term.

Omega brakes are rather bad for the perfomance and size of the car, even when brand new with GM or harder pads. The main failure mode is temperature-induced juddering from the caliper sliders, but the whole set-up can't release heat fast enough.

The system should, however, be adequate for most users most of the time, especially when the components are new.

All of my road cars get new discs and pads at least twice a year - mainly because they need it - don't forget I live is a rural, deserted hilly area. Brake fade is usually the limiting factor on the performance.

cars I use on track get new discs every outing - they seem to last about four hours before the juddering causes the discs to warp.

as a comparison, I have one track car with 350mm discs on it, and despite being the same weight and performance, the pads last approximately 8 times longer and the discs haven't started going oval yet.

[feeutfo]

All things are relative, I came to omegas from a mondeo, which first time I drove it had apparently massively over sensitive brakes as me and the Mrs head butted the dash first press of the brake pedal, but I got used to them quickly and loved them.

Omega has a very different approach, especially in servo assistance IMO, when comparing those two cars anyway. Then add in Trade Club pads which are good in that they are cheap and bad in that the pedal feel is atrocious and I agree that omega brakes could well be described as crap ESP when coming from another model.

Depends also where your coming from on your budget/performance ratio. To some cost is more important than performance, so Trade club pads win for them. For me, and others who have paid the rather expensive price of £70+ a front axle set, OE pads fix all ills with omega brakes on the road.....However when approaching track levels of performance, I would think something else again would be required that will not work so well on the road.

Now, if only we could find OE pads at a more sensible price......  

[Kevin Wood]

Omega brakes are rather bad for the perfomance and size of the car, even when brand new with GM or harder pads. The main failure mode is temperature-induced juddering from the caliper sliders, but the whole set-up can't release heat fast enough.

cars I use on track get new discs every outing - they seem to last about four hours before the juddering causes the discs to warp.

Can you expand on this?

I'm familiar with the juddering that can occur as brakes get hot and I suppose I had assumed it to be down to the disks warping due to the heat. Thinking about it, though, they probably aren't getting hot enough to warp of their own accord!

So, are you saying that the caliper sliders seize at high temperatures, meaning that the disk isn't being clamped evenly (or, at least, the caliper isn't able to follow the small amount of run-out inherent in the disk+hub) so braking, and hence temperature, is uneven around the circumference of the disk, and it warps?

The fix, presumably, is twin pot calipers? Or could a modification be made to stop them binding (for track use. It'd be very unwise to take to the road with such a modification, of course).

Kevin

[2woody]

ok....

the calipers, especially when older aren't anywhere near as stiff as they could be. As they get hot, the sliders wobble, leading to a brake vibration.

At first, this vibration isn't a warped disc, but rapidly becomes so.

the solution is another caliper of a different design which doesn't have the same problems. any caliper will I'm sure be better, provided of course the hydraulic properties are the same.

or just don't use the brakes as hard