1993 Fiat Panda Selecta
Overdue brake fluid change improves lousy stopping power
1993 FIAT PANDA 1.1 SELECTA
The Panda’s recent service revealed that its DOT3 brake fluid had absorbed enough moisture to lower its boiling point to 131 degrees centigrade – rather less than the 140 degrees needed for effective anchoring. Ideally, brake fluid should be changed every two years, but rarely is. I’d owned my Panda for over three years without it being done, and I know that it was out of use for quite a while before then. Renewing the fluid, then, was well overdue, even without the fluid test and the noticeably greater pedal travel and sponginess that had recently become obvious.
Even though I know the principles of changing fluid and bleeding brakes, I don’t like to take chances with safetycritical items, so it was off to the professionals Ryan, Tom and Dan at West Street Garage in Stamford to get the job done.
The Panda put up a half-hearted fight against having its veins drained; the bleed nipples behind each wheel had been sprayed with penetrating fluid the week before during its service, but the offside rear one refused to budge. It took two applications of a blowtorch wielded by Tom (while A-Ha’s Bond theme for The Living Daylights played over the tannoy – it was all very exciting) before it would budge enough to allow its fluid to escape. Given the close proximity of the fuel tank, this was done very carefully.
After that, It was pretty straightforward stuff – the old and very dark fluid was syphoned off, revealing quite a bit of unwelcome sediment inside the reservoir. This was cleaned out as much as possible before new DOT4 fluid was added and (with the car back in the air and Dan inside repeatedly applying the brake pedal), each wheel nipple was bled in turn.
The result was immediately noticeable; the pedal is firmer, its travel shorter and the Panda’s braking just feels much more positive and responsive. And the whole job took less than an hour. I should probably think about having it done on some of the other members of the fleet, too.