Them’s the brakes
I have only myself to blame. In Italy, cars that are more than four years old have to pass the
Revisione – our version of the MoT – every two years. Last winter, I forgot to have my cars tested and so they were all left languishing in the garage until my schedule allowed me a day to do it.
When that day arrived, only one car failed its Revisione: the Fiat 500L. Its brakes were too weak to pass, no matter how hard I tried to stamp on the pedal. I’d already noticed that to manage even a reasonable stop I really had to push the pedal to the very end of its travel, but I hadn’t realised how bad the situation was.
At my friend Alessandro’s shop we lifted the car and started to investigate. The reason was obvious. All four drums were the originals fitted in Turin in 1972, and they were too thin and worn to be saved. The brake shoes were very poor, too: old and at the limit of their usable life. Checking the list of work done to the 500 since I bought it in 2008, I found that the only job carried out on its brakes was replacement of the master cylinder in 2012 and, indeed, it looked to be the only part of the system that was still usable.
Fortunately, Fiat 500 spare parts are quite easy to find in Italy and a good set of drums and shoes was soon spotted and purchased. With those fitted, the 500 passed the
Revisione with flying colours and now it just needs to be driven. That’s a task I’ll be carrying out to the full very soon.