I feel like the brake pedal on my car is soft. I seem to have to press a long way (compared to what I am used to) to get major stopping force.

This really is an issue when I heel-and-toe...under even moderate braking the brake pedal sinks well past the plane of the throttle, making blips hard. My technique on previous cars (E46 BMW, Mazda3, 944s2) was to use the left side of the ball of my foot for the brake and the right side of the ball for throttle blips.

On the 8 doing it this way means I depress the throttle while braking (not blipping). I have resorted to turning my foot so that the ball of the foot is squarely on the brake and I blip using the lower part of the right side of my foot (though not the heel). I got the idea from watching a vid of a guy lapping Laguna Seca in an 8 (sorry is this is a repost).

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...90307702536941

I find this pretty awkward.

I had my car into the dealer and the service manager swears the pedal feels normal for an RX-8.

Assuming this is true, what can I do to firm up the brake ? Improved brake lines? Better pads?

 

Yes.

 

^ +1

did you bleed the brakes...or have the dealership do this recently?

i've found that a good amount of tech's don't know how to do this correctly and may have inadvertintly left some air in the brake system. if you haven't then disregard.

how old is your car? rubber brake lines will sweel slightly over time. it woudl be more noticible over other 8's depending on how hard you brake and how much you use the brkaes (i.e. your will "seem" worse than other 8's of the same milage if you trake you car..or brake harder) how much of a difference i have no idea.........just throwing out some possibilities from what i've discovered at work.

 

^I just got the car...it did have some brake service at some point I believe, so maybe that explains it. I was going to have the dealer bleed the brakes, but if they don't believe my account of the symptoms I'll just bring it to the independent guy that wrenches my Bimmer.

 

Just bleed it and change teh pads if you want a higher pedal. You can also adjust the pedal for it too.

Oh by the way, SS lines are not for everyone. I had it, I hated it. I hate I don't have modulation to my brakes, it was like an on off switch to me.

 

^Thanks...and good to know about the SS lines...

 

yeah SS lines make pedal feel MUCH stiffer compared to stock, so you have to adjust your braking style too

 

and personally for heel-toe, i do the ball-of-foot on brake pedal, but instead of 'heel' it, i use lower side of my foot (just above my heel) to blip the throttle, works fine for me

 

that's the switch between your brain and your foot

 

only if you do it right

 

That's what I do, but with my size 12s I use the side of my foot around the middle. On cars with tight pedal layouts I've used the side of the ball of my little toe. Action is more like rolling my foot to the side than pushing my heel down.

The only car I've had where I could use my heel on the gas for heel & toe was a 1953 Chevy, with a floor-mounted gas pedal.

Ken

 

I also find it strange how the brake pedal works: At first it seems to brake a lot, but then it seems to brake for longer. I have new ATE brake discs and pads new original Mazda RX-8.