Brake balance 2002 Esprit- Too far forward

[Patorlando]

My Lotus Esprit brake balance is way to far forward, on hard braking, front tires want to lock up way before rears, leads to serious understeer/lack of directional control when entering corners and nearly impossible to get rear to come around at all with brakes in tight corners. Not gonna kill me but annoying for a good driver. I am sure it is designed that way to save inexperienced drivers from killing themselves, but embarassing to lose time at track day and have less fun b/c of it. Does anyone know how to fix this cheap and correctly . Brake balance valve doesnt look ajustable. Please check out my other posts. Not sure why I waited solong to contribute.. but have some issues insights that might help others..

[GreenV8S]

Sounds like either the bias valve is wrong/faulty, or the rear brakes aren't working properly. Either that or you have a major imbalance between front/rear pads or tyres. You want to fix it because it will be stopping you from getting max braking.

[dvr]

Hi,
my 2002 has exactly the same problem.
I have accepted it as something that comes with the Esprit.
do not have any idea if this can be modified.
but have been surprised by it as well on very fast
driving.
Denis

[patorlando]

Yeah, took a long time to accept. Why makea great performing car, and then adjust it so that wealthy people who don't know how top drive can buy it and not get into trouble... Might as well make it automatic and add traction control and a speed limiter so that it's really safe for inexperienced drivers!! Kidding of course.

[mikelr]

You can try to tune your front to rear brake bias with different compound pads.
Or you could always add manual proportioning valves to the front curcuit, but I wouldn't recommend it.

[MikeyRide]

mikelr said:

You can try to tune your front to rear brake bias with different compound pads.

That's a good place to start as long as you completely understand what you're doing. Different pads will heat up at different rates. You don't want to be caught out with the rears grabbing better than the fronts early in a session.

That said - I raced a little RX7 with Hawk Blues on the front, Hawk HPS (I think) on the rear to counter the opposite problem and never encountered any difficulties.

[karmavore]

I know nothing about brake tuning, but isn't the physical divergence of the front and rear cailpers an indication that such a bias might exsist?

Lucas.

[mikelr]

Patorlando said:

My Lotus Esprit brake balance is way to far forward, on hard braking, front tires want to lock up way before rears, leads to serious understeer/lack of directional control when entering corners and nearly impossible to get rear to come around at all with brakes in tight corners.

I was just re-reading this post and pondering your situation...and it seems to me that all cars are engineered to lock the front tires before the rear. This makes for a safer stopping condition during just about any situation.

Also, does you car not have ABS? It sounds like you are doing a lot of trail braking...try releasing the brake before initiating the turn.

You might also try a stickier set of tires.
These are just a few observations.. I think you are the first person I ever heard of complaining about the brake bias on an Esprit!

Good luck with it!

Mike Reed
94'S4 NY/NJ LEO

[red_devil]

Patorlando not the only one. My S4s with full AP upgraded has same problem. I've to use engine break, lower gear, to balance front bias. My next step is to put spare tire back to front compartment and put larger tire, 245 front, 295 rear. I think this will help.

[ErnestM]

What pads are you using Pat?

ErnestM