Hoping one of you very knowledgeable and helpful people will be able to answer this. I have a 2003 Focus 1.8tdci Zetec estate and I want to upgrade the brakes on it. Since I've had it (about 4 months), I've bled the fluid through & changed the pads & although they are now a lot more solid I still think that for the standard performance of this car, they are RUBBISH! I previously had a Pug 306 estate and although it had its own selection of faults, the brakes were superb. Strangely I find that the brake performance seems better at higher speeds than it does at lower speeds but that may be just my perception.

The current pads I'm using in the car are standard pads from Partco, that I've always been happy with in the past. When I first got the car I was horrified to see how small the postage stamp size rear pads were and thought no wonder they're not very good! Can anyone advise on the simplest & cheapest way to get respectable braking out of the car, I don't want to spend hundreds on fancy solutions in order to stand the car on its headlights. I have thought about uprating the pads with some EBC or similar pads but I want to know what is going to work before I spend any money.