| Description and Operation The braking system is of the diagonally split, dual circuit design featuring front disc brakes and rear drum brakes as standard and disc brakes all round on performance vehicles. Vehicles with steel wheels are equipped with standard brake discs and vehicles with alloy wheels are equipped with anti-corrosion coated brake discs. The hydraulic system provides separate circuits for each pair of diagonally opposed wheels (i.e. left front, rear right and right front, left rear). The front calipers are mounted on the spindle carrier assemblies, are of single sliding piston design which ensures that equal effort is applied through both brake pads. The rear calipers of vehicles with discs all round are of the opposed piston design. The pads in all cases are asbestos free. The rear drum brakes are of conventional design. They feature one leading and one trailing shoe with bonded thick/thin asbestos free linings. The thick/thin linings allow shoes to wear at proportional rates. The brakes self adjust during foot brake operation. The handbrake lever is located between the front seats and operates the rear brakes via a cable system. The cable features automatic adjustment via a ratchet and pawl mechanism on the handbrake lever assembly. The master cylinder is of a tandem design and is linked to a booster unit to reduce the brake pedal effort. The tandem design will ensure that in the event of one brake circuit failure the other will remain fully operational. The master cylinder and booster unit are located on the left-hand side of the engine compartment. On right-hand drive vehicles they are connected to the brake pedal via a transverse connecting link assembly. in the case of left-hand drive vehicles the booster operating rod is connected directly to the brake pedal. On diesel vehicles the booster vacuum is provided by camshaft driven vacuum pump. Vehicles fitted with the standard braking system have pressure conscious reducing valves (PCRV's) fitted in the master cylinder outlet ports. The PCRV's control the hydraulic pressure applied to the rear brakes thereby reducing the risk of rear wheel lock-up under braking. | 
