Fading brakes

[mugga]

Hi, I took my car on the track today and noticed the stock brakes are relatively weak in terms of hard braking, my car just couldn't stop! I felt the brake pedal jerking!

After tracking, I noticed the brake faded a bit. Would a brake fluid change restore the responsiveness?

[aaronng]

Yes, change fluid and sand the pads and rotors a little bit.

Pedal vibrating was because you either engaged ABS or you turned while braking, thus locking your wheels. Next time, don't overspeed onto the corner and brake earlier. :)

[aimre]

Hi, I took my car on the track today and noticed the stock brakes are relatively weak in terms of hard braking, my car just couldn't stop! I felt the brake pedal jerking!

After tracking, I noticed the brake faded a bit. Would a brake fluid change restore the responsiveness?


Vibrating could be caused by warped discs also, but depends on how violent the jerking was, u should b able to tell.

agree with arronng, you may have glazed ur pads

[mugga]

Thanks for input guys, the vibrating only happened on track. I didn't feel a thing with my normal driving.

[Limbo]

If you are having brake fade, you might need to change to better pads for track. Due to high heat stress your normal pads do tend to fade abit if your using them alot. I beleive its due to the high temp treating the brake compound and making them hard, and less grippy.
Same thing happens to standard tyres that go on track, they just don't grip well afterwards.

[mugga]

Yep definitely getting better brake pads and tires next time. What brand of pads would you recommend?

[cristian]

u can remove that metal plate behind the rotor to help it cool down on track days...

however it doesnt work to ur advantage if ur on the street, with debri and it'll take long for pads to warm up specially if ur changing to higher temp pads

[SeverAMV]

endless pads have minimal fade and will last fairly well, but can get a little pricey. they're reasonably strong and wont give you much grief. but recently, endless have started changing their compound so you may have to wait a while before you can get them.
project mu pads have better friction than endless ones, but at the cost of slightly faster wear. theyre as pricey as endless, but with the quality you get, no one's complaining.
recently bendix are doing pretty well too. their street, road, track pads seem pretty darn good and can keep up with the top of the range endless and project mu's, but they dont make them for all models yet.

but be aware that if you get pads with greater friction, your rotor temp will go up faster and unless you have rotors that can handle the temp, you'll probably get more warping and brake shuddering. also a good idea to get some good brake fluid that wont vapourise with the heat of a track, otherwise you'll lose pedal feel, or worse, your life. braided lines could help response too.

if you're thinking about upgrading your brakes package (ie. pads, rotors, and lines) for a relatively cheap amount, you could get the american ones on ebay, but make sure you check out all the details first, as some of those rotors are made outta cheapo ceramic and may explode like the factory brakes on an r32.

[dsp26]

stock pads are actually pretty good.. otherwise they just get too hot and glaze too quickly.. if thats the case upgrade to slotted rotors so they 'slice' the glaze off WHEN they do overheat and glaze

[mugsee]

did you use your handbrake right after pulling into the pits after a couple of hot laps?

[aaronng]

did you use your handbrake right after pulling into the pits after a couple of hot laps?
Read his post again. His brake pedal was vibrating ON THE TRACK, not after. He is only complaining of fade after, which is fixed by changing brake fluid and sanding the pad and rotors a little bit with rough sandpaper.