Brake feel
 

A couple weeks ago, my brakes got very very hot (visibly so). I have stock rotors and Winmax W2 pads. Ever since then, the stopping power has felt like it's suffered. I thought they would go back to normal after cooling down, but obviously they haven't after weeks. I was told I probably permanently affected the material by getting them so hot. Is this the most likely culprit? There's plenty of pad left. I'd be surprised if the fluid boiled because I have Motul fluid.

Anyways, I want to replace the pads because there's just no bite right now and the feel is awful. I know this has been discussed at length, but I'm wondering what kind of pads I should go with. The squealing was bugging me, so initially I wanted to go back to stock since I don't track or autocross all too often, but after this that doesn't seem to make sense. I'd like to be able to drive it aggressively without the brakes overheating, so I might have to live with the occasional squeaks. Any recommendations? Also, is sticking with stock rotors the best move? Thanks.

What do the pad faces look like? What were you doing to get them hot?

C

Haven't gotten a chance to look at the pads myself - I took it to a shop today to get my tires rotated and asked them to look for me. Just doing some canyon carving.

Sounds like the pads were overheated and glazed.

Sounds like the W2's weren't bedded correctly. If you go back to stock or any others have the rotors cut with a "finish cut" to even the surface faces of the rotor. Then install new pads. I'd also suggest flush the brake fluid also.

Seconding wparsons here. You can try re-bedding the pads a few times and see if the pedal comes back as you wear down the glazed layer but they might be done. If you did glaze them, then maybe you should look at a more aggressive pad compound anyway.

Also, you should probably bleed your brakes.

No reason to replace the stock rotors as long as they're above minimum thickness.

I'd do a brake fluid bleed, when was it last flushed? Depending on how old it is and which version of Motul you have your boiling point could be seriously reduced. I bet it doesn't help that you live <30 miles from the ocean either. It baffles me that this isn't suggested more strongly.

Once you do the fluid and try to re-bed the pads if it doesn't come back to satisfactory then yeah, you may be done with those pads. I did something similar to my OE pads on my second track day (and a fluid flush helped) although I never tried to aggressively bed them in again... maybe that could bring them back to life some day...