Brakes, Brakes, and more Brakes

[sav]

Cool stuff. I can't wait to hear your thoughts on those unfamiliar pads.

[Fish Eagle]

Originally Posted by sav

Cool stuff. I can't wait to hear your thoughts on those unfamiliar pads.

I'm very keen to try them.
I'll fit them this weekend, which will give me two weeks to play with them before Michelin Cup on the 16th.

I must also do brake fluid - I could feel it was getting a bit squidgy last weekend.
BTW, I don't do a full brake fluid flush anymore - only once a year or even longer.
Normally, I just drain a bit from the front calipers which I dump, pump some fresh'ish fluid through the lines, and top-up.
Takes about 400ml.

[sav]

Cool, that's what Mike Bond from International Race Supplies(PFC) also suggested but with a twist. He said you should always bleed the fluid out of the calipers before a track day. Makes more sense doing it after to be honest.

I've never used Endless pads before so I can't compare but at P4P the 50m mark was just suggestion and I ended up braking much much later on every corner without any fade which I thought was impressive considering the sessions were longer than usual.

That's with one step compound below what you've got.

Speaking of bleeding brakes, I got myself one of these:


Which should make life a bit easier.

[Fish Eagle]

Originally Posted by sav

Speaking of bleeding brakes, I got myself one of these:

That's nice.

Fortunately I have sponsor who does my brake bleeding for me.
I normally do pads changes myself - he does bleeding and disc changes.

[sav]

Lucky.

[Fish Eagle]

Did brake pads this morning, and I decided to do the bleeding myself too.

Bad news for you @sav because the old pads still look great (after 6 track days) so I put them back in again, and you'll have to wait a bit longer to find out how the "unfamiliar" pads work in my car

It's amazing that the harder and faster I go, the less pads and tyres I use.

[sav]

That is very good going. 6 track days...wow.

[Fish Eagle]

Had my first ever brake disk failure today.
Amazing that it wasn't on track, and it wasn't under any stress whatsoever. Lindy and I were taking a leisurely drive up to Kaapsehoop when it went pop.

My brake disks always crack badly on track but they're surface cracks and not a problem - that's common. Today's failure is a crack right through the disk and it goes to the outer edge where it's very visible. Loud and obvious clack-clack-clack when braking.

The disk was at the very end of it's life anyway. I'd already decided to replace them because they're very worn and cracked, and new pads take a long time to seat on them because they're worn unevenly - more wear close to the hub than further out. They're a year old and have done 12 track days, so whatever...

New disks are on their way - should get them on Friday. It'll be my first set of Powerbrake's new black disks. Going to be interesting to see how they perform.

[GeeTee86]

What disks failed andy, oem or pb?

[Fish Eagle]

Originally Posted by GeeTee86

What disks failed andy, oem or pb?

PB disks.

I'll put in new disks this weekend, then study the old ones carefully once they're out the car. It's possible (read likely) that I pushed them beyond reasonable temperature and wear limits.

[GeeTee86]

Please share your findings with francois and leon

[Fish Eagle]

Yep, excessive and uneven wear (more wear closer to the hub) and I probably overheated the outer part of the disk when bedding in new pads.

Whatever. They were ready for the bin anyway...

[GeeTee86]

are the heat indicators gone on the disk?

[Fish Eagle]

Originally Posted by GeeTee86

are the heat indicators gone on the disk?

Yep, but they're normally all gone after my first day on track anyway, so not meaningful.

I'm not fussed about it at all.
Those old rotors were beyond their sell by date.
I'll know next time not to push them that far.