brake fade / brake fuid change
Discussion
was at bedford at the weekend and suffered my first feeling of brake fade, heading straight for a bend, put on the anchors, and nothing happens. end up driving through a load of cones at 120ish - lucky it was tarmac runoff and the cones were only a few inches high. what a rush though...
want to change to a race spec brake fluid. what do you recommend?
want to change to a race spec brake fluid. what do you recommend?
falcemob said:
Did you get brake fade (hard pedal and not stopping) or spongy brakes which went to the floor? If it was the fromer you need better pads, the latter would require better fluid.
got the former. interesting point though. pretty much everyone has said i need fluid... my pads have plenty left on them though... why would i need new pads if there's lots of life left?
Well no brakes is almost certainly the fluid boiling unless it was knock off. Did you try releasing the brakes and then reapplying? That will sort it if its knock off, but its not an intuitive thing to do in a moment of panic if you don't know about it.
Changing pads will affect how they react to heat and their feel. The wrong pads will start to gas too much as they get hot (literally release gas from the surface - its what disc's vents are for releasing) which ruins feel and makes them very hard to modulate without locking or underbraking.
I'm a bit puzzled you managed to boil them like this on a GT2 as they are meant to have big cooling ducts I believe? Did you do an awful lot of laps or brake over long distances not using max force?
DanH said:
Did you do an awful lot of laps or brake over long distances not using max force?
yes and yes. was practicing my heel and toeing and i'm not able to get full pressure on the brake peddle whilst blipping the throttle to keep the revs up to chnage down. hence i was braking more gently over longer distances to try and get the feel of 'blipping'. was doing lots of laps without stopping too. i was having far too much fun to want to come in!
I just practise my H&T on the road
Just wait until you get onto left foot braking!
p.s. you can probably boil any brake setup with the wrong kind of usage, but since you have to replace it now you've boiled it you may as well get SRF. Think its hyrdroscopic though so you'll need to change it every year without fail.
>> Edited by DanH on Monday 11th July 17:08
911nutter said:
falcemob said:
Did you get brake fade (hard pedal and not stopping) or spongy brakes which went to the floor? If it was the former you need better pads, the latter would require better fluid.
got the former. interesting point though. pretty much everyone has said i need fluid... my pads have plenty left on them though... why would i need new pads if there's lots of life left?
Because you have probably got crap road pads and by constantly heeling and toeing and over use of the brakes you will have overheated them and glazed them. I didn't say you need new pads, just better ones.
Are they OK on the road now or when they cool?
You need to modify your braking on the track, short heavy braking is better than long lighter braking as you will be on the brakes less of the time so less heat build up.
If you boiled the fluid, the pedal would have gone long and then come back when they cool down.
You should also change your fluid to something more suitable for the track, but don't go for a full race fluid unless it is SRF as the others will need fluid changes every couple of months whereas SRF is about every 18 months.
>> Edited by falcemob on Monday 11th July 19:05
Rob,
My brakes failed at Bedford too, that long straight is a killer. You only need half dozen laps braking from 150 odd to cook the fluid. I replaced my fluid with some Dot 5 and the pads with Pagid Blues and have had no problems on track since. But the Pagid pads are murder on the road they are just too noisey. I am now changing the pads to pagid just for the track day then going back to std ones for the road.
My brakes failed at Bedford too, that long straight is a killer. You only need half dozen laps braking from 150 odd to cook the fluid. I replaced my fluid with some Dot 5 and the pads with Pagid Blues and have had no problems on track since. But the Pagid pads are murder on the road they are just too noisey. I am now changing the pads to pagid just for the track day then going back to std ones for the road.
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