evasabzacami

I've never heard that before, but its an interesting point. Makes me temped to try slots, I get pretty bad deposits from my driving and I really dislike the re-bed-in procedure b/c I feel like I'm just wasting pad by using it to heat the rotor high enough to remove the deposits.

Actually you can see this information on the pages of most producers. As an example http://www.dba.com.au/node/5556

First and foremost – brakes are a no joke thing on your car. If you are new to brakes have someone teach you how to work on them. Despite all the reading in the world on this subject this is something you should be taught to do instead of trying to figure it out yourself.

 

Second – If you are new to brakes get someone to teach you. Yes, it had to be said twice. It’s that important.

 

Now, this is by no means an all inclusive document on brakes. Instead it is a few tips and tricks I have learned over the years.

 

Some background on my brake experience: I started helping Dad work on the brakes on the family cars and trucks when I was seven by handing him tools. By 12 I was doing the disk brakes myself with his supervision. By 15 I had the arm strength to do the drum brakes on my own. By 16 I was doing brakes unsupervised by him. Now, this does not mean I am immune to learning new things. Far from it. Quite often I see someone with lots of experience post up a new tip or trick to working on brakes, and if it makes sense I try it out. Most of the time it works nicely.

 

On to the tips and tricks. I will try and keep this brand generic as we can cover that later.

 

Pads –

Run the proper pad for what you are going to be doing with the car!!! Do not run street pads on the track. They can’t take the heat.

Do not run high end track pads on the street. They need time to warm up to operating temp.

Do not run track pads and expect to get low dust and no noise. In a race environment dust and noise fall WAY down on the importance list.

Buy the best pads for your application that you can afford.

Be aware of the limitations of these pads, and don’t out drive them. Remember, no matter how fast you go eventually you have to stop.

 

Fluid –

Regular street level fluid on a NORMALLY driven street car – change every two years.

Good fluid that sees aggressive driving on the street – change once a year.

Good fluid that sees heavy autoX usage on a “race on Sunday drive to work on Monday car” – change a couple of times a season at the very least.

Good fluid that sees hard track use – fresh fluid for each event.

 

Rotors –

Buy good rotors. Not unknown cheapy ebay ones that you have no idea who made them.

Slotted – not really necessary unless you are heavily racing in the rain

Drilled – NO NO NO a thousand times NO!

Two piece, semi-floating or fully floating – there’s a time, a place and a budget for these. 99% of the cars on this board will never need this time place or budget. Quite honestly they are not necessary unless you're REALLY into autoX or the track, and chances are if you are into those things I'm not going to tell you anything you don't already know about them.

 

Turning the rotors – if you feel they need it then do it, but don’t fall into the “warped” rotor myth. If you can see pad impressions on the rotors then get them lightly turned after a bed-in (see below).

 

NEVER run a rotor that is below the recommended thickness spec. It’s just not worth the risk. Period.

 

 

General tips on pads, fluid or rotors –

Brake squeal – this is actually a vibration you are hearing. It’s the pad backing plate chattering against the pistons. Anti-squeal rubbery goop is supposed to help prevent this. I’ve never really cared for it. For many years I ran a good grease on the backing plates and it worked just fine. Until! I got a suggestion to run high temp anti-seize instead. I gave it a shot. I will never go back to grease.

 

Fluid – Use good fluid for your application. Please note – DOT 5 is NOT what to run in our cars. It’s a silicone based fluid made for preservation of lines in classic cars. DOT 5.1 is the stuff to look at for actual driving if you choose to use a DOT 5 series fluid.

 

Whenever you replace pads OR rotors, not both, but EITHER you should do a bed-in process. Here’s the process I have used for years:

45-10 using medium pressure 3-4 times

Drive to cool for a little bit

55-10 using medium pressure 3-4 times

Drive to cool for a little bit

65-5 using hard pressure but not locking them up 3-4 times

Drive for 20 minutes to cool them.

If you must come to a stop in that time do so gently, and just hold the car at the stop with the least amount of pedal pressure that you can (or use your hand brake).

 

 

Please note, you can do a bed-in process at any time. In fact, if you are starting to feel a slight vibration in your wheel during light braking due to pad deposits do a bed in process before thinking about getting your rotors turned.

 

If you are changing shoes as in on drum brakes (remember your handbrakes are drums in the rear. They just happen to be in the hat of the rotor) do each side one at a time from start to finish. This way you can go and look at the other side in case you forget how it goes back together (and you will forget).

 

Couple of general points –

Use brake cleaner spray to clean machining oil and finger oil from rotors

Use brake cleaner spray and a rag to clean up stuff in there.

If you use an airgun for spraying dust out don’t breathe it. While pads are no longer made with asbestos I’m sure breathing that crap still isn’t exactly good for you.

Wipe things down so you can see what you’re doing.

Apply grease or anti-seize to the slider pins on the frame that holds you pads in place.

Apply grease or anti-seize to the backing plates of the pads

Apply grease of anti-seize to the clips that hold the backing plate tabs

I'll disagree with you about slots on the rotors - they are very useful because they clean the burned surface of the pads during extreme braking and they also remove the dust. So I say slots are necessary!!!