Boiling brake fluid

[spederman]

Went to a road race event. Didnt know the method of cooling brakes properly til now. Ended up holding at stop and melting brake pads on rotors thus warping the rotors. I read a method online of possible saving the rotors by doing 60-0mph very hard stops about 8 times in a row, and that might clear off the rotors.

Didnt work and by the end of the 8 hard stops, i had complete brake fade. I've heard once you get your brakes to a fade like that, you've essentially boiled your brake fluid and its now worthless and you need a brake fluid flush/change. Is this true?

 

[bdcardinal]

pretty much ya. what fluid are you using? also if you are running a Varga style rear caliper like the mustangs have from the factory you never NEVER use your e-brake after a hotlap session.

 

[Mustang5L5]

NEVER use your e-brake after a hotlap session.

+1


Park the car in gear and chock the wheels.


Also, a brake bleed should be mandatory after a session like that.

 

[spederman]

OK, i thought so. I need to go get that done. I have the Cobra R (brembo) front brakes and cobra rears also. I was using the stock brake fluid the car came with. What is a good brake fluid that i should have it changed to?

 

[bdcardinal]

i used Valvoline Dot3/4 fluid, its cheap and has a high boiling point, never had fade. i flushed the fluid before and after a track day. if i had any signs of fade during a session, i would bleed out the calipers in the pit area. although i never had that problem. also consider getting cooling ducts. i had them on my car and they worked great.

 

[Mustang5L5]

i used Valvoline Dot3/4 fluid, its cheap and has a high boiling point, never had fade. .

That's what i use.

I autoXed on Sat and the fluid/brakes performed flawlessly

 

[blacksheep-1]

Also don't use the traction control, it applies the brakes during wheelspin and will destroy the rear pads.
I'm a Hawk brake guy myself, it's funny that so many people worry about HP only to find the thing that screws them up the most is getting the car stopped.
my home track is Sebring, lots of stops (and bumps) there.

 

[MyStangGT]

Autocross and track driving place completely different demands on brakes. For track driving you need some race oriented pads and cooling ducts. Without cooling ducts even high temp pads will wear quicker and heat the calipers causing fluid boil.

The setup I use on a budget is Cobra brakes all the way around, Motorcraft high performance fluid, 2 ½” hose connected to the fog light housings routed to the rotor centers (fog lights and splash shields removed), and Lomandi Kevlar metallic pads. I use this setup with V710 Kumhos but my engine is basically stock so I rarely get over 135 before stomping the brakes.

Of course it would be better to get REAL race pads and 3” ducts but if your on a budget like I am the above setup has worked for me.

I tried a imitation Cobra R front bumper with 3” hose at Sebring and the hoses kept coming off. I finally ripped the hoses off and ran without them. Caused a brand new set of pads to wear to the backing plates in 6 sessions. I won’t ever run without cooling ducts again. I had to buy all new rotors and calipers with that lesson.

Here is a link to some videos using the above mentioned setup.
http://www.youtube.com/user/sandyman099

 

[DBMSTNG]

you can get the rotors turned if they aren't too bad. i've found that just holding a steady brake can help warped roters. hard stops only make them worse.

 

[blacksheep-1]

Mystang is correct there is not much correlation between auto-x and open track. I've seen guys run small disc brakes and even drums because they're lighter (except for the hi zoot disc brakes) and there's always a cool down time between runs so they can get away with this.