Brake Pad Advice

[CT]

The ferodo ds2500 will squel a bit once bedded in. My car now sounds like a taxi coming to a stop at the lights

Not in my experience. I've done over 100,000klms on DS2500s and they are not noisy at all - no different to stock. You might have some glazing or pickup on the rotors? Might be worth a quick clean with some emery paper.

[Hellmun]

Boags it was $75 per braided brake line. Then it was going to be $100 for the install of the lines with a flush. When I got the quote I wasn't sure if I'd have the pads so it ended up being an extra $25 to have the pads installed and bedded in. So in total $275 to brakesmart. DS2500's were $180 and the fluid was $25 per half litre and they only used one of the bottles. So in total $480. When a set comes in I'll try some Ferodo Excels on the rear. Low temp high friction pads and see if I can reduce the diving it does. So grand total is looking like $540 for brakes I in theory can't overheat.

One other thing I wasn't expecting was to choose brake line colours and the optional bling stainless steel connectors etc. Plus an ADR certificate for the glovebox. The stainless connections were $15 or $25 extra per line but colours were part of the price. I think the options were grey, red and blue. That's the length of hose and also additional colours for the sleeve over the join between the hose and end connectors. If I think of it I'll take a picture of the car after work and show you what I mean.

[yjl]

The ferodo ds2500 will squel a bit once bedded in. My car now sounds like a taxi coming to a stop at the lights

Not in my experience. I've done over 100,000klms on DS2500s and they are not noisy at all - no different to stock. You might have some glazing or pickup on the rotors? Might be worth a quick clean with some emery paper.

thanks for the advice, I would give that a go and see how it is

[Hellmun]

Thought I'd come back and update now that's I've had the experience of two sets of pads now. The DS2500's lasted about 9000km's. I've taken them off and they're scorched and coming apart.... That's maybe 8-10 track-days. I can't remember exactly. I did however never reach the point where it felt like I was really loosing the pedal. I think the highest I measured them was about 270 degrees after the car was stopped.

Now that they're $450 a set for the front I thought it was a great time to try something else.... I got a set of Hawk HP+ from Mania for $195. I took them round the beech with 8 * 80-10 stops. Then 8 120-10 stops. Then I pulled over in the harbour and spent some quality time reading waiting for the pads to come down from 250 odd and stop smelling.

Half an hour later the pads are down to 50C and I'm bored enough to go home.

Double checked everything at home then took for it a macquarie pass shakedown. Got up fine, these pads feel much higher friction than the DS2500's. Pedal response is very very good. About %20 of the way down I lost brake and had smoke pooring off and no...I wasn't riding the pedal. Took a minute break on them and they were back strong....then about 3 corners were fading and smoking badly.

I took it easy, gave it a stab to fade them just before the bottom then pulled over. 310 degree C and they were fading and smoking a lot. Slight blue tinge on the inside of the rotor. I may be due for race pads

I'm heading up to Eastern creek with circuit club fri-day and hopefully..the pads were still bedding in....or are high enough friction that macquarie pass simply generates too much heat with no cool-down time. I also imagine my standard rotors (DS4000's are on order still) without slots aren't helping the equation.

[Charlie Brown]

Hellmun, stop all this practice will you. You'll get too fast for me!!

Now back to the Hawk HP+. I put them on the NC, bedded them in as per the instructions and drove around for three weeks before heading to Wakefield.
First flying lap jumped on the picks before Turn 2...nothing...just sailed on. Trying to get through the corner wasn't pretty with a little cross country work on the left hand wheels. Next was the Fish Hook on the brakes very early and a little more bite appeared, good, then at the end of the back straight, early braking again and they started to feel a bit better, down the straight, brake for Turn 2 the second time and ....stop you bastard!!!....another little moment. After that I probably had about 70 - 80% braking capacity compared to the standard pad for the rest of the run.

Next time out it was better and then by the end of the day it was pulling up far better than the standard pads.

One thing to watch though for the street is that you need to warm them up before they will work well. In other words don't blast up the freeway and expect them to pull you up from 110 on the first application 'cause they won't.

[Steampunk]

Yikes! and these are supposed to be ok for the road. Doesn't sound like it at all.
CB have you, or anyone you know, have experience with Hawk HPS?

They are one step down from HP+ and alot more street/normal driving oriented.

[Charlie Brown]

Yikes! and these are supposed to be ok for the road. Doesn't sound like it at all.
CB have you, or anyone you know, have experience with Hawk HPS?

They are one step down from HP+ and alot more street/normal driving oriented.

Oooooops, made a mistake. Mine are the HPS not the HP+.

They tend to dust up more than stock and have an 'oily' dust rather than a dry dust. Not sure of the life expectancy as they have only been on for 8K and two track days. Standard pads lasted about 17K and 5 track days.

[Steampunk]

Good grief. You dunder-head Charlie Brown!

I just bought myself a full set of HPS cause the US guys love them.

[Hellmun]

One thing to watch though for the street is that you need to warm them up before they will work well. In other words don't blast up the freeway and expect them to pull you up from 110 on the first application 'cause they won't.

See that's the odd thing, unless they were binding and staying hot for an incredibly long time they were there instantly cold. I just finished up putting in a Sparco Ultra tonight but tomorrow I'll give the car a clean and then a run to measure brake temps without driving hard on them. I wasn't expecting such a dramatic increase in fade. The box says HP+ but they feel more like an an ultra high friction street pad so far. I could do 3 pass runs on the ferodos and they were just starting to go. These as I said before..< %25 of one downhill section and they were gassing.

I wouldn't worry too much CB...my last EC time was 2:09 on a wet track-day. Car was completely standard on worn out street rubber too. This will be a learning experience.... second time ever on the track, first time with a 16mm rear swaybar, polyeurethane bushes, brown davis, Sparco Ultra and 6 point harness. Plus the Hawks on top.... It's also a 5pm-9pm Twilight trackday. Shall be interesting. Then next time we're on the new wakefield which is apparently atleast 1 second faster.

Macquarie pass the other night has made me seriously consider going Hawk Blues on the front, DBA4000's all round and the HP+ on the rear. If something isnt' dodgy these pads have some massive initial bite. Since I put the Monoflex it hasn't dived as much under brakes as it does now.

[Hellmun]

Got brake fade 3 times on EC. Did manage however to do 1:56.5380 on them though. I think the HP+ will be fine if I get the DS4000's but I am considering brake ducting now. I did another pass run tonight on worse tyres...and I only had brake smell by the bottom without fade.... So better than expected but still not on the temperature range level of the DS2500's. Value wise though....those DS2500's are just too expensive. I think I'll try hawk blue's next.

[Charlie Brown]

Got brake fade 3 times on EC. Did manage however to do 1:56.5380 on them though.....

Wow Pretty slick time going on past Supersprint times for MX-5s. Congrats Hellmun.
Now when's Blitz going to have that turbo ready for the NC?

[Hellmun]

Was only second time there and first time on a dry track...I think there's 2-3 seconds in it still. With slightly less rear camber, less brake fade and more track time...I would not be surprised if I can't get as low as 1:53-1:54 in my car as is. I think I saw a 2B integra Type R do a 1:52 though on the natsoft site for supersprints when I went through them. That's... going to be difficult but it's the goal . When I can afford it though I will get Maruha F-cams and see if I can reach 100kw atw. Those things are seriously fast in a straight line. I got up the inside of a Type R integra at a wakefield circuit club day before the main straight. Got alongside him even with a bit more exit speed....that thing then had 3 car lengths on me before the braking point after the kink