Caldina Brake Fade...

[XERO]

1997 Caldina GT

For the first time ever in this car, I got brake fade, comming down a nice 40 ish degree hill on the way out to bethels beach on the west coast... It was enough to make the car have no brakes at all and had to gun it onto the main road the hill leads onto...

Anywhoes, after finally stopping the car and getting out of the car to the lovely smell of brakes... And looking at the discs to see that they were a nice shade of blue...

Is there any decent pads that dont cost the earth that will help my cause??

[Ako]

Are the brakes on your car the same as ST205 ones? I'd highly reccomend the EBC green or redstuff pads, depending on how you drive. Green are absolutely brilliant for road work, and are exceptional from cold - the red need a couple of stops to get the best out of them, but absolutely transform the braking of the car once they've been warmed up.

Give me a yell for pricing if you're keen...

[barryogen]

Are the brakes on your car the same as ST205 ones? I'd highly reccomend the EBC green or redstuff pads, depending on how you drive. Green are absolutely brilliant for road work, and are exceptional from cold - the red need a couple of stops to get the best out of them, but absolutely transform the braking of the car once they've been warmed up.

Give me a yell for pricing if you're keen...

yell, keen.
ZZ123 RunX, should be pretty much the 01 corolla brakes

[fivebob]

Are the brakes on your car the same as ST205 ones?

Fronts are the same shape as SW20 pads. Rears are different and not a shape I've seen before. They are also small and, along with the thin disk which doesn't dissipate the heat well, are IMO a large part of the problem

[wde_bdy]

http://www.racebrakes.co.nz/

Mintex pads are the answer.

Callum

[XERO]

Are the brakes on your car the same as ST205 ones?

Fronts are the same shape as SW20 pads. Rears are different and not a shape I've seen before. They are also small and, along with the thin disk which doesn't dissipate the heat well, are IMO a large part of the problem

So do you know of any pads that will fit the rear calipers??

[KinLoud]

Do you know what pads you have at the moment?
Do you have the same pads on the front and the rear?
Is a caliper slider stuck? This could give a very high temp on one brake.
Where you driving like there is no tomorrow?
Have you changed your brake fluid recently?

Most/all Toyota brake pads have a high metal content so will resist heat fade better than a lot of aftermarket replacements (el cheapo brands, some repco/supercheap ones etc.).
Option 1 - buy genuine toyota brake pads.
Option 2 - buy performance pads. These will cost more, will work well hot but won't always work well cold.

I feel you should start with option 1. They won't cost the earth, they will work well. If you take your car to the track then buy a good set of pads and use them only on the track (its pretty easy and quick to change pads at the track)

I'm not sure if the rear brakes would always have a big influence on the front disk temperatures (apart from different pads as metioned above). If you are braking heavily you get a lot of weight transfer onto the front tyres, the front tyres end up with more grip and so can to much more work stopping the car than the rears.

Ken
Ham
021 408 863

[XERO]

Not trashing the car at all... the hill is about a k and a half and v steap so takes the caldina (1470kg's worth) a bit to stop... as i know these are the pads it came with from japan but with all the goodies that was on the car when purchased i could only imangine that they were good pads...

They have a hell of a lot of dust tho??

[KinLoud]

When your got brake fade...
1- Did the pedal stay hard but almost no braking happened even when you pushed very hard..
Or
2- Did the pedal go easily almost to the floor.

1= pads overheating and so becoming less effective. - Try different pads and/or pad compound.
2= boiled brake fluid. - Replace the with quality fluid from a new unopened container.

Ken
Ham
021 408 863

[XERO]

Im going to got with 2 there!!

Wow thanks man!!!

[Santa'sBoostinSleigh]

ooh i had some mean fade goin on with me

saturday night took a couple of the boys for a 'sedate country drive'
(i seem to recall hearing a lot of 'oh fcuk andrew, slow down!')
then on the way home didnt really use much brakes, then this morning on the way to work, i put my foot on the brakes (cold car/pads/rotors) and it felt like someone had CRC'd the rotors!
oh well. i dont brake too much during normal driving so they should deglaze eventually!

[XERO]

When the breaks are working good, they work very good!!!

Has anyone ever done a proper 100-0 test to see how far it takes to stop??

[Santa'sBoostinSleigh]

When the breaks are working good, they work very good!!!

mine are generally shitty, i need decent pads

[Leon]

Mintex 1166, new rotors, new fluid.

Enjoy.

ps: get used to cleaning the wheels daily though, unless you have black wheels.

[Santa'sBoostinSleigh]

my shadowchromes are bad enough without adding extra brakedust
but however after saturday nights little excursion, well lets say they look kind of coppery coloured..

[Inane]

When the breaks are working good, they work very good!!!

Has anyone ever done a proper 100-0 test to see how far it takes to stop??

not a proper test, but i was doing about 80 on gravel, jumped on the pedal
and it felt _almost_ like a brick wall...

Ive been using lucas pads and Im really happy with them..

never had a problem with brake fade... in fact the only issue is occasionally the brakes are too touchy and kick in the abs too soon..

[Santa'sBoostinSleigh]

yeah ive found the ABS to be a bit ghey,
like go over a decent bump (ie "holy sh*t i didnt see these judder bars" or while i pull into a certain carpark space (while in a hurry) where the road dips down then up again by a driveway) while braking fairly hard and the ABS goes thud thud thud

[XERO]

Yeah i have found that too...

[Santa'sBoostinSleigh]

good to see its just not me then!

[barryogen]

good to see its just not me then!

I always used to hit the ABS in the Subby Wagon, but haven't had that "plesure" in the RunX yet... maybe I expected too much from the brakes in the wagon, and it just wanted to lock? who knows, but gotta love some racebrake goodness.