Brake fade

Hi, had an intresting thing happen this morning (5:30)..............was on the free way when a GTI cut me off and with a bit of hooting etc I found myself at about 180 behind him and then decided to brake and slow down and experienced almost instant brake fade.......and when I managed to slow to about 80 the brakes were smoking. It was not as if I had been applying brakes and had hot discs before this fade.
This fade has happened before when dicing from robot to robot.........under normal driving at 140 or so and and braking hard is fine, no fade, it seems when braking hard right after boost is the common denominator.......maybe vacuum valve faulty? Anyone know?

s13 std brakes suffer from fade badly. maybe your pads have glazed?

Hi Rat, I have heard this before but it seriously cannot be that bad.....accelerate between robots (about 400m) to about 160 and hard on the brake to stop at the red lights and then you get serious fade. I cruise at 160 out of boost and brake hard and stop on a tikkie.

True, definately glased pads, the one bad thing about the S13 is the brakes, spend the money for a proper set of discs and pads, it will save you hart attakes and most propably the crash of your life....

disks and pads like the power brake system very good upgrade, Or even a good set of pads like the EBC green, red and yellow stuff range. Cheaper still replace your front pads cause they do sound like they are glazed, R300 - R400 for ate's from midas.

www.powerbrake.co.za - Hawk pads and disks
www.quartermile.co.za - EBC dealer $$$
www.rezlo.com - can get the EBC Yellow stuff much cheaper and other brake upgrades

make sure to change your brake fluid as well. get a good dot 4 some people say dot 5.1 but i havent used it before

I can recommend dot5.1, good stuff. The Motul dot5.1 is available from any yamaha dealer as its used in the R1 etc.

Thanks for all the tips but I dont think you guys undersyand what I am experiencing............why only when I boost (1bar) up to 160-180 kph and then brake hard I get serious brake fade and on another occasion when slowly picking up speed (off boost) to 160 -180 kph) and then brake hard I can stop on a tikkie. It seems when I acceleate under boost the brakes might be binding slightly and then heating up and then when I brake I get fade. I cant understand this one.

dont know that one, but try this - drive around the block without touching th brakes (use hand brake to stop) and feel the front disks for heat - maybe something's not releasing...

otherwise sounds like an air bubble in there

antman wrote:

Thanks for all the tips but I dont think you guys undersyand what I am experiencing............why only when I boost (1bar) up to 160-180 kph and then brake hard I get serious brake fade and on another occasion when slowly picking up speed (off boost) to 160 -180 kph) and then brake hard I can stop on a tikkie. It seems when I acceleate under boost the brakes might be binding slightly and then heating up and then when I brake I get fade. I cant understand this one.

Have you tested this theory on the same day with the same conditions?

just a guess but perhaps your turbo/manifold heats up the ABS unit, hence the brake fluid gets too hot, cause you say this happens when you accelerate hard. Just a thought

That might be a very good "guess", the question is has there been mods to the turbo manifold and is it shielded and and....

youre just a fn ray of sunshine! 😉

I will try the boost up to 160-180 and slow down without brakes and check if the discs are hot. if they are hot then there is something perhaps causind the brakes to apply which might be the one-way valve allowingng pressure in the booster and that somehow applying some brake force......will check it on the weekend.
thanks.

It is easier to just take the valve off and and blowing through it from the side of the intake, if it lets air through it is screwed....

The other thing that made me think along the lines of what Ero said, if the flued heats up it is going to "expand" as heat is created.....that might then cause the caliper piston to push the pad onto the disc.....

Obviously this is not based on fact....just thinking...

yep, good line of thinking there.

normally i test it on a hard take-off - it is a bit dangerous, but if you stick your head out of the window while the front wheels are still in the air you can see if they are free-spinning. Left hand side takes some time to master though.

widowmaker wrote:

yep, good line of thinking there.

normally i test it on a hard take-off - it is a bit dangerous, but if you stick your head out of the window while the front wheels are still in the air you can see if they are free-spinning. Left hand side takes some time to master though.

OMG LOL