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The mkiv Supra Owners Club

Toasted Brake Pads


Gareth Davies

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Ok Bentwaters proved to me that slowing down is easily as important as speeding up, now after getting back yesterday it looks like my brake pads have swolen up and they white and pourous looking. Now is this something that could have happened or were they just funky white chalky pads? And the brakes sweak badly now.

 

I definatly need to look at the brake fluid but I definatly didn't suffer as much as some of the other guys did (i.e. my brakes still worked!)

 

I've seen some talk of grooved / drilled discs on the mail list, and that looks like a good idea, as i'm pretty sure i've damaged my current discs. Can you get them skimmed or something?

 

Since I doubt i'll be doing another track day for a while it's not that worrying, since i've never used the brakes nearly that hard on the road (well bar some Ian C / Rabbit dodging moments).

 

Well any comments info would be great.

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Hi...

 

I believe the general consensus is to avoid grooved and especially drilled disks. They tend to be more susceptible to cracking and warping than the plain variety.

 

I have had warped discs on two of my cars, my main dealer sorted them out on both occasion. I guess your local garage probably offers the same service.

 

 

regards...........

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If you are going to make a habit of doing track days, then the only way around it, to my mind, is to buy a set of beefy brakes.

 

Though I believe some members have had good results from different combinations of pads and fluid while retaining the stock J-spec calipers and discs. But there are ups and downs to that approach that do not appeal to me, personally.

 

The guy you really need to speak to is Chris Wilson.

 

It may well be the case that you can retain your stock setup for road use, and when doing the odd track-day you can refit uprated components and change back again.

 

As for grooved/drilled discs... there are grooves and there are grooves, and drilled is another story. Chris'll put you in the picture.  

 

Yours,

J

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Compared with track use you hardly use the brakes on the road. The occasional bit of heavy braking is usually followed by miles of cooling with out touching the brakes. On the track you are on and off the brakes all the time, everything gets blood hot and does not get a chance to cool down before you are hammering it again. It takes  something special to survive that.

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From an earlier email, Chris Wilson's text on braking for the track :

 

"I did LOTS of track days in my J-Spec MKIV TT on stock size and material

discs and stock J-Spec calipers and if I say so myself i don't hold back

on track :-) Never had one warp or crack... Secret is remove the backing plates front and rear, suitable pad compound and SRF fluid with Aeroquip type braided hoses. Correct cool down procedure and you will be fine.

 

 

I think the Bentwaters track setup yesterday tested all brakes to the max., as there was about 3 HARD braking zones per lap required.  

Unless you're only going to do 4 or 5 laps of a circuit with that much heavy braking, i think you will need to use CW race pads / Porterfield race pads and a v.high boiling point fluid.   like Castrol SRF or some similar DOT 5.1 spec fluid that is *fresh*.      Supra is a heavy car and it's a brake-killer (as i have found out.....)

 

 

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:biggrin:

 

My brakes are peachy.

 

Smug.

 

Of course, the hole in the exhaust is now very wide, and sounds rough as a badger's arse.  And power is noticeably down and the engine a lot less smooth and willing because of it.  Boo, hiss.  Getting it replaced with a custom fabbed bit o stainless mid-November, though.

 

Not using the brakes very much in everyday driving was my downfall on the track at first - I was using about 50% braking power, and considered that 'heavy'!  Pardon me while I go understeering wide...  Once I got the right mindset, though, it was a riot!  Full braking from 125 to 30ish - woohoo!

 

(Note to all Supra drivers out there - run the f$@#ing rabbit over, don't stop for it)

 

-Ian

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It posts twice when I submit a post and then do a refresh on the 'succesful post' screen. It obviously just resubmits the info that was already submited, so if you dont do a refresh and just wait for it to come back to the message (takes about 5 seconds to go there automatically) then it should be okay.

 

Glad to see it all got sorted out...

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I was waiting for a nice new version of Adobe Premier 6 to wing its way over to allow me to fiddle about with the video files...I will load it all on the PC tomorrow and then see what sort of size I can get the files down to...obviously I dont care what size cos Im running ADSL...but the peasants out there with 56k connections would probably prefer a nice small file...wouldnt you all.

 

JB

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Quote: from branners on 6:17 pm on Oct. 31, 2001[br]

 

but the peasants out there with 56k connections would probably prefer a nice small file...wouldnt you all.

 

JB

 

Smug Git !! :wink:

 

If you would be interested in a *very* reasonable (>150quid) hardware firewall solution.........mail me

 

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Quote: from branners on 6:17 pm on Oct. 31, 2001[br]I was waiting for a nice new version of Adobe Premier 6 to wing its way over to allow me to fiddle about with the video files...I will load it all on the PC tomorrow and then see what sort of size I can get the files down to...obviously I dont care what size cos Im running ADSL...but the peasants out there with 56k connections would probably prefer a nice small file...wouldnt you all.

 

JB

 

No :)

 

Either dual channel ISDN at home, or some funky T1 stylee connection at work.  Big pictures, high quality for me, please, especially as some of it is my dismal driving!!

 

-Ian

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