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Carbotech pad swap question

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Dean#4AI said:
I'm sure I won't be as hard on them as you are but things can change once you get out on the track. ;D
I'll be pitting with Bruce (owner of FTBR) and his 302S so I'm sure I'll have several hard runs trying to keep up with him. He holds the American Iron record with that car at a 2:32:087 so I doubt I will stay with him long. :eek:
Grrr....yea I got into the lower 2:35s and I think with different tires could get 34s or maybe a fluke 33 in the right conditions. Outside of that we need another 50hp and a couple hundred less pounds......something to work on this winter ;D

Better order another set of front pads to take with you ;)
 
Dean#4AI said:
So far the only pads that I have used are the Hawks so I have not sanded my track rotors. Since I am switching to Cobalt pads for the next event, I asked them if I needed to prep my current track rotors and he said not to worry about it. He said take 4 or 5 laps at 50% braking and then let them cool off. I'll give it a try and see what happens.

That is along the same lines as driving on the street. From what I understand if the brakes do not get up to high temp then it will take off the "transfer layer". So for people that bed the brakes and drive to the track the next day when you get there you have no transfer layer. This is one reason I do not see the transfer as being super important. However I think (MO only) that seating the pads and rotors together is more important and that is why I will do a quick sanding and then re-bed with new pads.

As always thanks to everyone posting up on the pads, it helps a lot ;D
 

drano38

Wayne
1,130
318
Since this is a Carbotech thread :D

Big Brown dropped off a Carbotech box today with XP12, and 1521 for the street.
My XP12s most likely won't make it thru 3 days on the long course (nor my NT-05 tires),.
I'll remove the stock pads and rotors for the last time next week. When I get back from BIR's end of month event, I'll leave the DBA4000 on and swap to the 1521 pads.
I'm getting lazy or burned out on rotor swaps.
. . . ok, I'm lazy.
 
drano38 said:
I'm getting lazy or burned out on rotor swaps.
. . . ok, I'm lazy.
Easy to do and I've only done it a few times. Too bad the rears are not as easy to swap out the pads as the fronts.
 

drano38

Wayne
1,130
318
Change rears?
I'm still using the same XP8s I've been running since my first-ever track day May of '11 ;).
Probably have 16 track days on them (a couple generally easy days), and they may make it thru this season.
Agree they're more work to change, but I've got the special tool to reset the piston, so not too bad.
And the XP8 on the rear work great for street use, so they stay on all the time.
 
I'm curious about the tool, I always use a big C clamp on them but they have to be off the car to do it.


What do you guys think about the XP10s as a hi-po street/casual track pad? My friend ran them on his Mustang in some endurance race and liked them, but he has not used them on the street. I'm mostly concerned about rotor life and whether they will hold up, a little squealing isn't a big deal. The stockers squeal quite a bit driving around, though they are quiet once they are applied. Also I do all my driving up in the hills, stock pads are in need of changing after 3k miles and a really light track day (I was brake super early and letting cars by because they had no grip) so I don't think they are really up to even my street driving style.
 

drano38

Wayne
1,130
318
Here ya go.
http://www.harborfreight.com/18-piece-disc-brake-pad-and-caliper-service-tool-kit-69053.html
I ordered mine from Advance Auto for a couple bucks more and had it in 2 days.
You can leave one caliper bolt in, and tilt it back to use the tool.

I tried XP10 on the street last fall--squeeled real bad! But someone (steveespo?) said he uses either XP10 or 12 on the street and are quite. So try it, and if it works for you, enjoy the single-brake pad solution.
I'm looking forward to running the 1521 street/XP12 track combo to prevent rotor swaps. There are no hills in eastern SD, so our brakes last forever.
 
How hard are they on the rotors? I love Hawk Blues but they eat rotors too fast for a street car.


I know it was posted somewhere on here already, but could you create a new thread with how to do the rears without removing them? Then maybe a mod can sticky it...

It could be merged with 5DOT0's how-to on the cooling kit for a one-stop brake upgrade thread.
 
CaliMR said:
I'm curious about the tool, I always use a big C clamp on them but they have to be off the car to do it.

The rear calipers have to be twisted back in, if you push them straight in with a C-clamp or anything like that you will damage them and the will not work properly.

For general info:
One of the most common mistake people make with the rear brakes is not lining the grooves in the caliper up with the pins in the brake pad, so everyone should be careful about that when replacing them. Once you understand them they are not hard to replace, it is just something I don't enjoy doing at the track when they are hot and I do not have time to spend getting them correctly lined up. Like Wayne said, leaving one bolt in place makes the swap much easier.
 
Thanks for the link, that is really helpful. I have never seen a caliper with the slots in the piston for twisting it, the ones on my E30 for instance are flat. Is there anything similarly unusual about the front ones? I did the Brembos on my Evo several times so I would assume it is similarly easy. Brembo rears were nice on that car, swaps were so fast and easy.
 
CaliMR said:
Thanks for the link, that is really helpful. I have never seen a caliper with the slots in the piston for twisting it, the ones on my E30 for instance are flat. Is there anything similarly unusual about the front ones? I did the Brembos on my Evo several times so I would assume it is similarly easy. Brembo rears were nice on that car, swaps were so fast and easy.
The fronts are very straightforward, nothing peculiar:

https://trackmustangsonline.com/boss-how-to/quick-front-brake-pad-swap/
 
Standard Brembo procedure, cool. FWIW don't do that with a screw driver on motorcycles or you can bend the rotor. My friend did it once. I have seen a special tool for spreading them but they are pretty expensive for what they are.
 
You basically wedge it in like the screw driver? I might order it just for the name. I have seen a tool that looks like a duck's face and you squeeze the handle to spread the lips. But they are always like $50 at the store
 
CaliMR said:
You basically wedge it in like the screw driver? I might order it just for the name. I have seen a tool that looks like a duck's face and you squeeze the handle to spread the lips. But they are always like $50 at the store
Basically. The small rod is where the tool pivots against the rotor and the flat part is large enough to push in both pistons at the same time. It works very well.
 

steveespo

Lord knows I'm a Voodoo Child
Moderator
4,008
1,924
Exp. Type
W2W Racing
Exp. Level
10-20 Years
Cookeville TN
I am running XP 12/ XP 8 combo and they are really not noisy at all compared to the Hawk HPS Plus I was running. Sometimes a little squeak on the street, on track who cares. Performance at Pocono was outstanding, big braking from 120-35 entering the infield had -1.15g performance and no abs intervention. So far very satisfied, we'll see how much they help my lap times at Lime Rock 7/31.
Steve
 
steveespo said:
I am running XP 12/ XP 8 combo and they are really not noisy at all compared to the Hawk HPS Plus I was running. Sometimes a little squeak on the street, on track who cares. Performance at Pocono was outstanding, big braking from 120-35 entering the infield had -1.15g performance and no abs intervention. So far very satisfied, we'll see how much they help my lap times at Lime Rock 7/31.
Steve

How hard are they on rotors?
 

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