RE: Help with Brake Fade

[Tim Irwin <timi@Interlinq.com>]

Yup, sounds like you boiled your fluid. Hope you drove around a bit using
your brakes lightly afterward to let them cool off slowly, otherwise you
could have warped rotors as well. 0-100-0 runs are brutal on brakes, and I
would consider 3 runs to be pretty good for a stock setup. I know of people
that have managed to get flames shooting out from brakes after a couple of
100-0 type runs (things get really hot).

The cheap recommendation is to change your brake fluid to Ford Heavy Duty
Brake fluid, Ford Part No.  C6AZ-19542-AA (thanks to a previous post from
Tom Matthews for the part no.). Changing your brake fluid to the same stuff
as stock would improve things slightly as well. BMW recommends annual fluid
changes, and most track people change every event in order to minimize the
amount of water in the fluid. If you look at brake fluid ratings, my
understanding is that the "Dry" rating is for fresh fluid (i.e. hasn't
soaked up any water), and the "Wet" rating is for fluid which may contain
some amount of water (old fluid). Always use fluid from an unopened
container, and it may help to buy it in several small containers so you
don't have an open container sitting around (it will attract water out of
the air).

Tim Irwin
'98 GLX

-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff Newton [mailto:Jeff_Newton@pmc-sierra.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 18, 1999 12:14 PM
To: gti-vr6@cobra.ccsi.com; jettaglx@igtc.com
Subject: Help with Brake Fade



Folks,

Yesterday I noticed something peculiar.  On a straight, vacant 
service road (read Safe) I did three 0-100-0 runs, one right after the
other.  When braking on the last run, I noticed the car just didn't
want to stop as well as it had before.  The pedal felt very spongy.
I am I correct in assuming that this is brake fade?  I did not enjoy
this feeling and I'd like to know what steps I can take to prevent
this from happening, other than buying slotted rotors, race pads and
stainless lines.

Would bleeding the lines and a brake fluid change help?

At some point I'll upgrade with rotors, pads, and stainless lines but
I'd like to know what I can do in the meantime with stock 97 brakes.

Cheers,
 
----
Jeff Newton