poop Hot Brakes (or not)

[jeffw]

It is funny but I wouldn't go near EBC pads with a bargepole. A good brake fluid and recent (non-bulging) brake lines helps, I use Dot 4 race fluids (Motul RBF 600) because of the high dry boiling point

https://www.opieoils.co.uk/c-1502-motor ... fluid.aspx

For road/track day I would suggest Mintex 1155 or Hawk pads with decent Dot 4 fluid.

[Phil N]

I used to have Mintex 1144 on one of the other cars and I didn’t find them any different from standard, apart from they were crap when cold and the bloody squealing.
Swaying towards yellow stuff still as they seem a popular choice on SELOC, Jeff is there any reason why you are against EBC? I plan to also change the brake fluid as it’s not going to do any harm so will look at the suggestions.

[jeffw]

I've always had bad experiences with EBC, lots of dust & pad disintegrating but this was a while ago. There are way better pad material out there, Hawk, Pagid, Performance Friction and even Mintex although I prefer the 1155 to the 1144. Ferodo DS2500 is the other pad which I've always found works well. Obviously you need to find a company which makes pads for your application and go from there.

[steve m]

Did the guy who you bought the car say why he took the Yellow pads out?
as it seems strange to buy a set of performance pads, but put the standard ones back in ?

steve

[Nash]

If you go EBC make sure you get genuine, there was a load of Chinese copies kicking about a few years ago and there were rubbish.

As Jeff said, there are some very good alternatives and my limited experience of a few of them when I went to Hi-Spec brakes I tried, EBC, green and Mintex 1144. AND predictably green were better at low/normal driving speeds and the 1144 are epic on track and spirited driving but for me, lack feel when cold. Oh and yes they squeal but not when you get heat in them

Fluid wise dot 4 if you are pushing on but most modern standard systems run 5.1

If you were constantly tracking and or ragging the brakes then dot 5 is the kiddy BUT it is fully synthetic and you can't mix it with anything else 4 or 5.1 as it corrodes the pipes (copper and rubber). But it does perform very well and I couldn't get it to boil when endurance racing.

As I said my experience is limited and always think about trying other pads. Jeff's list are all the pads I have considered but I'm too tight to spend on when the 1144's are still serviceable.

I would have thought there would be a mountain of knowledge on this subject on the Elise forums Phil?

[leegav]

sounds like brake fade... mine used to go off on the clio and go spongey after a good hoon. same with the integra.... just backed off until they cooled down. As for pads im with Neil i liked the 1144's but got on with the yellow stuff pads on the Tiger for a while. Merlin Motorsport do or did a good selection of 1144's.

[Phil N]

Thank you all for taking the time to reply, in the end it was between mintex and yellow stuff pads. I decided on the yellow stuff in the end due to the previous squeal I experienced on the mintex. I got them fitted today so will run them in over the next week or so whilst going about my daily duties and will hopefully have a positive result at Bedford in a few weeks time.

[Nash]

Thank you all for taking the time to reply, in the end it was between mintex and yellow stuff pads. I decided on the yellow stuff in the end due to the previous squeal I experienced on the mintex. I got them fitted today so will run them in over the next week or so whilst going about my daily duties and will hopefully have a positive result at Bedford in a few weeks time.

I'll be interested to see how you get on with them Phil? Both in road duty and on track.

Not only fade or not but feel under braking whether they snatch or are progressive?

I expect a full comprehensive review

[Phil N]

As I am going to Bedford in a week or so I thought I’d better put some miles on them to bed them in so used it to do my quotes the other day, lovely weather and 165 mile round trip. Overall I found the brakes were much sharper, good feeling on the foot and very responsive. No squealing either. Obviously I was mainly driving A roads in Bucks/berks so not really a direct comparison to alpine twisties therefore can’t confirm if it’s cured the main problem... YET. Very impressed so far.