Z Cars Prone to Pad Deposit?
 

"Warped brakes" are usually uneven pad deposits on the disc surface. Steel discs don't really warp, they'll crack if anything. Pad deposits can be visible, but sometimes not... They can be clear and you can't see it. I've had a lot of brake issues with my cars driving really hard with huge temperature swings with all sorts of pads. The Z has had a nasty vibration under braking so my fix... Use Carbotech race pads to clean the surface, they chew light pad deposits up just fine, and then bed my street pads back in. Beats paying to have your discs resurfaced or buying new ones. Look at that beautiful disc! Good as new.

Have you guys had pad deposit issues with you Z? My buddy with a 350Z mentioned his car was always prone to it as well.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...0/19/zrced.jpg

you mean brake dust? that's normal.

yes

Oh yeah...

It's definitely due to our stock pads having a low operating temperature. I had the same issue until I switched to my Project Mu pads which have a higher temp range. Meanwhile, my parent's G37 on stock sports package pads still develops the vibration issue. It's there every time I go visit them, and I usually do the 90-5 mph braking procedure a few times to clear it for them.
Getting rid of brake deposits didn't come without a price for me though. Now I get so much more brake dust. And that's starting to deposit on my wheels.

Nope, I mean pad deposits. It's when pad material transfers onto the disc surface and hardens unevenly causing the shuttering under braking. Typically it happens if you get a pad beyond its temperature range. If you get your brakes really hot and then come to a complete stop, say at a stop light, and you hold your brakes... You can leave a foot print on the disc.

I think you're right... I was going to pick up new street pads when my stocks are toast anyway. Doing the braking procedure helped you? For me it made it worse if anything. Because the pads were then just transferring more material onto the hardened deposit on the disc. You parents probably only had extremely light pad deposits. I imagine they don't drive like we do.

i c.

yah, i dont have this problem on my akebono with stock pads. i brake on the firmer side vs normal cars, and dont sit on the brakes at a light.

Mine vibrates like a kid after drinking way to many energy drinks. Although I am very hard on the brakes and have gotten them pretty hot in the past.

Thanks for the info!

Kenchan, you have to drive a little harder than a granny for this to happen :P jokes!

I am really just kidding, your the best I dont care what your mom says about you :D

hummmm...

I have seen warped rotors before. If there is wobbling/vibrating going on I will get my rotors turned or replaced and new pads. Problem fixed.

This is key...holding the brake pedal down after heating up your pads will inevitabley cause your pads to melt and transfer ALOT of material to the rotor. Same goes for the parking brake, don't put your parking brake up!

Your rotors won't get warped, the correct term is "glazed". Also, this is not just a problem with our cars, this is a problem you could experience on just about any car if you drive it hard enough.

I thought the parking brake was separate from the rear brake caliper. :confused:

there is a drum inside...

I had endless pad-deposit problems on my stock calipers with a few different pads (Hawk HPS, Carbotech Bobcat, Carbotech XP10's). However, I suspect that had more to do with me than the car (learning all the tricks to avoid the problem), although maybe a problem with a sticking piston was contributing as well. When I switched to CL pads my problems mostly went away (they're pretty good at cleaning other stuff, and they aren't really prone to deposit problems themselves), and then went away completely when I switched my whole caliper setup to Stillen's BBK.

Hawk's Blue pads are known to be good for scraping off pad deposits, btw. A lot of people buy a set just to use them for rotor scrubbing after other pads.

I go through rotors like its my job, already getting a slight shake out of my Z1 2 piece rotors, Went through the stock set and and set of R1 concepts rotors already in 17k miles...we just got a new lathe at work, a pro-cut on car warthog, it will machine the rotor to the hub, that is in the near future for all 4 of my not so old rotors. I think it goes hand in hand with the brake cooling issues on this car, they get hot really fast and that is a contributing factor for sure.

Just replaced my rotors at 28k miles after a lot of autocross and track driving

I used compressed air to clear out the brake dust every 2 weeks,no problem so far.

As long as we're going over best practices: another thing to do is invest in a cheap dial gauge (e.g. Amazon.com: Woodstock D3207 Magnetic Base with Dial Indicator in Case: Home Improvement ). When you first mount the rotor, put a couple lugnuts on medium-tight and spin the rotor on the hub against the dial gauge and check the total runout (min<->max reading difference). Then basically re-mount it in the other 4 positions (one lug-hole off each other) and measure again, and choose the mounting position with the least runout. What you're doing, basically, is making sure the small mfg variances in both the hub and the rotor are cancelling out rather than adding up (kinda like what they do with wheels and tires at a good tire mounting place).

I think you hit the nail on the head with this one... I'm pretty diligent about getting my brakes up to temperature before making them work hard, but I think I need to be better with giving them time to cool off. I'm pretty confident that alone will make a huge difference alone.

Are you getting spider webbing or cracking the rotors completely? You shouldn't be going through rotors that fast... Not even close. I know Koni Challenge series cars that are using only a few sets of brake discs over the course of a full season of racing, which is way more abuse than we are doing with HPDE, AutoX or time attack use if that's your thing.

My '09 wasn't at all. Even on my GT30's....very little.

I drive the living $#!/ out of my car as well, im not easy on thy brakes at all...after I machine them I will make an above and beyond effort to bed them abd be easy for a,few hundred miles.

Oh and most rotors are gray iron not steel similar but yet not! The r 1 rotors I spider cracked on the front only rears were so out after three passes in the lathe I tossed them.

Sounds like you would benefit big time from some cooling upgrades... May save yourself some $ on brake discs. Proper warming up and cooling down procedures as well may help. Full weight street car is tough on brakes, especially if you run courses with long straights.

Alot of the oem rotors are made from powdered iron.