No More Brake Dust On My Wheels !!!

[kshapiro]

I've discovered the secret! I don't use brakes any more. I downshift (ususally to 1st for regular 90 degree neighborhood corners), yank the wheel over hard and slam her through the corner. My wheels have never been so clean!

[indimini]

What a wonderful approach. I'm sure the kids will love it too, but not so sure about the wife.

Have you noticed the tire pressure indicator blink momentarily whenever you corner really hard? It's happened to me once or twice. Couldn't possibly be I was taking the turn too hard?

[kshapiro]

Quote:

Originally posted by indimini
What a wonderful approach. I'm sure the kids will love it too, but not so sure about the wife.

Have you noticed the tire pressure indicator blink momentarily whenever you corner really hard? It's happened to me once or twice. Couldn't possibly be I was taking the turn too hard?

You sure that wasn't the traction control or DSC? I make mine blink regularly! I can't imagine it was the tire pressure monitor.

[noahe]

I've made BOTH blink. If you get the DSC triangle to light enough, then the tire pressure one lights solid for a bit, until you settle down for a bit again.

[Garfield]

Ahh, neither of my lights blink. I think my Tire Pressure warning has been broke since I got it (thank god) and I always turn my ASC off unless it's raining.

Back to the braking. Because I heel/toe every single slow turn, traffic light, or stop, I get the same effect. Interestingly, 45,000 miles of driving and autocrossing since new never yielded a brake pad change on my Miata.

The nice thing about the MINI's is that they can so easily be put into first gear. In hard/fast driving, I'm heel/toeing the Cooper S into 1st gear at about 35mph. My Miata had to be doing about 10mph for it to easily go into 1st.

Another way to "eliminate" the brake dust is to run a wheel with less surface area for the dust to land on...

[HarryHBMCC]

The low pressure warning uses differential rotation times so in hard cornering you could probably get it to think they were rotating at different speeds not because you are cornering, but because they are flat. That's one of the limitations of an ABS-based pressure monitor.

The ASC+T light goes off all the time on my car but I've never noticed the flat tire light. That said, my eyes are usually on the road and the tach (where the traction warning light lives) for corners, not the speedometer where the flat indicator is, at least for Canadian Coopers.

The ASC+T light is supposed to be a "you're going too fast, slow down" indicator but I usually take that to mean I'm going just fast enough. If I take 'em fast enough that it actually has to kill the engine and/or the tires actually slide, then I know I'm going too fast... In spirited driving on dry pavement I find it is smoother (no brakes applied or engine retarding) to turn it off but if there is ANY water on the road at all then I leave it on as it is very easy to go around a blind corner and find a big puddle. So far I'm quite impressed with how well the ASC can haul in a wet corner. I should probably back off my driving some but it is so much fun and the car feels so glued to the roads that it is hard to take the "ASC+T can't break the laws of physics" advice!

Back to the posted topic, engine braking does work but with those nice big brakes, I like to heel and toe to use both engine and wheel brakes. After 4500km the brake dust has finally started to slow down on my car. Now I can tell too when I've braked hard; there will be an obvious irregular deposit while normal braking just leaves a light dusting

Harry

[iaa]

Quote:

Originally posted by Garfield
....
Back to the braking. Because I heel/toe every single slow turn, traffic light, or stop, I get the same effect. Interestingly, 45,000 miles of driving and autocrossing since new never yielded a brake pad change on my Miata.

The nice thing about the MINI's is that they can so easily be put into first gear. In hard/fast driving, I'm heel/toeing the Cooper S into 1st gear at about 35mph. My Miata had to be doing about 10mph for it to easily go into 1st.
.....

Up to you, but brake pads are relatively low cost items and cheap to replace, whereas clutch and transmission are very expensive!!

Ian

[Garfield]

Quote:

Originally posted by iaa
Up to you, but brake pads are relatively low cost items and cheap to replace, whereas clutch and transmission are very expensive!!

Ian

Well, again, take a look at the mileage I had on the Miata, and that 6-speed was not Mazda's and was not supposed to be very sturdy. Obviously I wasn't too hard on it. Besides, I'm not making the transmission and clutch do anything any different than upshifting...
If you're matching rev's, I don't see what difference it makes.
Not to mention, they're "supposedly" using quite the tranny/diff fluid in these cars. I insisted on putting in Redline and they said the stuff's just as good. We shall see.

[noahe]

Quote:

Originally posted by HarryIndiBlue
The ASC+T light goes off all the time on my car but I've never noticed the flat tire light. That said, my eyes are usually on the road and the tach (where the traction warning light lives) for corners, not the speedometer where the flat indicator is, at least for Canadian Coopers.

On my car, when the Tire Defect light comes on, the DSC warning light goes on solid too... Probably for this very reason.

Quote:

The ASC+T light is supposed to be a "you're going too fast, slow down" indicator but I usually take that to mean I'm going just fast enough.[/b]

As much as the ASC+T light comes on during acceleration, the DSC light comes on too, plus around corners, while braking, etc...
Of course driving style plays a part. The missus has never lit the light.

[HarryHBMCC]

The ASC+T light comes on for cornering and hard downshifts/engine braking too but I've never seen it just for wheel braking.

I don't think she'll ever see it while cornering but my wife is sometimes worried about rolling backward on hills and in such cases she'll often do an unintentional clutch dump which activates the light nicely

Harry

[indimini]

My bad. It is the DSC light that blinks. Had to go out this morning and make sure .

Funny, I thought I had the MINI's features memorized. Guess I need to refresh myself on all the lights in the tach/speedo consoles.