Brake Performance after track day

[poddy]

Hi,

Had a great day last Saturday at Oulton Park, had 1/2 day track-day in my standard Mini Cooper.

I'd recommend this to anyone so you can fully explore the handling, I struggled to make the Mini slide even at high speeds in a sharp hair-pin-felt like my organs were being moved around!

Anyway, you can guess the brakes took some stick, although at least every five laps (out of a total of about 30) I brought the car in for 10 mins to cool down etc.

Since then we think the brakes are performing slightly less well, not dangerous but just not as good.

Trying to determine if this is the fluid/pads/discs, pads and dics look fine, could this be the fluid having boiled?

The pedal just feels slightly lower and braking not quite as immdiate but I wouldn't say the pedal was spongy.

Hope you can help.

Eifion

[robbo mcs]

Quote: Originally Posted by poddy (original)

Hi,

Had a great day last Saturday at Oulton Park, had 1/2 day track-day in my standard Mini Cooper.

I'd recommend this to anyone so you can fully explore the handling, I struggled to make the Mini slide even at high speeds in a sharp hair-pin-felt like my organs were being moved around!

Anyway, you can guess the brakes took some stick, although at least every five laps (out of a total of about 30) I brought the car in for 10 mins to cool down etc.

Since then we think the brakes are performing slightly less well, not dangerous but just not as good.

Trying to determine if this is the fluid/pads/discs, pads and dics look fine, could this be the fluid having boiled?

The pedal just feels slightly lower and braking not quite as immdiate but I wouldn't say the pedal was spongy.

Hope you can help.

Eifion

Hi,

The most likely thing is that the brakes need bleeding, which is a minor procedure.

Cheers

Robbo

[GTT 280]

...what an excellent circuit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By the way, much better to do 10 minutes worth of slow laps than to bring your car in statically for 10 mins. Remember, air flow is key!! and the coolant system shuts off as soon as the engine stops running.

Cheers,
K.

[HObzy]

Careful - it gets addictive

Robbos more than likely hit the nail on the head.

[JAMIE1131]

yeah sounds like it needs to be bled, if the fluid has boiled it will be slightly darker than normal. bleeding the brakes is easy work.

[HObzy]

You may not need to completely bleed them too - just til clear fluid comes through.

[poddy]

Thanks everyone, will get one of those easy-bleed kits and give it a bash.

Cheers.

Eifion

[PmP]

If you take the pads out you may find they have cracked. Mine had a crack right across the face of the front pads.

[Richard Crofts]

Fluid probably got too hot if it was stock stuff. The pads may be well worn causing a need for more travel on the pedal if they were stock.

I'd suggest going to a better pad and higher spec fluid for the next time....you'll get more out of the experience. Or even better if you have cash to burn opt for JCWs or a BBK!

Obly problem with BBKs is you need to take some glue with you so you can stick your face back on when it gets sucked onto the screen under hairpin braking

[MINI-Morgan]

Although it is extremely common for the brakes to feel pretty bad after a track day for a good 50 miles or so but if you are planning on doing future track days id recommend upgrading your brakes or atleast replacing your brack fluid more often maybe with higher temp fluid.