GettReal

Today was at Mosport and I pulled into the pits after about 25 minutes of hard tracktime, I pulled in early, just prior to the last lap being called and didnt really get a good cool down lap, as I pulled into pit lane, I pulled over to talk to someone and as I was talking I noticed a bit of smoke coming up from the front of my car, I was semi bragging that I smoked my brakes cause that how fast I am , just then another guy walked by and said "Ummm Dude, your brakes are on fire" I was like "SHI@" I pulled it forward a couple feet and it went out... I had my hand on my fire extinguisher but didnt need it...

Ever happen to you? what causes that? heat + Brake dust?

I have the AP T1 brakes and I was a bit lazy and kept my Ferodo CP2500 street pads on... after that I switched back to my DS1.1 track pads.

John Shiels

could be track rubber / goobers.

Olitho

I agree. Every so often one lands just right and it smokes like crazy for awhile.

flink

Could be the rubber boots?

I was noodling around infineon a while back and suddenly had a decent-sized cloud of smoke in the car. Then it went away again. I never found out what it was and assume that a booger landed in a caliper and had itself a flash fire.

Bill Dearborn

Could have been some out gassing from the pads especially if you were pushing them to their temperature limits. Was in a student's car following his son in another car. As the son started braking for the next turn flames started shooting out of the right front wheel. Afterwards we pulled the wheel and took a look at the pads. They were toasted and starting to dis-integrate from being over heated.

Bill

AU N EGL

lesson learned, drive around too cool off the car a bit

UstaB-GS549

Organic pads?

Jason

DTC70's used to always smoke after a hard session.

mfquinn

Backing material burning off can do that. Also, the dust boots can cause that. If your pads are getting thin and the pistons are sticking out some, the boots could get stuck/burnt into the pistons. Fun stuff to sand off

gintama

Yes, this has happened to me. This is different from smoking which other posters above have already covered. Cool down driving is a must for smoking. But what I found out about the fire was that if I bleed my brakes and use normal torque to tighten the valve, a small amount of brake fluid seeps out during HARD braking, which catches fire. Also, there is residual fluid that sits in the bleeder. I hate to do it, but tightening the bleeder valve more than normal seemed to stop the problem, but I have questions about valve seating and breaking the actual bleeder off in the caliper. This may be a good reason to either use less brake or go to a BBK.

naschmitz

I had that happen during a red flag situation where I pulled off line and the brakes smoked so bad I almost got out of the car. But since it was only one side I thought it must just be track rubber falling onto the rotor.

The AP T1 brakes don't have boots, so it isn't the boots.

I have had the AP T1 bleeder screws weep brake fluid once they get hot and you brake hard. 12 ft-lbs is the spec for the AP T1 bleeders, which is a pretty good twist.

naschmitz

Changing pads is so easy with the AP brakes I'd call that more than "a bit lazy"

OKsweetrides

You likely had track turds get flung to your brakes. If you have a fire like a semi truck brakes... you might have a bit of a problem.

John Shiels

12 lb. ft. on a bleeder

GettReal

LOL thanks for calling that out, but you are correct, its crazy how fast you can do a pad swap but when I got to the track I had to unload from trailer, started to put on the slicks and they called my session... Thats when I made the decision not to spend the entire 8 minutes to switch out the pads

Cap'n Pete

I've seen a couple cars with "flaming brakes". I think in one case at least, it was likely risidual brake fluid on/around the bleeder, and the rubber cap for the bleeder is what was on fire.

mashinter

I've seen rubber dust boots burn.

grantar2

I had it happen once when Tom Berry drove my car instructing me at an autocross at the old El Toro Marine Corp Air Station. He left foot breaks well using the gas. Was a screaming fast run, all well instructing me. When we hit the time stand, they told me my brakes were on fire. I could see smoke from the passenger seat. Tom rolled the car a little and it went out, no damage. Run would have been a championship speed, but that what happens when you let a several time national, and fourteen plus time regional champion drive your car.

GettReal

OK, first of all this happened on the session where you, me and Mark were all within 10 feet of eachother for 5 laps pushing a pretty good pace... you know, the one where you started smoking too .... the two of us were circling the paddock trying to cool down hahaha.

Anyway, I took off the slicks last night and on the inside of the barrel there are burn marks from what looks like a rubber tire turd sat on fire. Couldnt see anything else concerning so thats what I'm going with.

Cap'n Pete

Understand, burning turd was the cause . However, I think it must have been from riding the brakes so much ..... you know, if you were on the brakes less, and the throttle more, I wouldn't have had to ride my brakes so much either!