Rx7Rob

How much top / bottom pad taper before the calipers need to be swapped out?

Thanks

Rob

UstaB-GS549

If you are going to be doing track time long term, I would go with a brake kit. My only regret is that I did not do it sooner. I have the old basic Hardbar T1 kit with AP calipers and stock rotors.

With the stock C5 Z06 calipers, I never experienced the permanent caliper deformation, but pad taper was always a problem. I flipped pads to minimize the long pedal, but I never felt as good as fresh pads did. I can see why T1 racers used to sell off all their "slightly used" race pads for cheap.

Stock calipers are just over $100 apiece, so that is is the least cost option, but at the price of C5 pads, it didn't take long to recover the cost of my kit. Not only are the Wilwood 7420 profile pads at least $100 cheaper per axle set, but they are significantly thicker than stock and last a lot longer.

I guess that i got off topic... I would try to measure the caliper with a caliper and anything more than a few thousandths would indicate caliper yield. A long time ago, I was told that if you run a brake fluid with 500F dry boiling point you may not have a problem with caliper spread as the fluid will boil before you get the caliper hot enough to reduce it's mechanical properties.

Hope this helps.

SouthernSon

All of us realize this after awhile. My SL6's have long since awarded me the break-even-point. I have been to plus side of recouping the Wilwood price and saving on pads for quite awhile now.

63Corvette

Stoptech BBK was my first (and only) mod...........when car was new

Bill Dearborn

The short answer is the day you got the car. Even in brand new shape the stock calipers taper the pads along their length which leads to a long pedal that eventually drops to the floor before hitting a point where the brakes engage. That is far more bothersome than the radial taper caused by the caliper spreading that you are talking about.

Bill

AND0

Its even worse then that
Check out http://www.matweb.com/search/datashe...c7777d9e10be5b

Between 300 degrees and 400 degrees the yield strength for aluminum drops by half.
At 500 degrees the yield strength is 1/8 of what it is at room temp.
So the only smart thing to do is run old wet no name brake fluid to save the OEM calipers.......
Or a brake kit.

Rx7Rob

Thanks for all the replies. I definitely do not have a long pedal so I guess I'm ok for now. I run PFC01's and they don't require monstrous amounts of pedal pressure so maybe thats been helping (plus I only do about 4 track days / year).

Bill Dearborn

I ran the 01s 12 years ago on my C5Z. They would taper a little slower than other pads but if I flipped them at the end of each track day they would last about 6 days. If I didn't flip them they were gone in 3 days with plenty of pad on one end and no pad on the other.

Bill