I just went through another set of brake pads at the track. I think I should learn to change pads and rotors myself as It seems I will be doing so often!!!

Anyway, I went and bought two new front rotors and some ceramic pads from NAPA.


1.Has someone wriiten a how to artice on this? A link to it maybe?

2.What special tols do I need?
3. What stores carry speed bleeders and high performance brake fluid ie Motul or amsoil? I dont want to order these.

 

You don't need any special tools. You'll need tools to take off the tires, and a torque wrench. Other than that, it's something like a 15 mm and a 17 mm open end wrench. Some red thread locker, and anti-sieze is about it.

Some people use a C-clamp to compress the brake pistons but I just take the caliper off and press down against the front A-arm. It's the piece that goes from the bearing section toward the back of the car. Perfect size to fit the caliper and then just body weight pushes the pistons back into the caliper.

Edit: I've never seen speed bleeders in NAPA, Kragen, Pep Boys, etc. They might have them, but I've never seen them. I have seen them in speed shops, but those seem to be disappearing with the advent of internet shopping.

 

Here's a link.

http://www.z06vette.com/forums/showt...caliper+change

 

^^Good instructions. It takes longer to jack the car than replacing the pads. I'm just concerned about the Ceramic brake pads. I destroyed a set (GM ceramic) in a 20 minute road race session. When I remove them the pad the material was all cracked and some pieces were gone. They are good for no dust, but less braking power and I read (after I destroyed a bran new set) that they are not for road race or autocross witch confirmed my experience.

If you want something for daily driving and do track time once a week, you can try the Hawks HP+. But they squeak a lot of dust. If you want daily driving and track once in a while, Hawks HPS no squeak and moderate dust. I ton of braking power.

 

Thanks to all! I'll start the fun tomorrow. I'll wear through the ceramics I bought, and then get the Hawk HPS ones. I wont be at the track again until december so, they should work on the street for a while, and end their short life in December.

 

IMHO ceramics are unsafe for the track. I used them my first event and almost ended up in the wall. Once they give up they start coming off in chunks, and you might end up with a foot full of no brake going into a turn like I did. I got slowed down enough to make that turn luckily. I hate to hear about anyone going to the track on ceramics. I didn't believe it either, but trust me, they don't work at track temps.

I tried the HP+ combo pads, but they dust terribly on the street and it's a bear to get off when it gets wet. And they aren't very good on the track either. I now use HP10's for track and ceramics for street. There is no good compromise pad, save your money.

I can now bleed and change pads in 1/2 hour, using 2 screwdrivers to pry the pistons back in (pry the front of the caliper out using the mount for leverage). Then remove the top caliper bolt (front) or bottom bolt (rear). One bolt per caliper, swing it out of the way, change pads, put the bolt back in. Here's where to get speed bleeders: www.speedbleeders.com. Part #sb1010s.

 

Joe_G is right. Do not use ceramic pads on the track.

 

Ok, I'll change them out and hopefully start getting some practice for installing the Hawks for track onlyt and swapping them out. Where is the best place to get some Hawks, and I should get the HP 10's right?

 

I get mine from Ecklers. There are many vendors and different pad types - I suggest you do some trolling over on the Autocross and Road Racing section of this forum. A ton of great info over there and a sticky FAQ at the top. Not many guys use the 10's, but they work great for me, I'm not real aggressive and the last several events for me. A friend of mine wears them out in one event, so all depends on how hard you drive!

One thing is for sure - once you bed them, you are not going to BELIEVE how hard your car will stop. You're used to Ceramics, just you wait. I hate the ceramics every time I put them back on, they stop with 1/10 the power, but race brakes are way too dusty and noisy for street use.

 

You will heat up the matrix of the brake pad material a lot more on a road course than the street, so you need a higher temperature pad. I think the street material simply "boils off" at track temperatures. So, stay away from any pure street pad on the track. You should also stay away from pure "race pads" if you want to run these on the street as they have to be kept hot to work. Several pad makers offer intermediate or street/track pads that are a good compromise. Two are Hawk HP+ (not HPS) and EBC's Greenstuff. In my experience with EBC G.S., they have a higher coefficient of friction for strong braking when hot and dust a lot. They appear to have brass or bronze filaments instead of glass, ceramic, carbon or Kevlar. I'm beginning to think that
any decent track pad will dust a lot, both on the track and on the street. Some more experienced track day guys have complained that some brands of pads will "tear up" your rotors quickly. I get about 3-4 track days out of EBC G.S. pads and NAPA front rotors, which works out to about $40 to $50 a day as I do the work myself. I always carry a spare set of rotors and pads to the track along with tools if I need to change them.

 

Good Idea. I'll turn the factory rotors and keep them as spares and put on my new napa rotors. Do I need to change my rears or just keep them the stock pad until they wear out. They have plenty of pad on them.

 

Keep the stock pads on the rear? Well, let me give you my experience. I have the Baer Eradaspeed +2 14" plain discs on the rear. Since these rotors cost about $250 each, I did not want to tear them up with a high friction pad. So, following Evil Twin's advice that stock pads are nice and soft, I kept them on the rear. (Note: His advice applies only to street driven C5's.) At one track day, I noticed a lot more brake dust than usual in the rear, which I attributed to the DRM brake bias spring recently installed. After returning to the paddock at the end of each session, I also noticed a slight brown discoloration on the discs. This was never seen before and is an indication of a higher disc temperature, which is OK as I wanted the rear brakes to do more work. When I got home the next day, I pulled the rear pads and found that I only had .005" of pad material left on the steel backing plates. That's how much I came from tearing up the $250 rotors by rubbing steel on steel. So, my advice to you is, if you want to use the stock pads on the rear, make sure you have plenty of pad thickness before you go on the track. Depending on the year of your C5, you might not be clamping the pads against the disc hard enough to generate the higher temperature that will use up the pads quicker. And even if you do scratch up the discs a lot, the stock type are only $25 each to replace.

 

And, if you keep Active Handling on, and your lines are *ahem* less than perfect... you will quickly wear out your back brakes.

Running with active handling on or off is a topic all its own well discussed in the Autocross section of the Forum so I won't say any more. Except to say that I consider brake pads cheaper than fenders!

 

Fronts changed! I went and got some Hawk HPS from PepGirls . They didnt carry the HP+. We'll see how they do. The rotors/pads swap was super easy. The hardest thing for me was getting the 22mm caliper bolts off. It took all I had to break them loose. For a minute I thought I'd have to put it all back together and get to a shop with an impact. I also flushed out the old burnt fluid and replaced it with a blue racing or something hi perf. fluid I got from my friend at the allignment shop. (the blue color helped to see when all of the old stuff was gone.)

The only diffrence I saw from the directions above was the wrench size on the top caliper opening bolt. I used a 15mm and 5/8" wrenches. The 18mm that is talked about doesnt fit the inner retainer on my brakes.

Also one of my boots on the caliper piston was messed up. Can i get a new boot for it? If so where? or a PN would really help. it was the pass side front.

Anyway, now I think my rears need some pads. I drive it on the track in comp. mode so yes AH is on. I noticed a god bit of duust build up on the rears as my line(s)!! leave something to be desired!

Thanks for all of your help! I will always do my own brakes from now on.

 

The front caliper bracket bolts are a little easier to loosen as the wheel can be turned so that the wrench handle is outside the wheel wells allowing you to grab it good. The rear wheels naturally do not turn, so it is hard to get a long wrench in the correct position to grab onto. If you had a lift, it would be a lot easier, but most of us are working with jackstands. So here's a tip: take a propane torch and heat up the nuckles on the wheel upright that the caliper bolts thread into. Do one for a 60 second count, then the other. This will soften the Loctite lowering the torque required to break it loose. Be careful with the flame so that you don't melt a break hose or the inner fender liner.

 

It's a good idea to use matching pads front and rear, I find my braking to be more consistent that way. But it's not as critical IMHO as a proper bleed before every event. I ran stock rear pads for many events with no problem, but your results may vary. I bleed all 4 calipers and change pads before each event. I also switch rotors but I've got a C6 Z51 now and I don't want to run those drilled rotors on the track, you probably don't need to switch rotors, but word to the wise, keep your eye on them after each track segment and bring an extra set and tools to change them to the track with you. Another important thing is to do a cool off lap or easy driving off the track on an access road or something before you stop. I also roll the car forward a few feet after being in the pit for 10 minutes or so, to get the heated part of the rotor out in the open air after the rest of the rotor has cooled down. Most guys end up cracking a rotor during an event, I've heard from not cooling down properly before stopping. I've been lucky, I've only changed my rotors after 3 or 4 events when they get spider cracked.

I hope you have better luck than I did with the HPS. I tried them one event, and they were certainly were better than ceramics on stopping power but not as good as real track brakes like the HP10's or HP14's. Also, for some reason I boiled my fluid with them, that was SCARY! Foot to the floor heading into a turn. Luckily they pumped up. I've never boiled my fluid using HP10's, although I might have switched from Ford HD fluid to Motul 600 when I switched to HP10's. I like Motul 600, cheap and works well.