jdmdohcpower

My carbotech pads do not have ware indicators. How do I know when to change them does anybody have any tricks? I don't want to change them early and waste material and I definitely don't want to do it too late to trash my rotors [ATTACH]47989210

Same pic. Phone trouble. Sorry

Bill Dearborn

You just monitor the pad thickness while at an event. Just like the picture you have there. Those pads are great for the start of the day but they may wear down to the replacement point during the day. After the car cools down check the pads and rotors before you go back on track again. The pads in the pictures can go at least half the thickness shown. When I tracked my C5Z and C6Z I was doing up to 20 track days per year and had lots of half worn pads and used rotors that I took to the track as spares. The goal was to wear the pads down to the minimum thickness I could get away with and to get as many heat checks as I dared in the rotors without having them crack on track.

At the end of the day pull the pads and check them to make sure they haven't tapered and worn far more in places that you can't see easily. As the pads wear one of the things you should do is add spacers behind the pads to reduce heat transfer into the caliper. I used to use the backing plates of old pads as the spacers. I also added thin Titanium heat shields as soon as there was enough space to permit their use.

When a set of pads runs you close to $500 you want to get max usage out of them.

Bill

jdmdohcpower

I guess I was seeing part of the caliper at 9 oclock in the pic that looked close to the rotor. I guess that will stay put while the pad moves closer to the rotor as it wears.

Thanks for the info.

whosurdaddy

Need to know if a pad is assembled with epoxy or rivets to hold the pad to the backing plate. If rivets are used, have to be careful as they'll trash the rotors quick. Don't remember if carbotechs are glued or not

Babaron

How about the stock carbon ceramic brake pads? Are they glue or rivets?

jdmdohcpower

I was told they are good down to the plates so Im assuming not rivets

Bill Dearborn

Stock pads for the Z07 package are riveted. However, they are a soft metal and don't hurt the rotor. There are a few pictures on the forum showing that people wear them down and the only thing you see on the rotor is a yellow stain.

Bill

dbratten

Carbotech's are glued without rivets. I wear them down to the backing and then use that as a spacer for other worn pads to keep the brake pistons from getting out too far. As long as they wear evenly there's no problem. If you are getting taper, flip the pad top-to-bottom to even them out.

--Dan