I was very lucky yesterday. I did a track day at Laguna Seca, and on the very last session, I got the checkered flag and just let the car coast down the hill to let the brakes cool off. When I got on the brakes gently, I had no pedal. Even with pumping it up, I had barely any pedal at all. If I had not gotten the checker exactly then, I would have crashed at the end of the braking zone. I thought I had just overheated the brakes, though I was surprised because I'd had minimal brake fade throughout the day, and none in the previous corner before the S/F line. Even on this cool down lap with me pumping up the brakes, I had almost no pedal at all.

Got back to the pits and saw a puddle of brake fluid at the driver's side rear wheel. When I inspected the caliper, the bleeder screw had turned itself out and was only a few turns from being out completely. On hot days at tracks with heavy braking zones, I've overheated the brakes and had fluid boil past the bleeder, but I've never actually seen a bleeder screw come out like this. Usually I bleed my own brakes, but just prior to the event I had my mechanic (who's excellent) bleed the brakes while I pumped the pedal. So, I don't think it was a case of him not tightening the bleeder screw enough.

Has anyone had this happen?It's a first for me after 3 years of driving the !@#$!@ out of my car at multiple tracks. Any solutions?

 

Holy moly, that was a close call. Never heard of that happening before. I would definitely post over in the autox/RR forum.

The bleeder screw threads aren't stripped are they?

 

Whoops, meant to post in the RR forum. Will do that now.