[s-cars] Brake upgrade?

[Fred Munro]

This is a problem common to all disc brake systems, Bob, the braking
surfaces get wet when it rains. Not like the good old drum brake systems,
eh?  - they stayed dry unless you drove through standing water 3 feet deep,
but even dry the braking performance was , umm, "marginal" at best :o) Up
here in the Great White North they are using a road salt which acts like a
lubricant after it dries on the rotors, so after you drive in heavy road
spray and park the car for a while, you effectively have no brakes for the
first 10 seconds of application - quite disconcerting to say the least.
The effect of rain should be reduced by drilled or slotted rotors which give
the water someplace to go when the pads put on the squeeze. On stock rotors
something like the ATE Powerdisc might be effective. The BIRA kits give you
more braking torque from the larger rotor diameter, so the effect may be
reduced. One of the reasons I'm going to a BIRA System 3 is the winter
braking problem I mentioned above.

As to pads, my gut feel is that non-dusty pads would tend to be less
aggressive and may not work as well in the rain. The pads I have on my car
now make no dust at all and they suck big time with road salt spray. I've
haven't noticed a problem during the summer in rain, but we don't get the
torrential tropical downpours you southern boys do :o)

HTH

Fred Munro
'94 S4


-----Original Message-----
From: s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com
[mailto:s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com]On Behalf Of Robert Myers
Sent: February 6, 2004 11:43 PM
To: s-car-list at audifans.com
Subject: [s-cars] Brake upgrade?



Hi Y'all,

Today, while driving through rather heavy rain and equally heavy road
spray, I found myself unpleasantly surprised a couple of times by applying
the brakes and finding them to have rather limited initial effect until the
pads/rotors got dried off a bit.  The reason for the problem is quite clear
and no significant problem was present due to my not pushing too hard for
the conditions present.  However, the experience was still a bit
disconcerting.

My question: would a brake upgrade to something like BIRA system 1 or
system 3 solve the wet brakes problem?  Is there a pad material which would
minimize this behavior under very wet conditions while still giving
satisfactory dry weather braking with minimal dust?

_____

Osama bin Forgotten.

Bob
*****
  Robert L. Myers  304-574-2372
  Rt. 4, Box 57, Fayetteville, WV 25840 USA  WV tag Q SHIP
  '95 urS6 Cashmere Grey - der Wunderwagen   ICQ 22170244
  http://www.cob-net.org/church/pvcob.htm
*****

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