Symptons of boiling brake fluid?

[H4RRY]

I am having a bit of a brake problem with my 182 and wondered if anyone can point me in the right direction before I start upgrading lots of things. I use it totally for track now and I'm finding the brakes are starting to let me down a bit at the end of a good day. It doesn't feel like normal brake fade it feels like they get a bit almost graunchy and don't seem quite so responsive. I can then leave the car for a week or so and then they will be fine at the start of the next day.

My EBC Yellow Stuff pads are getting a bit old and the disks aren't anything special but they are pretty new. I don't think either of those are the problem so I'm just wondering whether it is something to do with the brake fluid as I haven't put anything special in it but I have no experiance with what its like to be reaching the limit of the fluid. I was just wondering if anyone can tell me whether there are any special symptons to brake fluid starting to boil other than just loosing brakes? Or any other ideas would be very welcome.

 

[Matt@codered]

Brake fade from fluid is .... Brakes go off and the pedal sinks.
Brake fade from pads is .... Brakes go off and pedal stays hard.

 

[H4RRY]

Sorry on the slow reply..... Work is not allowing me to have a life at the minute.

thanks for the reply, that makes sense. I'm not getting a soft pedal so my brake fluid theory is probably wrong but I don't think it's a pad problem. I'll keep investigating.

 

[Tony Hunter]

Have you got any air getting to the pads, ie, removed fog lights and arch liners.

 

[Kelv]

I think if it were me, I'd look at getting more air around the brakes as per Tony's comment.
Bin the EBC pads and look at done decent options, and then get sone decent fluid in there and see how it performs next time on track.
​these are far from expensive tasks and could make a very good noticeable difference.

 

[Tony Hunter]

Nothing wrong with EBC pads. Just got to pick the right ones. I run them in the race car and in my road car.

 

[Craigie-B]

Which pads would you recommend Tony

 

[Toastfrenzy]

EBC yellow should be more than enough for what you require (Tony runs EBC blue), I run yellows with no problem both in races and on lengthy testing \ track days. Change your fluid to ATE Blue perhaps? and go from there, £15 for litre delivered from Euro carparts.

Maybe the the pads are worn out? How much meat is left, still see the dividing\wear groove?

 

[H4RRY]

Hi guys, thanks for the comments. Sorry I'm slow responding again, so busy in work and weekends.

It can't be the yellow stuff pads because I haven't had any problems with them before and I have been running them for a couple of years on that car. They are however starting to get a bit old so I have ordered some more to see whether that helps but I'd like not to have to change them if I don't need to as they aren't cheap. I have also picked up some ate blue last week from euro to give that a try.

That could be a good point though Tony I don't have much venting too them, I have been meaning to remove the fog lights. My only other thought is it could be the discs? They are totally standard so I wonder whether they are just getting too hot.

 

[Chip-mk1]

Old pads = dont work as well, same for old disks.

Just get some new ones on.

DS2500 are a lot better than yellow stuff.

 

[H4RRY]

Yeah but if I remember rightly they are like twice the price of yellow stuff? And like I say I haven't had any problems with them yet