PessimiStick
Member
Use better brake fluid. Increased pedal travel with poor stopping power is a fluid problem.
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Model 3 "Performance Brake Calipers" just red or different altogether?
- Thread starter fiksegts
- Start date
You can usually fix this issue by bedding your brakes again. You need to do a repeated series of hard braking from 70-10 mph. As the rotors heat up the pads leave a film of material evenly on the surface. The key is not to come to a complete stop or you'll repeat the problem all over again.
Ironically you can do this on the track quite well. The only problem is you can't do it for more than nine laps on the stock setup. Maybe it's just the pads, but I've never seen a setup where the front rotors were smaller than the rears. My guess is Elon was going for maximum efficiency and sacrificed performance as a result. I just think it might have gone a little too far.
The same argument of "you don't need them unless you're going to the track" has been repeated but if you flip it around and say, I shouldn't need different brakes for a track day, then it makes sense why people are wondering about the brakes. I'm not talking about a track car, I'm talking about a track event of which I have seen middle aged women in their 5000 pound Audi A7s attend.
Daniel in SD
(supervised)
Makes sense. Not sure why I've never tried this. Next time I wlll.
The thing is that bigger rotors with better cooling to do fix the pad material buildup problem and don't require any change in behavior
Knightshade
Well-Known Member
Makes sense. Not sure why I've never tried this. Next time I wlll.
The thing is that bigger rotors with better cooling to do fix the pad material buildup problem and don't require any change in behavior
The thing is that does not fix the problem though.
It only masks the problem.
You'll still end up with 'warped' rotors because you're still not breaking them in correctly, and still not using them correctly... but it'll likely take longer for you to notice.
Same as with "My 30k mile tires wear out in 10k miles so I fixed it by buying 60k mile tires and now they last twice as long!" when the real problem is bad alignment. That's not a fix, it's a band aid- and why it's important to understand the root cause.
Well I think the answer there is money.... You build for what most people do with the vehicle.
Since 99% of any mass production cars won't ever see track use it makes no financial sense for car companies to put more expensive brakes on those cars by default since they won't make any difference to the user but increase the cost of the car....
Then you offer some sort of "brake upgrade" option from the factory- as Tesla is doing- for both that 1% who do track, and the larger number of people who don't know any better and think the $5000 upgrade will somehow make them stop better in normal driving.
And I agree they should offer that upgrade across all versions of the car, not just the top version- so that folks who do want to enjoy an occasional track event, but don't want to spend 70k on the car to do it, can get that from the factory.
Absolutely. If not from Tesla, then from a good 3rd party source. Pretty please, Sasha?
Uncle Paul
Well-Known Member
For most private racers, going to the track is an exercise in heat management. Lots of cars that perform well on the street will show their weak points on the track. The driver is tasked with not just hammering around the course as fast as possible, but needs to understand the limitations of their personal vehicle and drive accordingly. It is not unusual for a racer to use up their cars thermal constraints for engine, transmission, differential, brakes or power steering in the heat of a close battle, but then need to breath their cars a little by going up a gear and downshifting into a hard braking corner.
Biggest heat issues usually appear when the owners install track specific tires on their vehicles. This stresses everything even more, and all sorts of things begin to react to the additional stresses.
It is not unusual for track rats to spend thousands of dollars for performance upgrade to allow their cars to preform well to the end of their stints.
The best drivers are relatively easy on their cars, and drive them smoothly and efficiently.
We used to have a saying that "Brakes just slow you down" when people complained that their brakes were not good enough
Biggest heat issues usually appear when the owners install track specific tires on their vehicles. This stresses everything even more, and all sorts of things begin to react to the additional stresses.
It is not unusual for track rats to spend thousands of dollars for performance upgrade to allow their cars to preform well to the end of their stints.
The best drivers are relatively easy on their cars, and drive them smoothly and efficiently.
We used to have a saying that "Brakes just slow you down" when people complained that their brakes were not good enough
Lol everyone here that still thinks they are getting bigger rotors and or calipers are funny
Yeah, he replied to me and indicated stronger brakes, but nothing about rotor or caliper size. I'm reading it as they will be bigger/better, but we shall see.
Knightshade
Well-Known Member
Yes- with the $5000 upgrade package per same tweet. Not the base P.
(and the suspension change is a whopping 0.39 inch drop apparently)
TexasTeslaRacing
Member
I couldn't find these performance Model 3 specs in the owners manual online, but to compare to Model S & X:
Model S & X
Front 355mm & 32mm thick
Rear 365mm & 28 mm thick
Seems the front rotors on the performance Model 3 could be the same as S & X, but the rears are different. Same rear rotor size on standard LR RWD as performance dual motor model 3. Just the fronts are upgraded.
systemBuilder
Member
From wheels take about 2/3rds of the braking force, rear wheels, not such much. If you brake the front & rear evenly the rear wheels are likely to skid. Therefore, the front rotors are almost ALWAYS larger or have MORE PISTONS in the design. If you are buying a 2018 Ford Mustang GT350, you will get 380mm rotors front & rear, with 6-piston calipers (front) and 4-piston calipers (rear). That car weighs roughly the same as a Tesla Model 3, but with a slightly higher maximum speed of around 180 mph.
Another member posted this originally and claimed
it was in the M3 owners manual a few months ago
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