MFrunkerOG
Active Member
Then it’s settled! Better pad is step 1, better airflow rotor is step 2
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Model S Plaid Brakes Are Terrible!
- Thread starter theslimshadyist
- Start date
lbowroom
Plaid, white on black, CF, 8/27/21, Track Pack
With heat being the #1 enemy, rotor should really be first I think.
Hi Everyone,
One thing we wanted to share with you all that will help significantly improve the pedal feel. This free mod won't make the brakes last any longer, but at least they will feel a bit better, and you'll waste less of that critical pedal travel should you ever get into a situation where you need more travel (boiling fluid for example).
The front calipers have heavy pad return springs, and these springs are designed to help improve range and efficiency. However if it's ruining your enjoyment of your car, you'll most likely want to get rid of them. They just pop in so you can remove them and re-install them in the future without causing any damage.
Here's a video showing just how much they retract the pad. You can see the pad is significantly removed from the rotor, and if you don't know much about brakes let me tell you that a small amount of gap like that takes a lot of pedal travel to make up - that's how leverage works!
With the clips removed this retraction is no longer visible.
Pads are 100% the first thing to do, and should really be done at the same time as rotors. Rotors remove heat, but high-performance pads can run at a temperature that is in excess of double the OEM pad temperature. No upgraded rotor can compete with that, it's just thermodynamics!
One thing we wanted to share with you all that will help significantly improve the pedal feel. This free mod won't make the brakes last any longer, but at least they will feel a bit better, and you'll waste less of that critical pedal travel should you ever get into a situation where you need more travel (boiling fluid for example).
The front calipers have heavy pad return springs, and these springs are designed to help improve range and efficiency. However if it's ruining your enjoyment of your car, you'll most likely want to get rid of them. They just pop in so you can remove them and re-install them in the future without causing any damage.
Here's a video showing just how much they retract the pad. You can see the pad is significantly removed from the rotor, and if you don't know much about brakes let me tell you that a small amount of gap like that takes a lot of pedal travel to make up - that's how leverage works!
With the clips removed this retraction is no longer visible.
Pads are 100% the first thing to do, and should really be done at the same time as rotors. Rotors remove heat, but high-performance pads can run at a temperature that is in excess of double the OEM pad temperature. No upgraded rotor can compete with that, it's just thermodynamics!
MFrunkerOG
Active Member
Pads and fluid are always first. Just so easy to do, and factory pads and fluid don’t handle any heat at all. Cooling is usually also easy and cheap to do and pays benefits no matter what pads and rotors you have.
Rotors aren’t a big deal but I can swap pads in 30 mins a corner. Rotors take longer and better rotors won’t stop factory pads from cooking themselves to death.
Ideally you do pads and rotors together but needs must.
lbowroom
Plaid, white on black, CF, 8/27/21, Track Pack
SDRick
Active Member
If it is true that the Plaid holds the 0-100-0 record, how “terrible“ can the brakes be for a street car on the street?
lolachampcar
Well-Known Member
I found the car can actually stop ok once you have some pad material transferred to the disk (brakes properly bedded). It still feels like crap but the car will stop. I've not done back to back to back 130-0 but I do not doubt others that say the fronts go away with this much work. My interest is in the time I need them to haul the car down so I can avoid an issue and I think they can do this job ok.
In direct answer to your question, there are obviously two components to that metric and doing the first far better allows you to do the second sub par and still come out ok. Hamilton was getting killed in sector two at InterLagos and yet prevailed. In his case, set up was a trade-off. In this case, the brakes can be much better without hurting acceleration.
The thing I would like to see from pads is just better initial bite. I'm ok if there is a bit more pedal travel if it works to reduce pad drag and increase range (as that is what I am doing with the car most of the time). I'd just like to have the fronts bite harder on initial contact which should put more braking force under the curve.
I think you guys should hurry up and put out a kit
Did you take it off?
Did it make a difference?
I think your asking this.
Fastest cars from 0 to 100 mph to 0 - SupercarLists.com
Top 40 fastest cars from 0 to 100 mph to 0. Updated 02/03/2023.
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His question is simply answered by this.
That’s my point.
Fastest cars from 0 to 100 mph to 0 - SupercarLists.com
Top 40 fastest cars from 0 to 100 mph to 0. Updated 02/03/2023.
supercarlists.com
lbowroom
Plaid, white on black, CF, 8/27/21, Track Pack
Skills! What do you think? It felt like a decent improvement in pedal travel.
There are four total - two per caliper. Just to confirm since the picture only showed two brackets!
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