Message unplugged performance and get a set of their street/track pads if you don't track it often. I had their pads only for about a week before slotted rotors came in, and they made a significant difference.
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Model S Plaid Brakes Are Terrible!
- Thread starter theslimshadyist
- Start date
Guess it's a good thing the person that owns the car in this video posted and validated what most of us on this message board have been saying.
No one has drag raced their Plaid more than Tesla Plaid Channel guy. He did over 400 drag strip runs with his early Plaid with stock pads. And when those finally wore out he replaced them with normal Tesla stock brake pads because those were fine for his braking needs while drag racing. See his video linked below and related commentary in the comments.
Sorry the real documented facts from authoritative sources like Tesla Plaid Channel and Car and Driver don't support, and in fact debunk, the nonsense, and indeed unsafe nonsense, on this thread.
Attachments
Yeah, although I do think for 90 percent of the Plaid owners the standard brakes are well... Good enough. But to be honest I did not expect this outcome. Was a bit of a reality check for me. The main problem is the brakes just don't match the weight + horsepower of the car. Are they dangerous? For the street, probably not really. For the track? Yes probably.
Last edited:
I'm just stating what I experienced, not making things up... I mean good chance the brakes had been faulty from the factory. Not sure if that's good or bad though... Although I never experienced bad brake feel before we did the dragraces. It was fine before, and after it was bad. They did brake from almost top speed a few times though, and did one full stop brake test. But like I said, with big pauses in between.
What do you imagine is the relevant difference between you and the Tesla Plaid Channel guy who did over 400 drag strip runs on his stock pads just fine?
The answer is likely that he was knew to bed his pads before racing use and did not know that. You would have to bed your track pads too.
It's unfortunate that the stock pads may not have been properly bedded from the factory (mine weren't either) but usually people who race their cars know about such things and take appropriate precautions.
I've already specifically addressed your ignorance on braking at a drag strip. You continue to reference other people's info, and usually incorrectly, because of your unfamiliarity with the situation. But, just in case you forgot...
At the drag strip you have at least another 1/4 mile, and usually on an incline for the shutdown area. Then, you don't come to a complete stop, you normally slow down from 150 to 60-70 before exiting the track. So you're taking 1/4 mile + to slow down less than 100mph, 1300+ feet.
I would highly recommend getting some personal knowledge by modifying your own car, and gaining experience by visiting race tracks yourself, before improperly applying metrics from third party sources in a debate.
I drove almost 10k km with the pads before we did the did the dragraces. I think they have been properly bedded in? Anyway, it doesn't matter. If you dragrace/track the car, check your brakes. Wether this was a defect from factory or not, I don't know.
Last edited:
Dude, just stop. You have zero track experience with the car and you're arguing with the literal vehicle owner of the car in the video.
This is my personal last run at the strip on Friday night. You can see the elevation changes, the G force changes and the fact I never even needed to get close to 1g of braking (have had it to -1.3g for an actual hard brake before), and then how I maintained 60 mph after hitting the 1/2 mile mark, before turning off the track.
Maybe you could share your personal track data since you know quite a bit more than everyone else?
I posted my Tesla 1/4 mile timeslips on this forum, Ludicrous Upgrade Scheduling?
and on dragtimes.com before you even owned a Tesla. And I have dragstrip trophies from the 80's back when they still gave out trophies.
Don't embarrass yourself further by attempting to attack me personally. It just makes you look stupid.
But I realize that personal attacks are all that you have left when you can't cobble together any facts, evidence or logic in support of your nonsense.
Last edited:
This is to be expected — at least by those who can comprehend the simple fact that track pads have a different operating temperature range which will not work well when too cold.
Driving a car a few times 7 years ago at the track means almost nothing. I'm at the track almost weekly, and have been my entire life. I also grew up on a family-owned racetrack.
Weren't you also the one that I offered the $5k to on the braking distance debate a few months ago? Lots of words, but not willing to back it up with money. That offer still stands.
Your Dad being Don Garlits doesn’t change the fact you post ignorant nonsense about Tesla stock brake pads being crap. And you post no facts, evidence or logical argument to support that claim, because you can’t because it is wrong. And instead of even attempting to support the claim or engage in intelligent discussion you deflect with personal attacks and irrelevancies only demonstrating your lack of ability to engage in intelligent discussion.
Like any other stock OEM brake pad Tesla’s are optimized for their car in its normal environment which includes highway driving in ice cold temps with non-repeated emergency stops and enthusiastic driving with shorter and from street typical speed repeated braking.
The original stock pads were tested even from 100 mph in repeated tests and the heavier Tesla, with skinnier front tires, still stopped shorter than the BMW M5 with performance brakes — because the stock brake pads are fine, even excellent, for non-track use.
If you track the car (as in road race, not mere drag strip) with repeated braking which will greatly heat up the brakes, you need to get high temp operating range appropriate brake components, with the downside that cold performance will likely suffer (as well as more frequent fluid change, dust and noise). But that is true for any car and not unique to Tesla. What is unique to Tesla is that massive power and weight means that the heat generated will be more than typical cars on the track.
I had a few thousand miles on my Tesla Plaid when I took it to a 1/8 mile track that was a repurposed straightaway from the road race track at Dominion Raceway in Virginia. So it requires braking very hard (from almost 130 mph for the plaid) in the 1/8 mile in order to make the turn off and my Tesla Plaid brakes were terrible that first time and I realized later that the pads were not bedded and so they were grabbing and braking unevenly. I posted about it on this forum. Plaid 19 vs 21
After I did a few more hard (but not as hard as having to brake after the 1/8 mile and quickly get off the track) stops, the brakes worked just fine after that. Merely driving a few thousand miles, using almost all regen braking, did not properly bed the brake pads in my case. And those with a diversity of experience with race tracks would know that some tracks require braking very hard if you want to make the first turn off so a drag strip can give plenty of opportunity to test the brakes. After my pads were bedded properly, like the Tesla Plaid Channel guy, I had no problem with hard braking from high speeds with either the S or X Plaids.
The tracks I run into have NO slope on the slowdown part. Have NEVER had problem with the STOCK BRAKES yet I am nearly 200 passes. I do run HIGH 150's / low 160's okay not stock weight but more mph that compensate.
Only change I made to be on safe side of things is switching to dot4 porsche fluid although I never boiled the oem fluid.
Tried brake cooling ducts.. changed NOTHING because these are really not suited for this application.
I need to add a warning here. it is possible to do 1 or 2 back to back runs, maybe a third but that one I would get the brake smoking so they need at least a small cooldown between passes. that the only real problem.
that is for full 1/4 mile passes.
When doing 1/8. can do back to backj as many time I want
Only change I made to be on safe side of things is switching to dot4 porsche fluid although I never boiled the oem fluid.
Tried brake cooling ducts.. changed NOTHING because these are really not suited for this application.
I need to add a warning here. it is possible to do 1 or 2 back to back runs, maybe a third but that one I would get the brake smoking so they need at least a small cooldown between passes. that the only real problem.
that is for full 1/4 mile passes.
When doing 1/8. can do back to backj as many time I want
MFrunkerOG
Active Member
I just got a ride back home from the Atlanta United ( was a draw against NYC) game in a buddy’s totally stock Jan 2022 build Long Range.
Then we braked when a Raptor drunk from Hopsecutioner (I assume) decided to cut us off at 80ish.
The Jan 2022 build brakes were nice and gentle like a rental scooter
he looked at me and says “I need to get what you have”.
Snuff said!
Meanwhile you arm chair internet generals can lob statistics and drag strip dick measurements at each other!
Then we braked when a Raptor drunk from Hopsecutioner (I assume) decided to cut us off at 80ish.
The Jan 2022 build brakes were nice and gentle like a rental scooter
he looked at me and says “I need to get what you have”.Snuff said!
Meanwhile you arm chair internet generals can lob statistics and drag strip dick measurements at each other!
But that's the thing. My brakes were never bad on the street. I did a few Autobahn runs with some pretty hard braking from high speed. They were fine. It was only after the dragstrip runs were they went bad. That's why I was so surprised. I actually didn't fully believe the whole "terrible brakes" thing before. I mean sure they are not the best brakes ever, and probably the car should have better brakes. But fact is, on my car, they went bad. Maybe Tesla changed the brake fluid spec (and pads) at some point, who knows. So if you track your car, check your brakes, that's my only advice. Because they might be bad from factory, while not even realising, until it's potentially too late.
Last edited:
Got it that you had a problem in your particular situation with your particular car on the dragstrip.
Countless people have no problem on the dragstrip with the stock Plaid brakes — even people who do the most runs. That suggests something was wrong with your particular car that is not a problem for most Plaids in the same moderately heavy braking situation. That includes my experience as well (except for the first time, when I believe my pads were not bedded properly).
Sometimes stuff that happens anecdotally and contrary to other experience and that does not support the universal claim, even when someone wants to make that universal claim.
My Goodyear tire had a blowout. Doesn’t mean all Goodyear tires are crap.
My all season Goodyears only lasted one lap at track. Doesn’t mean those all season Goodyear tires are crap.
TESTI
Member
Does anyone have experience with the Carbotech 1521 brake pads on stock rotors? I do not plan to track my plaid but I want a better initial bite. it gets really cold here in Canada so I'm not planning on running track pads.
MFrunkerOG
Active Member
Have you considered Gloc brake pads autocross ready R6 pads? excellent initial bite from 0 - 500F
Similar threads
