Curious what others are doing for Bedding new pads/rotors. I have new rotors and pads trying to decide on the best approach.

Would recommend doing during a test session rather than qualifying/race. Make sure the rotors are cleaned well before you go out. I generally just push them pretty hard on-off for short durations (don't drag for long periods) until I start to feel the bite become consistent. Generally put in some rear bias as well to get heat into them as well, the work then bias toward the front once the rears start to feel bedded in. Once you pit, don't leave your foot on the pedal. You may want to keep the bias a bit toward the rear until everything beds in. Shouldn't take a full session to get this done.

breton wrote:Would recommend doing during a test session rather than qualifying/race. Make sure the rotors are cleaned well before you go out. I generally just push them pretty hard on-off for short durations (don't drag for long periods) until I start to feel the bite become consistent. Generally put in some rear bias as well to get heat into them as well, the work then bias toward the front once the rears start to feel bedded in. Once you pit, don't leave your foot on the pedal. You may want to keep the bias a bit toward the rear until everything beds in. Shouldn't take a full session to get this done.

Thanks. That's basically what I was planning on doing. Didn't think of the brake bias part though. Do you normally park it right after bedding complete?

I do try to give everything time to cool down if possible after a bedding session though I admit I'm not religious about it depending on time available. I tend to like to replace both pads and rotors at the same time, but that's getting a bit expensive and depending on wear I'm seeing about 2-1 ratio is possible on the fronts, and 3-1 on the rears depending on how hard you push the rears. I'm generally changing the rotors when the grooves disappear, but based on a post-race tech where they did a measurement on one car it looks like you could go a bit further and still be within the legal limit.

BTW, we had the winning car in SRF at the last event get DQ'ed when they tech'ed the brakes and discovered he was still running the old rotors. GCR in 2015 allows the new rotors only on both SRF and Gen3.

You might think of rotating the brakes to get more wear (and even wear). I move the rotor and pads as a set. I measure the thickness of each set and put the thinnest two sets on the back and the thickest on the front. Rotating them from side to side (or front to back) also prevents the middle (thickness) of the rotors from wearing more than the outside (thickness) of the rotors. I usually rotate the brakes after each weekend on the track, but at some heavy braking tracks (like AAA Speedway) I will rotate them half way through the weekend.

My current rotors are getting their third set of pads this weekend, and there is still plenty of meat left on them.

DaveP

When you change pads and re-use rotors, what do you do to prepare the rotors for new pads?

I inspect the rotors closely for problems, wipe off the surface of the rotors with brake cleaner and measure the thickness. I put the thinner rotors on the back brakes. The break-in is the same as for new brakes and rotors. If you rotate your brakes between races (which I highly recommend), keep the pads/rotors as sets.

DaveP

Help me understand the middle versus center wear reduction through rotation; I can't visualize how that affects middle of the rotor wear. I had the centers wear heavily on mine, and I thought pad flex... But i was rotating just the pads, not the pads and rotors.

I assume that means you also don't reverse the pads; I see the outer pads wear faster, and it's either flip them (what I was doing) or replace(?)

Thanks for the guidance...

Scott,

I have never seen center wear on the pads or rotors. They usually wear least to the outside and most to the inside, so you get a tapered effect on both. If you rotate them from side to side, it minimizes this uneven wear. I rotate them from front to back when I see the front rotors getting thinner than the back rotors. Front to back has the same effect on the outer to inner wear because the front calipers are mounted behind the rotors and the rears are mounted in front of the rotors.

Not to complicated this measurement, I usually measure the thickness of the rotor and the brake pads together to determine where to put them. It is best, however, to keep them as a pair. My actions are directly from the Mumm Brothers advice.

DaveP

My new bakes seemed to bed in well.

I have one small issue that I'm a little confused about.After 6 tesing sessions, my pads on the left rotors(front and back) are wearing with a tapered leading and trailing edge. Pads on the right side are wearing perfectly square.

What could cause this?
Should I be concerned about the left side having reduced braking force relative to the right side?(I did notice the car drifting right a little in hard braking when looking at the video. Unclear if that was just me being a newbie or if this might have caused it)

I plan on moving rotors/pads around, but I would like to address the root issue if there is one.