BRAKE PEDAL WENT SOGGY

[bdrobLS3]

Today at the nurburgring, I was on my first lap about coming out of a hard left hander when my pedal decided it wasnt going to tell the calipers I wanted to brake, Kept it out of the wall, but scary stuff...Limped her around the track pulled in to tthe parking lot by the devils diner and let it cool down, after a few pumps the pedal firmed right up. but my pads were down from 1/2 inch of material down to nearly 1/32 of an inch. what the hell could have caused the pedal to drop so fast and what should I upgrade? I am aready running DOT 4 superblue fluind and EBC yellow stuff pads.

[KaBoom1701]

Air in the lines and or you need stainless steel lines.

[Brandon_Lutz]

Sounds like you have air in your braking system. I would do a proper brake bleed procedure on all 4 calipers and also make sure you don't have any leaks in the system.

[Pierre27]

If your pads are almost gone, that will cause a long pedal as well. I would take the pads out and see how much material you got left - see if you can start to see the rivets.

[Synner]

Air doesn't magically show up halfway through a tracking session and after consuming 90% of pad life.

Seems very clear that by how much brake pad you went through you overworked the pad which led to excessive wear which leads to excessive heat. That heat will boil the fluid, give you the sponge pedal, and go away after a little bit. You need to upgrade pads to a truly track oriented pad, add cooling ducts, and I'd also suggest the ZL1 calipers up front. It's either that or slow down and brake earlier/easier and nobody ever wants to do that. And now that you've cooked the fluid do a full flush before thinking of going to the track again. Make sure you do the clutch line too.

[toehead93]

This sounds like what happened.

[backeddy]

I ate through a new set of carbotechs this weekend at Laguna, with both ZL1 upgrade and brake ducts.....Welcome to the cars weakest link on the track.

[i2disturbedSS]

Is it because of the cars weight?

[Synner]

yup

[JusticePete]

EBC pads are not suitable to a 5th Gen Camaro. You need to upgrade your pads to something that can handle much higher temperatures. You need a pad that can handle a minimum of 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit. If the pad manufacturer does not list the operating temperatures, do not buy the pads.

[bdrobLS3]

Originally Posted by JusticePete

EBC pads are not suitable to a 5th Gen Camaro. You need to upgrade your pads to something that can handle much higher temperatures. You need a pad that can handle a minimum of 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit. If the pad manufacturer does not list the operating temperatures, do not buy the pads.

JusticePete, anyreccomendations? Thanks to all others who added there 2 cents, just like everything you find the weak links as you push through to the next level of preformance, this is just an excuse to go wild on brake upgrades without out the wife getting her feathers ruffled.

[JusticePete]

Originally Posted by bdrobLS3

JusticePete, anyreccomendations? Thanks to all others who added there 2 cents, just like everything you find the weak links as you push through to the next level of preformance, this is just an excuse to go wild on brake upgrades without out the wife getting her feathers ruffled.

It depends on the use of your SS and budget.

How often do you push your Camaro hard?
Driven as a daily driver or is it a special use Camaro?
How many miles are on your SS?
How many miles are on your brakes and rotors?
Budget
Under $1000
Under $3000
Under $5000

[Pierre27]

I used to run pagid yellows on my stock 1LE calipers, 4 pot with custom ducting. The fronts lasted 3 race days (2-3 practice sessions, qualifying, and 30 minute race). The pagid blacks about the same wear, slightly more material wear than the yellows, but close. The blacks have more initial bite.

The rears don't see a whole lot of action. I am only just now replacing my rear pagid yellows after a year and a half of use racing.

[Destructo09]

You just need better pads, that fluid should be fine for the most part as long as the pads are good track pads.

The downside here is that if your car is a street car also, you're going to want to swap pads between street and track.

There are better Dot4 fluids out there though, such as RBF, it has a higher boiling point and also make sure the fluid is fresh, like a week or two before the event flush it.

I tracked with some Hawk HP+ pads and while I overheated them at VIR-North and smeared pad material on my rotors I didn't ever get a spongy pedal.

I do agree with everybody else though that EBC as far as I know doesn't making anything worthy of a track pad, expect to spend $400+ USD on good pads.