KOAN

Chuck,

Great line and nice smooth driving at Gingerman. Glad to see you got it dialed in.

Chuck

CBCJr6

Thanks for the kind comments Chuck.

The brake fluid was flushed before this event with AP 600 so I'm a little uncertain why I had to bleed the brakes. I'm not that hard on them really.

Probably would have only had to bleed them once if I had realized they were 2 part calipers. First time I only bled the outside halves! Ooops. The second time I bled them all but had to add a little fluid to the reservoir. All I had to use was a new bottle of prestone dot 4 from the trackside shop but it seemed to work fine.

I have 2 liters of TYP 200 so I'll probably flush it again before the next event to get the prestone / AP 600 mix out. Though it really worked fine the last 2 sessions of the day with no fade.

What fluid to you all use? Is it common to have to bleed the brakes again after a flush? (done by a professional shop I should add.) Both times the pedal went soft I got a whiff of hot brakes in the cockpit the corner before the fading began. Of course as soon as I noticed it I headed for the pits.

Chuck

hf1

No. You can go (track) days without bleeding, depending on how much braking you do, but bleeding after every three days is probably the norm. I almost never see bubbles if/when I bleed after three track days.

Did you bed in the new PFC pads properly? The smell sounds like what you get while bedding as the top layer/paint burns off from the pads.

KOAN

I've driven PFCs on the track without bedding, without any problem. Pagids, not so.

I use SRF and rarely bleed brakes anymore. When I was using Motul or ATE, I did it after every event. I never had fade, but was being cautious. Now, I'm experimenting, but haven't had fade after 13 track days including Grattan (2), Watkins Glen (5), Mid Ohio (3), Mosport (3).

CBCJr6

The mechanic / owner/ cup car racer at the shop that set my car up said not to worry too much about bedding in those pads. He said he would do some of it n his test drive and it should be fine. Certainly could have been the paint I was smelling when the pedal faded on me. Like I said, after I got the thing properly bled it didn't happen again.

Trying to decide whether to flush it again with ATE or go with what's there since the last two sessions were fine and it's only one day with the AP 600 (plus a little Prestone). I may just leave it be but have all the stuff at the track to do it if necessary. The next outing is a whole weekend at Putnam.

Chuck

hf1

No flush needed -- your fluid should be fine. If you get in the habit of bleeding regularly (every 3-4 track days) and depending on how many days you do per year, you may hardly ever need to do a full flush as you keep refreshing the fluid through bleeding.

CBCJr6

Thanks for the information, makes sense.