FSAEracer03

Hey,

Someone told me that the ceramic brakes have a problem with premature failure from heat stress... Now my materials professor would tell me that the opposite should be the case, as ceramics resist heatenormously. They might be damn brittle, but ceramics can be heated up to ungodly temperatures and take it like a champ. One example of this is their use in spark plug shields. Why then would ceramic brakes crack due to high temps and heat fatigue? Formula 1 cars use carbon for their brakes and clutch-packs to keep heat and weight down... Ferrari let this trickle down into their supercars; Porsche opted for ceramics, but for the same reasons.

If I am incorrect, please tell me so... and would owners of ceramic brake components please pipe in to tell any and all personal stories and/or knowledge.

Thanx everyone!

inactiveuser92616

this is a guess
Could be that the sudden temperature rise possible with brakes on a street car. You can have been cruising along for miles, and the discs could be at ambient temperature. Suddenly, you need to haul that car down from 100+mph at maximum braking power, lots of heat, very suddenly, causing it to crack/shatter. I know you are not supposed to pour bowling water straight into a ceramic tea pot for that reason, so maybe thats it.

FSAEracer03

...really?? Isn't that what a tea pot is for? Glass does that if it isn't carbon-type (aka Pyrex), and even then it will fail sometimes.

All I was taught was to never drop the tea pot ...and that's where ceramics minute elastic deformation stage comes into play, which I THINK might be a factor in the brake failures.

I'm also beginning to wonder how they integrate the ceramic material into the components... bonding might be at fault.

iloveporsches

Heating elements in furnaces, driers, and devices like that are small little ceramic pieces that get red hot almost instantly to ignite the flame. So those consistantly get very hot, very quick and last a while. But then again, there's no forces really applied to them.

I know people have had problems on the track with the PCCB system. The Carrera GT has that AND a ceramic clutch.

FSAEracer03

Brandon... why would a ceramic ignite?

W8MM

Do a search on "PCCB" and see what comes back from other forums here on RennList.

It is quite voluminous and somewhat testy

Cheers,

iloveporsches

The bit of ceramic gets very hot, hot enough to ignite the natural gas. After the gas is lit, it cools back down. It doesn't actually ignite itself, just gets very very hot.

paulhol

I've heard of a few people taking the PCCB's off their GT2's and replacing them with big steelie's because they damage quite easily. They save the ceramics just for when its time to sell

Waz996

my 996's brakes are standard normal typical stocks..

...After reading this, thank God!

Waz

Howdy993

Is it true that the clutch is ceramic as well?

Howard
98 C2 cab tip glacier white / black top

FSAEracer03

indeed it is

graham_mitchell

I heard a rumour that the first run of ceramic brakes had a small manufacturing flaw which was causing problems but it is sorted now. I don't think it is the use of ceramic per se that is to blame for any problems.