[TWG1]

Wondering if this is common. Noticed some strange wear on rotor and inspected, found two areas that were crumbling on stock pad (LF, outside pad). The 'crater' in lower right had pad material there, and fell out as soon as I pulled the pad. Pads have ~4k miles, 9 track sessions and ~2hrs of track time. There is 8mm of material remaining (new = 9mm).

I went ahead and changed out for peace of mind, but for the pros that do a lot of track time, is this normal, and would you replace or reuse?





-TWG1

[Zr8000]

That pad is junk. 2 hours on a track would kill a set of pads pretty quick I would think.

[Alpha1BC]

2 hours isn't that much these pads. Should be able to get 4-5 hours out of them on track easy, likely more. I'd expect some wear like the slight crumbling you have around the edges but haven't seen craters like that before. Are you taking easy cool-down laps and avoiding using the brakes during these laps to let the brakes cool before stopping the car in the pits? And were brakes properly bed-in before tracking the car? Looks like that's either a defect in the pad material or they might not have been treated nicely from a thermal perspective. Or maybe even got a small stone or debris got wedged in there that broke the pad? Tough to tell for sure, but I wouldn't say that's a common problem.

[VinnAY]

Too hard to even begin to fathom how some one runs their brakes on a track day just too hard to say just seems more like a pad defect than anything else. I wonder what Brembo would say about 'em.

[TWG1]

I’m usually in full cool down mode for last lap and I also take a lap around the paddock. It’s only one pad with the issue, so I suspect debris got in there.

[NeverDie]

looks like you picked up debris, the scoring in the rotor is further evidence of this.

[Stephen12ZL1]

even though that pad looks terrible, it probably wouldn't affect performance at all. Keep running it! 8mm remaining is basically new! Were the pads burnished prior to track use?

[TWG1]

@Stephen12ZL1: The crater is probably down to ~5mm, and I’ve already swapped them out. Going to keep them as track spares tho.

I did not go through the burnish procedure. Figured the first few track sessions would take care of that for me. Perhaps I was wrong!

[Alpha1BC]

Originally Posted by TWG1

@Stephen12ZL1: The crater is probably down to ~5mm, and I’ve already swapped them out. Going to keep them as track spares tho.

I did not go through the burnish procedure. Figured the first few track sessions would take care of that for me. Perhaps I was wrong!

Good idea keeping those as spares. They should still be fine in a pinch but with a big chunk of material missing like that it makes it easier for the pad to continue disintegrating around that spot, especially if it was a defect in the pad material that caused it.

Now that I think about it, not having burnished/bed-in the brakes prior to track use would typically only result in less-than-ideal brake friction. The first track session would normally take care of that for you, just know that until you get that full heat cycle into them that brake performance would be reduced so it's typically better to do before heading to the track.

I'd still lean towards pad defect or debris causing the issue you have, though. It's possible that not having them burnished could have caused some weird behavior with the pad the first time you got on track, but not as likely to happen without some sort of pre-existing defect for an issue like that to propagate from. Can always try taking the pads in to the dealer or reaching out to Brembo/Ferodo. Dealer might give you a fresh set under warranty.

[Chris_SS]

Originally Posted by Alpha1BC

Now that I think about it, not having burnished/bed-in the brakes prior to track use would typically only result in less-than-ideal brake friction. The first track session would normally take care of that for you, just know that until you get that full heat cycle into them that brake performance would be reduced so it's typically better to do before heading to the track.

I agree with Alpha here re the brake function, but I might not use those on the track. Maybe city use. Brakes primary function is to convert your car's kinetic energy into heat and dissipate that heat outside of the car as quickly as possible.

I'd be a little concerned with the thermodynamics in that pad, as the distribution of heat transference is no longer uniform. I'm glad you replaced them!