Brake System and Upgrade Selection

Stop tech is a big aftermarket supplier. This is only one of their excellent plain language technical papers.

Slotted or drilled rotors are for track use. Top quality is required for drilled rotors. Porsche supplies these on their GT series of 911 cars. Track oriented.

Water on the disc affects initial bite only. One wipe and the water is gone. This effect is only really relevant on the track with one exception. Manufacturers recognize that water on the rotors can delay braking fractionally in an emergency. Many cars now use the ABS system to wipe the brakes periodically in wet weather (wipers on).

As for the STI the symptoms you describe have to do with pad heating, not rotors.

 

Absolutely. +1

 

Having spent several hours pounding an XFR around a track, I can honestly say that the brakes are about the most impressive thing about these cars. Not a hint of fade or variation in performance - even when it was very wet for a time. The standard brakes are more than up to the job. As part of a package that significantly advances the performance capabilities of the car for track use, I can see the point of upgrading the brakes, but as others have said, only with high-end parts and I am not sure that the XF is a great starting point if you are trying to build a track car anyway.

 

I thought about that after posting. I always did rotors AND pads at the same time, so it could have been the pads. I used DBA rotors and Project Mu or Hawk pads, which were much better than the stock Brembo set up. Again, I used these for auto-x and street use, but my street use was 160 miles per day for my commute...................in moderate traffic.

 

This is a bit off topic, but does anyone have experixe with XF brakes that don't accumulate tons of brake dust. My camry wheels need cleaned maybe once a year from brake dust, my XF wheels need cleaned almost daily (but i do about every 2-3 days). It's really time consuming and I don't see myself doing it in the winter..

 

I have the ebc red stuff (ceramic) pads along with the Ultimax rotors on my car and no brake dust! I imagine any ceraminc pad would have next to no dust, the trade off is some brake noise.

 

Yeah it varies between dust and performance, along with rotor life. From what I gathered you can reduce dust, but you will loose either pad performance OR rotor life. No pads will be dust free, but you can find some that produce "less" dust.

People do recommend ceramic, but I hear they reduce rotor life, so I stick with semi-high performance with slightly less dust. IF you plan on auto-x or HPDE and don't want to keep switching pads I'd say get the Hawk HP+, of you just want street go HPS. Both are GREAT pads and produce least dust compared to most. Axxis is another great pad, but looses performance under wet conditions in comparison to the Hawks.

I'm only familiar with Brembo, Hawk, Axxis,and Project Mu pads. Since I'm sure you can't get the Project Mu's, this is how I'd rank from best to worse:

Project Mu
Hawk
Brembo
Axxis

This is my personal opinion with my needs for a upgraded street pad with 2-4 auto-x events per year. They will last more than you think!!

Just my $.02

 

The main compromise in brake pads is between high temperature operation and high initial stop cold friction. Generally speaking, improving high temperature performance results in less bite and longer stopping distances on that first emergency stop.

For street use you need a pad that gives high friction when cold (cool). For high performance use, especially on track, you need high temperature performance and must adjust braking technique for street use.

There is no free lunch in this aspect of performance. My choice is always biased towards that initial cold stop. If I drive aggressively and heat up the brakes I can adjust accordingly. I cannot predict when some idyut requires me to stop immediately.