So I had the same thing happen. Already posted, but will add to this thread as well. Month-old ATE Super Blue, freshly bled two track days before the event. Looks like I'm going to SRF and contemplating ducting.

Video here. Enjoy.

uwaeve

 

I hate to let out a secret but we along with a lot of racers use high performance FORD brake fluid. Our local Ford dealer sells it to us at wholesale when we buy it by the case and the cost of a can runs less than $3. We do bleed the brakes before every race weekend. We have used Ford's brake fluid for 9 years now. When we had the Camaros we used to bleed sometimes each day as the car was heavier and had much smaller calipers and rotors. Rotors on a racing camaro last about two weekends so that tells you how much heat they develop.

 

beauty. sorry you had to experience that as well. although, i have to say your off was much less of an event (and much cleaner) than mine.

much like mine, it appears you had no warning prior to them going. fun isn't it?

i'm going to keep all my brake fluid indoors, climate controlled, and tightly sealed from now on, that's for sure. the ducting is probably a have-to as well.

sean

 

Sean always has spectacular offs....

I am not sure that's a good thing though.

 

Damn. I go off ONCE, the whole world sees it, and now I go off all the time.

 

Ummm....RR..right behind me in Turn 4??

 

BTW Sean,
you know I am just kiddiing....

right??



Plus Stacy beats you with the spectacular offs...

 

Stacy has me owned in that category.

I was only two cars behind him at RR.

The victory lap was classic though.

 

Glad to see you're ok Kevin.

You failed to mention that was track day what? 7 or 8 in a two week period? Around 1,000 miles maybe?

You're probably braking too much, just the way I was doing it a LCMT.

Now, about the fluid. I made an interresting discovery when I replaced my brake pads last week-end (and felt stupid for not thinking about it earlier). Have you noticed that the pedal is never super stiff as the first day you drove your car from the dealership?

As the pads weardown, the pistons will move out of the caliper, right? This creates a nice little volume filled with brake fluid. Thing is, this is where the air bubbles are created (contact with the pads) and they stay there for ever. Bleeding the brakes will not help since there is no flow in that area when the bleed valve is openned...

We have to open the bleed valve and push the pistons all the way back into the caliper in order to get these nasty bubbles out. I got a pretty big stream of bubbles last week-end and now, the pedal is back to the original height and stiffness as when the car was new...

Live and learn... It so obvious now...

 

Great find Kolia - I fail to push the pads back also when i bleed her. Although I also changed the pad and didn't find any bubble after.
Although, I didn't do a really good job of bedding in the brakes after, and on my third day at Road Atlanta, I could feel the brakes not liking the old compound on the rotors. More lessons for me I guess.

 

Kolia, great point. I will be see what happens when I bleed the brakes with the pistons next time.

Yes, it was my 8th track day within 16 calendar days. A feat I'm not likely to repeat again

uwaeve

 

uwaeve,
That is some really good telemetry data and helmet cam. What are you using for data collection?

 

I've also heard that you really don't want to use previously opened cans of fluid that have been sitting around. I wouldn't be suprised if that was the only problem. The ATE is good stuff.

 

Mario, the fluid was just opened so that may not be it. The caliper temperature was at least 480 F based on the quoted accuracy of the strips. Seeing as how the dry/wet boiling points of Super Blue are 536/393, I can see boiling it with at least a little moisture in it.

mhoward, I use the same logger as Kolia, the Race-Technology DL1 (I'm a follower, he had it first). I love it. Fits right in the dash cubby and the lid even closes! I'll post pictures eventually.

 

Enjoy. Picture of the DL1 mounted in the nav cubby and LANC controller for the camera. Like I said, the cubby door closes with the logger in operation. I strung the antenna, power, and RPM wires through the holes in the back of the cubby box. Super clean, I love it.

Kolia, if you're interested I'll post the DL1 RPM signal procedure and circuitry I used...you can actually see the components sticking up behind the logger. I just soldered some component leads together then crammed them in the screw-block connector. Not permanent, but got it working.

uwaeve

 

Whoa, nice set up!

 

A rubber mallet to the caliper (lightly of course) also dislodges air bubbles. If you really went 8 track days without bleeding, then the brake loss is no suprise. You should at least bleed a little out of the calipers after every day of tracking. My wheels have a large gap between the spokes so I can do a quick bleed at each corner very quickly at the end of each day without removing the wheels. Doesn't take me more than 5 minutes.

 

Ok. That's interesting. I'm going to have to think about these things when I track. Thanks

 

dave,

I agree. This wasn't the 8th track day without bleeding, only the second.

uwaeve

 

it's obvious that if you had started with Red Calipers and not orange you would have had no issues..