First of all
Stock non-track brakes
Hawk HP + pads
Motul brake fluid

So after a day on the track I decided to check my brakes, and in the front brakes I found out the dust bood had bruned partially.

I already did some reaserch here, and found out that it is not bad to have the brakes without them (if cleaned with brake cleaner often), specially if I am planning on attending more track events.

The other thing which sort of bothers me is that there seemd to be a little bit of fluid residue on the rear bottom part of the calipers.

So I have some of questions.

1. Will a burned dust boot be able to cause some fluid to leak from the piston portion? or where else could the fluid had come from?(Note: The fluid on the reservoir did not get lower)

2. Do I need to take the rest of the dust boot off? and if so, how?

3. What kind of damage kind I expect to my brakes, if I dont replace the dust boots? and if any, will those damages be able to be fixed by buying new imporved brakes (i.e Stoptech, BBK).


Any help or information is greately appreciated.

 

The burned boot is not going to be an issue in the short term but should be replaced in order to keep debris from getting into the piston seal and causing a leak in the future.

As far as the fluid you saw on the caliper, it most likely was residual fluid still left in the bleeder screw that seeped out after the system warmed up. We always spray some brake cleaner down into the bleed screw to clean out any brake fluid that may have managed to hang around after bleeding.

If you do decide to keep the stock brakes and replace the dust boots with new ones, you may want to look into some titanium backing plates which will help to reduce the amount of heat that gets transferred into the calipers and prolong the life of those parts.

 

Nicolay, youre driving too hard man!! Slow down!!!

Haha, sucks that you toasted your boots...but hey, at least you know you were pushing it, right?

If you are going to do many more DEs, maybe you should think about going with OEM Brembos. They are quite a bit cheaper than BBK and from what I see are adequate for non-competitive track use. I actually replaced my pads/rotors/lines recently and had the Brembo calipers off for cleaning. Install is pretty easy and probably worth the upgrade for crazy fast drivers like yourself

 

I heard it is better to let the heat from the pads get transfered to the caliper instead of keeping them in the pads, which will cause the pads to overheat quicker.

 

Thanks for the info, I will replace the boots as soon as I can, but in the mean time I will be cleaning the calipers so that the piston does not get damaged.

I will also clean the bleeder next time, I dont like to see fluid after running, thinking that I have a leak, which I probably don't.

I'll probably change brakes in the future anyways, but I'll hold on to the stockers for a while.

So if any damage occurs to my current brakes, when I replace them, the rest of the sistem will be ok?

 

Yeah man, I was having a blast pushing on the brakes, lol. But I did make a lot of progress, the instructor was pushing me, and that helped me improve.

I thought about buyin brembos, but I'll probably save a little more and buy stoptechs or something in those grounds.

Are you going to the AutoX school event?

 

If you are getting any kind of pad fade on track, the pads either do not have a high enough maximum operating temperature and a higher performance (track) pad should be used ,or some kind of ducting or a larger brake setup should be installed to better cope with the heat being generated. In theory, a street pad with Ti plates may overheat more quickly on track than without, but street pads shouldnt be used on track to begin with anyway.

-Erik-

 

1) As with any hydraulic system, there has to be a little seepage to keep the seals lubed. So a tiny amount around ur piston is no reason to panic

2) Dont take the boot off ,U cant really ,less u take the piston out, It is interlocked on the cyl. wall in a groove between the cyl and the piston

3) Replacing the boots mean taking apart the calipers and putting a full kit in. To bad someone doesnt make a Hi temp boot , But they really wouldnt sell enough to make it worth while

Ur main help is going to be from keeping the temps down with different rotor designs - I wont get into air flow cuz I dont think that much is accomplished by it in a situation that ur in

 

I want to, but its in Ft Meyers right? Im not sure if I can make that drive...I will def try to make it though. I need to beat on my new pads/rotors to see how they hold up. Also, I want to really gauge how much of a difference the SS brake lines make. So far it seems the pedal is a lot more solid. This could be the SS lines, but I also flushed the system, so maybe that contributed to the added firmness.

 

Does Stoptech have titanium backing plates that will fit OE calipers ?

 

Thanks for the replay, really good info here.

 

While we do have them available for the track model, we do not offer those in the standard pad shape.

 

I've done the same thing to mine. The boot on my driver's rear caliper had a hole burn through it. There was no brake fluid in my piston. The boot can be replaced, and it's rather easy to do. The piston does have to be removed, but that's not hard. Then you attach the new boot using the metal clamp that comes with it. the hard part is re-inserting the boot into the bore groove that holds it, and then pushing the piston back into the bore. A small flat-head screwdriver will help to keep the boot from folding up the wrong way on insertion.
The stock rear brakes are horrible for any heavy track day. I burnt mine at the last SCCA Time Trials competition here. My rear Porterfield R4 pads buckled and broke under the strain. I never experienced any fade, however, but obviously I was near the end of a safe day. Any longer out and I think the pads would have broke and I would have been screwed. I think preventing heat from exiting the pads and entering the caliper is a bad idea, simply because the heat was too much for these race compound pads to handle, so trapping even more heat with that backing plate idea would have meant them disintigrating even earlier. Honestly, the best bet if you're working the brakes this hard is a BBK, but that would push me out of B stock so I haven't done this yet.
Will

 

As far as reassembling the calipers, I use a Brake component assy lube that I get at Napa. Its slippery as hell and makes everything go together easier without messin up the seals

 

WOW! good thing nothing broke at the track.

Is there a way you can explain to me how to remove the piston to insert the boot?
Also what exactly is the name of what you bought, and can it be purchased at a Nissan?

Thanks for sharing info.

 

If you cant pull the piston out by hand, you can use an air compressor to effectively "shoot" the piston out of its bore by blowing air into the brake line inlet port. Leave the bleed scre in so you can build pressure....you wont need much in the way of PSI to get it out.

 

The piston will come out just fine if you use compressed air like StopTech posted. Just place a block of wood in the caliper to stop the piston from smacking into the caliper end. I ordered a "caliper boot kit" from my dealer. I'll see if I can find the reciept and get a part number. It was just over a year ago, so I don't know if I still have it.
Will

 

I didnt chk Stop Techs site --But make sure u just start off with a couple LBs Press. and a stop ---That piston will come out of there like a bullet otherwise

 

Thanks everyone for the help.