Hey guys,

My stock rotors were on their way out so I decided it was time to get new ones last week. I ended up purchasing a set of StopTech fronts and rears, slotted, from CVR Motorsports (vendor in the classifieds). They came in within a few days and I completed my install today. Time to bake them in!!!

1. I went down a back road and did repetitive 55mph -> 10mph hard stops to get the pad to bond with the rotor.

2. After a few stops, the brakes started to fade. I noticed some smoke in the rear view mirror. Ok, they're done.

3. I continued to drive for another 10 minutes to allow the brakes to cool off.

So, at the end of the process, after the brakes cooled off, everything seems fine. The brakes have a good initial bite, they feel consistent, brake pedal feel is right on.

Q1: So, I got home and to my surprise, the rotors turned color. See pics below. I'm not sure if this is to be expected. Did I overcook them?

Q2: The rotors look to have some extra sweep space. Could I take advantage of this with a different sized pad? Or would the stock bracket not allow me to use a larger pad?

FRONT



REAR

 

titanium rotors?? extra cool!!

 

That looks like where your rotors got hot, and your pads aren't touching there to clean off the burnt "titanium" look.

 

That looks cool, like a burnt titanium look haha

 

Maybe CVR sold me titanium rotors? Here I am being concerned about this and the first 3 response are how cool that looks, lol. It does look interesting, I have to admit. At least the cops won't know who I am for doing this on public roads (cross thread humor)

 

be careful.
i did the same break in when i changed the rotors on my last car.
i thought it looked cool but thought the temperature was odd.
it only had the titanium look on one side and the rim was hotter on that side as well.
didn't pay much mind to it until my pedal went to the ground the next day after i was 10 miles from home. turns out i cooked the fluid from a stuck caliper.

 

That thought did cross my mind. AFAICT, I never boiled my brake fluid but then I don't really know how I'd be able to tell aside from a mushy pedal feel which is not what I have right now. I am planning to swap my fluid shortly. The current one must not be that good anymore, just going based on age alone.

 

If you started to get fade , you probably started to boilk the fluid.

 

Everything looks normal, the fade was due to the pads reaching their temperature limits or green fade, outgassing of volatile materials when they are new.

 

Thank you for chiming in. Everything seems just fine. The breaks feel great. The initial bite is about the same as before (pretty good) but the difference is when I apply moderate pressure. When I do that, my observation is that the car seems to be stopping a lot better. I'm using metal/ceramic matrix pads that I've been very happy with and these rotors have really complemented the setup very well. I am curious to test them in rain when I used to see noticeable loss in initial bite probably due to water being in the system. I wonder if slots will help alleviate this effect.

To be perfectly honest, I didn't expect this noticeable of a difference in brake behavior just from rotors. I've been very impressed with the product

 

I suppose that is possible. Is there a way of visually inspecting the system to tell if this was the case? Would I see any indication of that in my master cylinder reservoir?

 

Brake fluid will boil in the calipers and would not likely happen over the course of a bed-in cycle. Brake fluid usually wont boil until it has been at elevated temperatures over the course of at least a few minutes, 3-5 laps on a racetrack or so. This is something you would not likely be seeing during a bed-in cycle of only 10 stops from moderate speeds.

 

That color will go away with time. I installed my stoptech rotors on my z and took it to the track and got them hot enough to turn that way. But as I continue driving the color is slowly going back to normal.