Yep. Got some EBC reds all the way around wih some EBC front rotors. Just put in some RBF 660 fluid since I managed to boil the OEM fluid at the last event. Gonna be hitting Willow Springs International Raceway (Big Willow) June 12th and I can give some track feed-back now that the pads are fully bedded-in. :cornut:
They are a great street pad. I'm very pleased with them. Good bite and suprisingly quiet. They aren't a track pad but the temp range keeps them from glazing and they don't heat fade too much either so they let me be lazy and not swap pads/rotors for track days.
They should work well if you pay attention to brake fade. It can sneak up on you. I'm interested in your feedback on them. I'm running Green Stuffed pads too & like them for the street.
Put the same set up on mine 2 months ago and am loving the hell out of them. Just put 1k on in the Rocky, Wasatch and Bear Tooth Mts. with zero fade, noise, smell and almost no brake dust. Just solid braking whenever needed.
Well I've got to say I'm very impressed with brake performance at Big Willow. The track is not particularly punishing to brakes. There are only two hard brake zones with plenty of straights for cooling in between uses. Otherwise most braking is light touches to settle the car. That being said, there was no sign of boiled fluid. The EBC Reds and rotors worked well in conjunction with the HK R-S3 tires I'm using. I checked the front rotors with a pyrometer after I got off the track (includes a cool-down lap). I was at 420 deg F +/-5 deg consistently after hard lapping sessions. Given that there was a cool down lap I'm gonna guess I was over 500 deg F on track. Pads simply worked without fade. They certainly aren't race compounds but being that I just wanted a street compound that wouldn't argue with a bit of HPDE use. These fit the bill. I'm very happy. Questions? Comments? Beer? :beer
I am really glad you had those kinda of results with them. I feel confident recommending them to others now, though i still really want to get a set of Bobcats for myself. IMO The greens are terrible. Yes, they are quite and produce little dust, but when i really needed them....the brakes just werent there. And with an all-season performance tire (BFG G-Force) i got zero ABS click, i find that to be very un-exceptable. When i switched to the r56 brakes i used the stock pad, which has provided MUCH more capable braking in just normal driving conditions.
Based on my experience in the high mountains last month, I decided to go with the EBC Sport rotors on the rear as well and just put them on. Might as well have good water shedding ability back there, too. Got a few questions about the Motul RBF 660 fluid. Does it take 2Qts to do a fluid change? I don't track/auto-x, but how often should it be changed? I suspect more often the every 2 years as racing fluid sucks up a lot of water. I'm due for a change fairly soon or would you recommend doing it now? Thanks!
You are the second shop owner with an R53 I've interacted with that has had a bad experience with EBC Greens. I've had good luck with them but I've never had them on an R53. Perhaps something to be wary of... The one thing with EBCs is that thier bed-in process is kinda odd for the the street. You really do need to follow directions to get them to bed-in correctly. I do want to reiterate that the Reds ARE NOT a track compound and don't brake like one. They are a street compound but their formula allows them to keep working well at high temps without glazing or epic fade. Motul RBF 660 is, frankly, overkill. You're spending WAAAYYYY too much on brake fluid ESPECIALLY if you are just running around on the street. Go with ATE (Blue/200) it's cheaper and has great qualities. Better than OEM but it won't brake the bank. I used both 500 mL bottles on mine. It was enough for the brakes and the clutch. That's just a hair over one quart if I remember correctly. (Someone Google that to confirm; I could be wrong there) MINI Recommends every two years on brake fluid under normal driving conditions. If I wasn't doing track days I'd probably do it every year at least. As it stands, I'm not sure I'm gonna make it 6 months between fluid swaps.
2 years for stock brake fluid, 1 year tops for ATE Super Blue (slower water absorbtion than other fluids), 6 months for other racing fluid. When I flushed out my Super Blue last February, it took 1/2 L for the brakes and another 1/4 L for the clutch. I like the little 1/4 L bottles because you only use one to bleed the brakes. If you're using Super Blue in those 1L bottles, you might as well use the whole thing and do a full flush. Once you open any bottle of brake fluid, it starts absorbing moisture, so make a practice of recycling unused fluid that's sitting around for more than a week.
I too have followed the suggestion of not leaving brake fluid in the bottle with the same understanding Thought occurred to me that the bottle is a sealed container with a twist on lid and our cars are basically the same (in this case a master cylinder resevoir with a twist on cap) I understand that over time brake fluid absorbs water and thats why we change it out at the intervals mentioned not to mention the degradation that heat causes over time Why does brake fluid sitting in a opened bottle with a twist on cap absorb water quicker than sitting in our cars? PS Redbeard - Lookin Good!
Thank You! Btw, I forgot to mention I did set a new personal best on track (Big Willow) of a 1:44.603. No engine or suspension mods. Brakes and tires were the only upgrade over OEM. :ihih:
1:48.7XX (OEM) 1:46.4XX (Starspecs) 1:44.603 (R-S3s and Brakes) I'll be honest and say the equipment helped but this last time at Big Willow, but it all sorta "clicked" on track and I was just haulin' the mail (for me anyway) out there. The funny thing is that I know I left at least another half second out there while still driving safe. I know where I left it too. It really was just a good track day all around on Sunday.
I've sold and installed a lot of EBC green pads and had great luck with them on street cars, The issues come with people taking Greenstuff to the track, are really hard mountain driving. The Green is more of a DD pad with less dust and I never recommend it for more than that. For the ATE blue fluid, I HATE THAT STUFF. I DO NOT RECOMMEND IT. We've found that it has bad longterm effects. It does something to the seals in Both BMW's and MINIs that over time the pedal gets soft, even with changing every 6months, we've used it in other cars like vettes and porsches and had good luck with ATE in them. I've found the Motul to work better and have a higher boiling point. The 660 is a little overkill for a street car. 600 is fine.
I agree, having gone from reds up front with stock on the back (in the '04) to greens on the back (per a recommendation at the track). Greens suck! There's no brake there to grab and they are way slow to respond. And yes, the S/O uses Gromie for auotX and HPDE primarily. Next time we'll go back to stock or reds all the way around. Thanks for the reviews!
The guys that have complained about the Greens have only used'em for the street. Hated them. Shrug. I was VERY happy with the ones I used on my MkV GTI. I never tracked that though. It was AutoX'ed regularly. Once again, I don't have any experience with those pads on a MINI. Just what I've heard. First I've heard the ATE 200/Blue causing seal issues. I know there are a fair amount of guys in SoCal running that fluid in thier DD MINIs without issues(that they have mentioned anyway). Good info. I'm pretty sure I mentioned that the 660 was admittedly overkill (Fun overkill though :cornut. I was told to try Neo Synthetics Brake Fluid but the 660 was a bit cheaper and had a better dry boiling point with a slightly lower wet one. I figured it would be a better call. I'll probably swap back to RBF 600 for the next fluid change.
The particular incident involved a country road w/ no prior hard braking coming out of a corner accelerating and was greeted by three HORSES. I was doing roughly 75mph when the brake pedal was pushed through the floor board (almost literally), and the last 15mph braking forces were drastically reduced. Also had next to zero sliding tire from rather 'hard' tires. IMO The low dust is not an equal trade off to poor braking. Ive used ATE Super blue for the last two and half years, and recently have been complaining about a soft pedal. What is the best solution to this Way, outside from swapping fluids ?