I city drive alot for my work and on a really hot day... is it bad to have a system to cool your brakes using window washer fluid? because I don't want to get my rotors warped or cracked fast. the last set of front brakes I had I alraeady replaced them 4 months ago and the rotors too because it couldn't be cut because they were warped. would cooling at high temps cause the rotor to crack when spraying?
it will probably warp your rotors
If you want to cool the brakes, the best thing would be to run some air ducts from the bumper toward them.
Really though... there shouldn't be a need for this in everyday driving. If you're not riding the brakes or otherwise abusing them, they should not overheat on the street. At least not often enough to need to cool them like this.
lmfao, window washer fluid. its for windows.
Never put fluid on hot rotors intentionally. Also 100 degrees to a rotor is nothing.
Rotors commonly hit 500 to 600, so the difference is still 400 to 500 degress.
the other bad thing is that window washer fluid is flammable.
Wild Weasel wrote:If you want to cool the brakes, the best thing would be to run some air ducts from the bumper toward them.
Really though... there shouldn't be a need for this in everyday driving. If you're not riding the brakes or otherwise abusing them, they should not overheat on the street. At least not often enough to need to cool them like this.
^^^^ +1
also most brakes already have air vanes in em to keep em cool. even pep boys replacements.
if you are driving in traffic you prob wont have the speed to warrant an air duct setup.
El fuego (the grounded one) wrote:the other bad thing is that window washer fluid is flammable.
That too, the brakes on our F-16's can get to 700 degree's before we get worried.
Another thing to remember- overly cooled brakes are just as bad as overeated brakes.
the only time I ever have a problem with warped rotors is when I run em hard and then splash thru a puddle. Its almost instant warp there! Intentionally splashing them with liquid, I couldn't imagine being productive.
Scott
When I boost, you boost, we boost
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You have been banned from NEJBODY.
You've displayed wayyy too many acts of pushing people to their limits.
It's never cool to tear people down for what they want to do.
NEJBODY is a team. We're not the same as JBO where everyone bashes on eachother.
I'm surprised you show up to our meets after half of the things you say on here.
Rotors don't actually warp, and splashing them will not warp them. Splashing this could very well crack them from the stress. Read up on
Ductile Fracture.
Rotors warp from being hot enough to fuse the pad material to the rotor. When you then stop, it fuses more in one spot than others. This fused material has a higher
Coefficient of friction than the rest of the iron, and thus you feel the pulsing.
i cleaned my rims after a short trip to and from the parts store and a little smoke came off my rotors..
the reason rotors warp is because you run them hard and do not allow enough time for them to cool down before stopping. If you heat the brakes up a bunch then stop they dont cool uniformly because the brake pads are touching the rotors. If you have to stop before cooling the brakes off do not set your e brake and roll the car a couple feet every few minutes to help them cool down evenly. The easiest way to avoid warped rotors is to drive around 5 to 10 minutes without using your brakes heavily.
as for water cooling your brakes I wouldnt worry about that but just so everyone knows there are some race cars that do use a little water mist to help cool the brakes. That would be last resort after brake cooling ducts and synthetic brake fluid didnt keep the brakes from overheating. Even then I would only worry about that if this was a dedicated F1 race car.
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Or you could get some hawk hps (high performance street ) brake pads and some powerslot rotors. Thats what they are made for quicker heat dissipation.
Dennis wrote:the reason rotors warp is because you run them hard and do not allow enough time for them to cool down before stopping. If you heat the brakes up a bunch then stop they dont cool uniformly because the brake pads are touching the rotors. If you have to stop before cooling the brakes off do not set your e brake and roll the car a couple feet every few minutes to help them cool down evenly. The easiest way to avoid warped rotors is to drive around 5 to 10 minutes without using your brakes heavily.
as for water cooling your brakes I wouldnt worry about that but just so everyone knows there are some race cars that do use a little water mist to help cool the brakes. That would be last resort after brake cooling ducts and synthetic brake fluid didnt keep the brakes from overheating. Even then I would only worry about that if this was a dedicated F1 race car.
Do you know what you're talking about?? Seriously...
Rotors do not change their physical shape, nor would it matter if they did. How they cool off has nothing to do with it.
Water would be a horrid idea. Read up on ductile fracture, I even provided a link above.
For those who need a picture, this is what steel looks like after it's been brought to 900* Celcius then doused in water:
Those are micro cracks in the structure of the steel, severely weakening the metal. Granted rotors are made from iron, but it's the same idea.
Also, synthetic brake fluid does nothing for rotor or caliper temperature. It doesn't affect any temperature at all. The only thing it does it resist boil-off slightly better than standard brake fluid.
The only thing you got right was to let rotors cool down over time to avoid warping.
I found an interesting link written by carroll smith about brake myths. I found it to be interesting because it didnt agree with my previous post in which my knowledge about warped rotors was gleaned from lots of reading from brake pad manufacturers websites(I guess they dont understand their own products?).
synthetic brake fluid, or even fresh brake fluid resists brake fade which is usually why you cool your brakes in the first place. The fresh fluid doesnt have any water which accumulates in lines and then boils under high temperatures creating air bubbles. Fluid should be replaced before any brake cooling is done to insure that your problems are not fluid related. In this case warped rotors have nothing to do with brake fluid so thats not the problem.
Also...I could not find any links to support it within 2 minutes of searching so I gave up but I read in a magazine (F1 maybe?) about some high end race cars using a little mist in the brake cooling ducts to help cool their brakes. I know this is a fact and the idea isnt to spray fluid on the brakes it is to mist and evaporate the water into the air in order to further cool the air that is blowing through the brakes. This is much like water injection in an engine. You arent just pouring water into your engine, you are spraying a fine mist which cools the air going into the engine. CTS is right about metal fracturing, I guess I should have been more clear in my previous post.
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66 Suburban
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2135589
I have the Powerslot rotors, and Hawk pads, and don't notice any brake fade.
If your problem is brake fade, then I'd look at upgrading your brakes. I love mine.
Squirting a liquid on the brakes to cool them down, is not a good idea. Running some ducts that would force air to the rotors would probably be your best bet at keeping them cool.
Dennis wrote:some high end race cars using a little mist in the brake cooling ducts to help cool their brakes, I guess I should have been more clear in my previous post.
Yeah, that's correct. Gotta be careful about saying stuff round here, you'll get noobs hosing their rotors down and cracking them because
so and so said it was a good idea.
Remember:
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Anything you say will be misquoted, then used against you.
