Does anyone else have any problems with their brakes when slowing quickly from high speeds? I'm talking heavy braking from like...110-70. Steering wheel starts jumping real hard and I experience horrible brake fade. Could this be my pads or are my rotors warped, a problem with my ABS, or just me beating the hell out of my brakes too much?

 

heavy vibrations from the steering wheel at those speeds usually means your rotors are warped and need to be turned.
other factors could be brake pads, wheel balance/alignment.

 

tire wear could be a factor also...

 

If it's that bad, get your rotors turned, install a new set of pads (better than OEM, preferably, since the OEM pads aren't cutting it), and bed the new pads in properly. Your rotors probably aren't warped, but they probably do have an uneven layer of brake pad material tranfered onto them, which varies the thickness of the rotor, causing the vibration. Turning the rotors will get rid of that layer, and leave a clean surface for you to bed a new set of pads into.

The worst thing you can do to your brakes is brake hard from high speed, and then sit at a stoplight with the brakes on.

 

your rotors are probably warped from braking at that high speed. its easy to overheat and warp the stock rotors/pads with one or two stops like that. when you're braking from high speeds like that you should brake a little bit, let off to cool the rotors a bit, then brake more. Rinse and repeat. experiencing brake fade is a clear sign that u are over heating them.

get some slotted rotors and new pads. they resist heat better, and cool down faster.

 

and wear your pads faster

 

umm not really. i haven't noticed a significant increase in wear vs. stock rotors/pads and i have slotted race rotors with axxis ultimate pads.

i rather stop faster, over a shorter distance, and more times before my brakes over heat.

stopping from those speeds is gonna wear the stock pads/rotors a lot more than upgraded ones. When you overheat you pads they will glaze over, making them really smooth and slick. after they have glazed over the stopping power will suck because they have way less friction. Upgrading your brakes will prevent this.

if your gonna go fast, you might as well stop fast too.

 

I don't have any problems stopping with my stock pads/rotors from those speeds. In fact, when my brakes heat up they tend to grip more. I have not done any repeated stopping from that high a speed though. Definitely let your brakes cool after stopping like that though. You have to drive around without stopping for about five minutes or so to let them cool evenly. Also, if you do hard driving and let your brakes cool only the minimum be sure to not set your parking brake if you have to park the car. Set it on the transmission on a level surface so the pads aren't touching the disc. Don't bother getting the rotors turned, by better one

 

repeated stops is where you see the biggest difference. magazine tests always show that. and aftermarket brakes get better as they heat up.

 

After my first trip to the mountains in the RA i started experianceing the same thing. 4 trips later and same problem. its a pain but i cant afford brakes just yet. I just watch my speed and allow extra room for braking if the need arrises.

 

I can vouch that upgraded pads will do so much to your braking power. I had Axxis Ultimates on my OZ and it was tremendously great. Setbacks included LOTS of brake dust and short life span...i put on OEM's to see how much better the Axxis were and wow..I'm a little scared with these OEM crappers.

To estimate the life span, I put them on end of summer (say early August) 2004 and they died around late spring (say april?) 2005. The car is now just over 3 years old, has 83k miles, it averages 27k miles per year. August to April is 8 months, 8/12th of 27k is about 18.5k miles. Not terrible (especially going through about 6 autox's), but would like more out of brake pads..

Anyways, my first suggestion for you is to turn your rotors and get new pads..cheapest choice. If you dont want to do that, get new rotors and get new pads, preferably performance ones.

 

I'm experiencing it as well but the brakes still work and I put alot of milage on so I'm gonna let it go a bit longer before having them turned.

 

I'd rather not start a new thread on breaks... An i also don't want to hijack this one.. But this morning when i put my car in reverse my rear breaks were making what sounded like a metal on cement dragging noise... It scared the crap out of me and i looked under my car but nothing was dragging. It went away once i drove for like 2 mins. Any idea whats with that... My breaks were not engadged when it was making the noise...

 

A little surface rust on the rotor will do that. I had the same noise yesterday, went away after the first 60-0mph stop.

 

The parking brake in the RA is a drum-in-disc type, completely separate from the regular brake pad/rotor used to stop the car. You can set your parking brake without the pads touching the rotor.

Good advice for cars with the parking brake integrated into the rear calipers, though.