Micah's Deep Black 200

[Micah]

Well, I didn't crash today so it seems I didn't fudge it up completely! Alcantara is a sweeeeet material to have on a wheel, just feels amazing.
Even the gf noticed after a while, but thought I'd bought a cover

 

[Micah]

Lovely,just lovely..when will I see this beauty in the flesh?

One day soon I hope!

 

[Pav]

you let you GF touch your wheel??

 

[Micah]

you let you GF touch your wheel??

Only if she has to drive, which isn't often

 

[Micah]

At last! The brakes are done!
My mate has had them for months and has taken a lot of time and effort to fully refurb the spare front and rears I bought last year. He had a total nightmare getting the paint to cure properly - an apprentice decided to use WD40 or the like in the paint booth which gave them a wrinkled effect, so back he went to blasting them down and starting over. Luckily I had supplied him with 2 cans of primer and VHT paint. For a DIY job, he's done extremely well!
All 4 had a rebuild/maintenance kit so they're as new as can be. The only crappy point is the front caliper bolts, but they're £12 each! Might see what I can do further down the line.
They were fitted on Sunday with new Renault rear disks and pads, plus Ferodo DS2500's on the front. The pedal still feels a bit long but we bled them twice, so we'll see if they get any better. I've only driven the car 30 miles so not long enough really.
Overall they've changed the look of the car and I'm glad I went with red - got some real contrast going on now.

Goodies!


The reveal...

 

[///M]

Very nice Micah. Can't go wrong with red! Looks like a decent job too.

 

[Sean197]

nice, definitely an improvement on the standard calipers Really need to get off my arse and get mine done!

 

[Jimmy]

Good choice on the red, Micah - goes really well with DB. Sounds like a good setup with the DS2500s too!

 

[Big Ben]

As above. Red looks great as does the finish! Top work

 

[Chris]

Looks great Micah!

 

[sevenfourate]

Stunning Micah ! (At long last). Look like they were always meant to be there..........

Your'e not the only one to struggle slightly with getting a solid pedal feel back after bleeding on these cars either. I (My garage) did too. Certainly had 2 if not 3 attempts until i was happy.

**And IMO the feel wont ever come back if the pedal travel is too long for you now after what you've just done The only way is a re-bleed. But by all means give it 100 miles or so to see for yourself and prove me wrong

With that set-up now you ought to be able to get a really lovely firm pedal and the stopping power will be excellent.

Great job. Enjoy !

 

[tombate911]

Looks great. Nothing better than wheels and calipers look great! really need to get into redoing all of mine. I found I got much better results using the pedal pumping method than the pressure bleeders. Just thought it was worth throwing out there.

 

[Micah]

Looks great. Nothing better than wheels and calipers look great! really need to get into redoing all of mine. I found I got much better results using the pedal pumping method than the pressure bleeders. Just thought it was worth throwing out there.

That's the thing - we bled twice with me in the car pumping the pedal, holding it down till my leg started shaking! Might give it a few weeks to let the paint harden as we got a drop of fluid on one of the calipers which really pissed my mate off. Me, I don't notice it that much, though I think he might do one of the fronts that is now spare.

 

[Micah]

Stunning Micah ! (At long last). Look like they were always meant to be there..........

Your'e not the only one to struggle slightly with getting a solid pedal feel back after bleeding on these cars either. I (My garage) did too. Certainly had 2 if not 3 attempts until i was happy.

**And IMO the feel wont ever come back if the pedal travel is too long for you now after what you've just done The only way is a re-bleed. But by all means give it 100 miles or so to see for yourself and prove me wrong

With that set-up now you ought to be able to get a really lovely firm pedal and the stopping power will be excellent.

Great job. Enjoy !

I very much doubt I'll be proving you wrong, sadly. I was mainly on the motorway on Sunday so haven't really had a chance to bed them in.
Talking of which, what's recommended for new pads? Do I need to do some hefty stopping on the motorway a few times, or just drive as normal?

 

[Pav]

lovely looking brakes..i would love to have a spare set i could play with..bet you are a happy bunny Micah..try bleeding them again and see if it makes any diff..
looks spot on

 

[Micah]

Thanks for all the nice comments guys, they have really transformed the car's looks. Can't stop myself from getting an eyeful when I walk out the front door.

 

[sevenfourate]

I very much doubt I'll be proving you wrong, sadly. I was mainly on the motorway on Sunday so haven't really had a chance to bed them in.
Talking of which, what's recommended for new pads? Do I need to do some hefty stopping on the motorway a few times, or just drive as normal?

I would think this should be useful advice bearing in mind where its coming from (EBC). Similar to what i'd do tbh:

BEDDING IN NEW EBC PADS AND DISCS

• Use brakes with minimal pressure for first 100 miles from urban speeds of 30-50 mph only. Brakes will feel very sharp and responsive but this is ONLY the brake in coating working which gives an abnormally high friction level feeling.
• Drive a further 250 miles using slightly increased brake pressure and load UNLESS in an emergency in which case apply brake as hard as required.
• Clean wheels off as there will be residue from the brake-in coating after bed in.
• Look for a full width contact across the pad depth( rotor braking band) from the outer edge of the disc to the inner and if not achieved allow a further 100-200 miles steady driving. You will see a blue-ish band evidencing contact across the rotor face. Until this band goes from the outer to the inner edges of the brake disc/rotor the pads have NOT yet fully seated. When installing new rotors, reduced width banding is quite possible due to various tolerances and slight misalignments in the vehicle chassis and is NOT a warranty defect or a reason to remove and inspect brakes. Many European cars have SINGLE PISTON CALIPERS and these tend to “Flair” open and cause the contact band described above only to be seen at the outer edge of the disc/rotor and work its way inwards taking up to 1000 miles to do so.
• After full width contact band is attained make a further 10 stops from 60 mph to 10 mph in succession with a deliberate attempt to get the brakes hot. Some smells may occur even slight smoke during this final heat up stage of the pads in early life. Then coast the vehicle for a mile to allow discs to cool. Do not pull up and park vehicle with brake excessively hot. You must try to get the discs down to below 60-80 degrees C temperature before parking the vehicle.
• When parked let brakes cool to a final cool-to-touch point. Before touching discs splash a few tiny drops of water onto the disc to asses its temperature to avoid burning fingers. If the water spots cause a “hiss” you have parked up too soon and should go out and drive slowly allowing the brakes to cool further.

NEW DISCS TAKE LONGER TO BED IN

• Fully bedding new pads to decent condition worn discs/rotors may take only 200-300 miles but when new discs are fitted at the same time bed in times to achieve outer to inner edge contact ( full width blue-grey contact band as mentioned under point 4 above ) can be as long as 800-1000 miles due to extra components needed to be aligned to the vehicle. To Short cut this you can ( and EBC recommend should) have EVEN NEW DISCS Pro Cut Lathe aligned to your vehicle. This process removes only microns of new disc material and shortens bed in time by 75% of the time it COULD take giving you better brakes faster and avoiding hot spotting and pad glazing.

BADLY WORN DISCS/ROTORS CAN TAKE AN AGE TO BED IN

Discs/Rotors with more than 0.5 mm ( 0.020 inches) of lip at the outer edge or hollow in the centre of the braking area can take up to 2000 miles to bed in and will for sure cause Noise, brake fade,vibration and pad burning. Bad rotors can RUIN your pads. 95% of brake fade and noise complaints come from poor disc/rotor condition where the pads touch only at the outer and inner edges and have no chance to deliver an effective brake.

 

[sevenfourate]

However.....

Theres alot of conflicting advice out there. And i usually use something more like this method ! (Wont let me copy and paste - sorry):

http://brakeperformance.com/bedding-in-rotors.php

 

[Micah]

However.....

Theres alot of conflicting advice out there. And i usually use something more like this method ! (Wont let me copy and paste - sorry):

http://brakeperformance.com/bedding-in-rotors.php

This seems pretty sensible - good find!

 

[peter]

However.....

Theres alot of conflicting advice out there. And i usually use something more like this method ! (Wont let me copy and paste - sorry):

http://brakeperformance.com/bedding-in-rotors.php

yup. use this method, micah. i always drive to an industrial park/zone (usually on a saturday or a sunday evening), which is near a motorway. after the bedding in, i drive onto the motorway to cool the brakes. nothing better than cold wind to cool them down.