Okay, heres the situation...

The other day I was doing a wheel alignment on my Civic at my friends local Acura dealership. I began by balancing my tires. I had the car on the lift and all four wheels off. I decided to also inspect my brakes since I knew they were in need of change (~30,000 mi) and see how bad they were. Keep in mind I am a fairly agressive driver. I like to push the car to its limits. So, upon close inspection of the front rotors, I notices white spots on them. Both left and right rotors had these spots.

The spots weren't necessarily white, but allow me to describe. You know how your rotors have a clear, polished look to them? Well, Mine had that, but there were dime sized spots randomly placed on the rotor. To describe the spots, they were basically unpolished/dry looking. In comparison to the rest of the rotor finish.

Upon even closer inspection, each of the little spots were composed of tiny cracks. They looked like tiny cracks starting from the center of each spot. I am guessing due to excessive heat.

My question is, has anyone ever noticed this, or had experience with it? I plan on purchasing new rotors and pads within the next week, and would also appreciate some good rotor/pad combos. I was considering either AEM or OEM pads. I like the AEM becuase they are white, and dont show brake dust. As for rotors, I was considering Brembo slotted replacements.

Ive seen it before but not on our cars. Typically the spots are a dull grey to purplish blue color from the heat. Most likely they would have to be replaced eiteh way with heat spots on them. If your that agressive with your brakes you may want to consider a bigger rotor kit like the AEM or something along those lines to help disapate the heat.

^^^ hey nice rims...hehe

umm yea, thats not good. im getting some heat spot on my rotors, im going to upgrade to a big brake kit soon also...

The stock rotor/pad combo on our cars are junk. I had to replace mine after 17,000 miles. I found cracks in the pads and heat spots on the rotors. About 450 miles ago, I switched to EBC Green stuff pads, and rotors. The pads are very much better than stock, not as much brake dust, however their is considerably more brake noise from the new pad/rotor combo. I think the weakest part of my current setup is the fluid and lines, because brake fade is still an issue.

Thats funny, cause I have never experienced brake fade. I figure the slotted Brembo's should be supple. That way it will disapate heat better. I just wanted to know what other people have had experience with and are running. I dont think the big brake kits are worth it, or necessary. Even if you are turbo. Because, you are never really driving at the high speeds where bigger brakes are needed. Unless you plan on drag racing at the tracks and are pulling 100+ mph trap speeds. Last nite I came to a complete stop from 90 mph on the currently heat spotted rotors and the car came to a halt fine, suprisingly. So, anybody else out there with upgraded brakes willing to share their experiences?

Rotors are rotors... Unless you are cone racing or mountain racing all the time and your brakes fade you are fine.

I don't recommend using those ceramin pads though because all they do is wear your roters out fast. Well unles syou have the matching cermaic type rotors which arnt cheap.

Slotted rotors dont desapate heat better, if any thing the loss of mass in the rotor will acutally make it be able to absorb less heat..... I agree that on our cars big brake kits are not worth the extra rotational mass, there are plenty of ways to improve our current system (Correct pads/shoes and Fluid for your needs) so that Heat would not be a problem.

I'm currently running on Porterfield R4-S (Carbon Kevlar compound) pads and shoes with brembo blanks. good responce, and I havent been able to get them to fade, no matter how hard I try (Yes I tried to make my brakes fade)... Only thign that happend was boiling the brake fluid (Spongy pedal feel) , which is now my weakest point. once I switch up to ATE Super Blue, that wont be a problem.

Run Dot 5 brake fluid if your fluid boils. You will have to get rid of any rubber lines you haven't already.

As i recall our brakes are larger then the 6th gen civics. But none the less if you are an aggresive driver larger rotors will help reduce heat build up. This will also help reduce brake fade. Flushing your brakes regularly errrr every couple years ( depending on envirorment)will reduce the moisture content of the brake fluid and this too will reduce brake fade. When you experence brake fade its the fluid in the caliper getting HOT and boiling the moisture that is in the fluid. and this is when the pedal will fade. Now im sure someone will say there aint water in my brake fluid , well your wrong there is water in your fluid unless you just flushed it. If you've ever had brake fluid on your skin you will notice how it SUCKS the moitsure from your skin to the point where you can feel it drying your skin out. Most people overlook flushing the brakes out.

I've personally caused brake fade on a customers car in a matter of about 15 seconds test driving it around the block at no more then 30 mph. I was trying to simulate mountain driving. Now if you have never expirenced brake fade it can be a scarry situation to be in.Hehe, thanx

I been to the point its either i down shif to stop or fly off the mountain

it is very scary...

heh, 30 mph in a residental neighbor hood and i was frantically reaching for the E-brake

I need to fix that e-brake of mine hehe

DOT 5 is a Silicon based fluid, very hard to deal with and best avoided... Its better to run a DOT 5.1 Fluid like Motol 600 or a High end Dot 4 fluid like ATE Super Blue. has the same heat cabibilities but isnt silicon.

I can relate.

I use dot 5 in my Datsun 510 and all my motorcycles I haven't had nay trouble, but then again most people arnt that mechanically inclined and are better off using what is easier to handle.

True, but there are 2 types of brake fade, one is where the fluid boils, the other is when the pad/rotor have absorbed as much heat as they can and can nolonger functun properly (the binding compounds in the pads start Vaporizing and creating a Gass between the Pad and Rotor, reducing the Friction level between the two). This is a big problem with OEM Organic pads/shoes.

Honda puts DOT 3 Fluid in our cars stock, that has a minimum Dry Boiling point of 401 DEG and wet of 284 DEG, ATE super blue (High end DOT 4) has a dry boiling point of 536 and a wet of 392 (It also absorbs water very slowly) Motul 600 has a dry boiling point of 585 and a Wet of 421, however it has a High water absorbtion rate, so youd be flushing your fluid a lot more often.

These are the reasons I've been told to avoid DOT 5 fluid

Yea the 510 brakes I installed my self running all new lines and installing willwod calipers and disks.

I havn't had any corrosion problems, but we used Dot 5 in the south west tour race cars I worked on so I figured I should use it :-D I will have ot look into switching over :-D

anyone know where we can get braided lines, the cost, and ease of install?