Break locking!

[negatron]

Hey all,

Since I've upgraded to heavy duty break pads (ferodo excels) my stopping power has been much better. The pads grip harder earlier. recently i did some testing in the dry (my car's got no abs) and when doing 40 km/h and i slam the breaks the tyres lock up and the car screeches to a halt with the tyres leaving nice rubber trails on the ground for 5m or so.

now 5 m @ 40 km/h seems a much much no? I'm running Hankook K104s so they're a decent grippy tyre, anything i can do to reduce the lock up distance?

i figure slotted rotors won't do that much good coz the wheels ar already slammed still and the car's still moving forward.

Or is it a matter of training the human abs?

[CAP]

Train the Human ABS :D

Also, don't your tires have some nice flat spots on them after all that ?

[shaohaok]

Hey all,

Since I've upgraded to heavy duty break pads (ferodo excels) my stopping power has been much better. The pads grip harder earlier. recently i did some testing in the dry (my car's got no abs) and when doing 40 km/h and i slam the breaks the tyres lock up and the car screeches to a halt with the tyres leaving nice rubber trails on the ground for 5m or so.

now 5 m @ 40 km/h seems a much much no? I'm running Hankook K104s so they're a decent grippy tyre, anything i can do to reduce the lock up distance?

i figure slotted rotors won't do that much good coz the wheels ar already slammed still and the car's still moving forward.

Or is it a matter of training the human abs?

get grippier tyres

[Otaku]

IZZ's right, you need to practice brake pedal modulation. The idea is not to lock up at all.

Locking up is bad bad bad.

I'm worried about your tyres.

[Mintos]

I second (or third ) that...just get some braking skills.

As Otaku said, the idea is not to lock up, personally i prefer non ABS as you can push the brakes harder without the anti lock system kicking in. It is just a matter of having the judgement to not let the brakes lock up. Better tires would reduce the chances of lockup, although it would put more wear on your pads. New brake pads are cheaper than new tires though :) If you are really finding it an issue, the ideal solution would be some fatter wheels with some more hardcore tyres (215s) as well as a few runs on the track/empty backstreets to train the skills.

Edited January 30, 2006 by Mintos