Interesting Issue: Melting Brake Housings

As most of you know, I have an '02 Targa that I use primarily as a daily driver but also for DEs. The car has been lowered significantly with PSS9s and GT3 adjustable swaybars. I also have the stock Carerra rear wing with the front deflector installed. I run stock brake pads and Castrol SRF brake fluid. I have never experienced brake fade. I get through 3-4 DEs on a single set of stock brake pads. To date, I have had a minor issue with the brake pad wear indicator light illuminating when the brake pads are fine. The problem is that the plastic housing for the indicator has been melting. When it melts, the sensor pops out of place and starts rubbing on the inside of the rim, which causes the idiot light to illuminate. One would assume that the front brakes would experience this long before the rears, but I have had one front and one rear fail (at different occassions). Now . . . the easy assumption is that I am overcooking my brakes at DEs but . . . I really do not think that is the case. How can I make it through 3-4 DEs on a single set of STOCK brake pads? Also, how come I am not experiencing any brake fade? I assume the problem may be due to the fact that I have been so successful in getting the air out from under my car that sufficient air is no longer circulating around the brake area, which leads to the overheating. Does this sound possible? If not, what else? If so, what can I do? I have ordered GT3 RS brake ducts, which I plan to install to help the front brakes. I am unaware of anything for the rears. Do you guys know of any other good solutions? As always, thanks in advance for your help.

Have you thought about just defeating/removing the brake wear sensors all together? Mine kept going off for the same reason and I had the local shop just defeat the sensor. Since I am checking the pads constantly before and after DE's, I know what wear has occurred, so not an issue. Also, I took it to the dealer like this and they didn't say a thing. I missed you at Summit Point last week, I didn't stay for the second day. I spun off the track at the end of the first day and decided to cool it for the weekend.

Hey Chris, I was having an off day Sunday, so I was sort of preoccupied with my lack of concentration on the track, which seemed to compound the problem. The more frustrated you get with yourself, the worse you drive etc . . . Too bad we didn't meet. My real concern is not the idiot light. I put a piece of black tape over the light and ignored it. However, if my brakes are getting hot enough to melt the housing, my brakes are simply too hot. I really want to get them cooled down so that nothing worse happens. TD

Todd....how are you going to install the GT3 brake ducts. I didn't think they were "plug and play". Sounds like a great solution if you can get it installed. BTW....have you considered running a different set of pads (i.e, track pads) for DE and then put streets back in when the DE is over? OT: I just noticed yesterday that "siberian's" avatar has your car in the background. Very cool pic.

TD: I wonder if its the DE event. I noticed and heard other people saying their brakes and tires were running hot that day. What surprised me was how hot it got in the front storage hold in my car. I was kind of fearful something might melt, it was that hot! Also, my tire pressures were fluctuating by as much as 10 pounds or more as the temps increased. I was letting air out all day as the track got hotter. Just a thought.

They are plug and play, but they have two drawbacks. First, you can no longer turn from stop to stop, because the tires will clip them at an extreme angle. Second, they are close to the ground and you can knock them off when going over obstacles. As such, I will probably install them right before a DE, and remove them right afterwards in order to minimize the chances of losing them. You NEVER want to attach something like that (e.g., brake ducts, lip spoilers) in a permanent way to your car, because you don't want them to do damage if they get ripped off. They were designed to come off when hit so that you can go pick them up and put them back on. Yes, I have just been lazy. Yeah, I really like that picture. Yes, it was very, very hot and I had tire problems as well. My fronts went from 31 to 40 (just about right) but my rears went from 31 to 46-48 (ouch). The interesting thing is that the other time I experience brake melting was at watking glen where it was cool and rainy.

Your front brake ducts should definitely handle the front problem, but I'm a little baffled by the rears. Also, I wouldn't assume that the melting of that little plastic sensor housing necessarily means that your brakes are overheating. Since your car is undergoing higher than normal stress during your track days, little issues like this are bound to pop up. Personally, I'd just pull the sensors and tape them up out of the way for track days. If your brakes aren't fading, and your pad wear is normal, they're not overheating.

I run the cup ducts and have no issues whatsoever. I highly doubt you will have a rubbing issue enough that is an impediment.

Todd, your brake fluid is boiling, change it and the sensors, the light will go off. Same thing happened to me at limerock this yr, my fluid had gone bad (blue). Don't bypass the sensors, they clue you into fluid boil. If you had pushed it longer you would have gotten some fade. Chris