Smoking brake pads

Status
Not open for further replies.
I

inquirer

Joined
Feb 10, 2015
Messages
378
Location
Greece
After driving downhill on a steep and windy stretch of the road with many hairpins for a few miles, repeatedly accelerating and braking hard, when I stopped I noticed that the front Ferodo Premier Eco-Friction pads were smoking for a minute or 2.

I know that these are normal street pads and that I gave them a very hard time, but driving many times on the same road in the past with the same or similar driving style never resulted in smoking pads, even with no high performance pads like normal Brembo pads or the previous generation of Ferodo Premier pads (the non Eco version).

The pads seem to perform OK after the incident, but should I change them or at least take them off for an inspection? (By the way I have installed slotted rotors that I guess help with glazing, but I'm not sure if overheating could damage all of the friction material and not just its surface.)

edit: By the way the pads are new, 1,000 miles or so.
 
Last edited:
If they used to be okay, but now they are not, I would assume it is time for a replacement.
 
Last edited:
I can't feel any noticeable difference as I said, during normal driving. I haven't pushed them to their limits again though.

But what's the standard procedure? For example if you have boiled the brake fluid it is customary to bleed it and use new. I don't know if this means that the brake fluid has a significantly boiling point after a boiling incident or if it is just a precaution, but I read that this is the norm.
 
The normal result of this incident is glazing. Your rotor's slots should eliminate that problem.

As long as they are quiet and smooth there is no problem to fix!
 
Originally Posted by inquirer


edit: By the way the pads are new, 1,000 miles or so.


New pads will smoke easier when you get them hot. In fact, if you follow the break in procedures for a lot of new pads, the procedure is designed to get them hot enough to smoke. I wouldn't worry, this is part of the process for a lot of pads to break them in, set the resin, and they will last longer.
 
I think you're fine.

You got your nearly new pads good and hot. They smoke when that happens for the first time.

As others have said, the recommended break in (bedding) procedure on new pads that I've installed gets them smoking hot, and then you drive without braking for 15 minutes to cool them.

Unless you have adverse symptoms (pulsing, poor braking performance, etc.) I would leave them alone.
 
Originally Posted by SteveSRT8
The normal result of this incident is glazing. Your rotor's slots should eliminate that problem.

As long as they are quiet and smooth there is no problem to fix!



I can't feel a noticeable difference. I haven't pushed the car the same way (and to tell you the truth I would be a bit reluctant to do it again after what I saw), but I have braked relatively hard a few times.
Brakes are still quiet.


Originally Posted by Tman220
Originally Posted by inquirer


edit: By the way the pads are new, 1,000 miles or so.


New pads will smoke easier when you get them hot. In fact, if you follow the break in procedures for a lot of new pads, the procedure is designed to get them hot enough to smoke. I wouldn't worry, this is part of the process for a lot of pads to break them in, set the resin, and they will last longer.


I have abused other normal street pads in the past. I have never experienced smoke though. I could smell the pads and feel the rotors' heat, but smoke is a completely new thing for me. As I have never felt any fade with normal pads after very harsh downhill driving I was wondering what's the purpose of upgrading the pads and using more heat resistant ones?

Anyway, the pads were not completely new. I would say that they have passed the bedding in cycle. I had heated them up in the same journey quite a lot, but I hadn't pushed them to the limit till this time. I have also stopped from speed up to 100 mph on a motorway (braking a little bit hard). By the way, heating pads maybe is part of the bedding in procedure, but definitely not overheating them. Overheating can cause damage.

I think that the eco material with less metal is what made this version of pads prone to smoking. I'm not sure if this was a one time case, or if the pads are not up to that kind of driving and I should upgrade them.
 
Originally Posted by Astro14
I think you're fine.

You got your nearly new pads good and hot. They smoke when that happens for the first time.

As others have said, the recommended break in (bedding) procedure on new pads that I've installed gets them smoking hot, and then you drive without braking for 15 minutes to cool them.

Unless you have adverse symptoms (pulsing, poor braking performance, etc.) I would leave them alone.


Heating the pads is part of the bedding in procedure. Overheating them is not. If you read my previous post I would say that I was past the bedding in period.

I have used Ferodo Premiere pads in the past, but maybe their new eco version has a different acceptable heat range.

I don't feel that the pads are damaged, but to tell you the truth I'm a bit reluctant to push the car to the limit again. Maybe the new eco version of the Ferodo pads is not up to the task.
 
Originally Posted by Martula
I think it is worth going to the service, but if you do not want, just check how they are erased!


I will also think of asking a car mechanic, but if there is a brake expert here in BITOG, I would be very interested in reading his opinion.
 
I may have missed something in your post and others comments however, I am curious to know if you also installed new rotors and if so, did you clean off the machine oil that rotors are shipped with?
 
Originally Posted by Char Baby
I may have missed something in your post and others comments however, I am curious to know if you also installed new rotors and if so, did you clean off the machine oil that rotors are shipped with?


No the smoke wasn't from oil. It was from the pads. The rotors aren't new. I had installed them a year ago. They were painted, so they had no oil.
I had them turned before installing the pads.
 
If you had experienced brake fade (loss of performance with heat) then I would agree that they were overheated.

But they performed normally despite the smoke, right?

So, I think they merely got hot for the first time. Since they're new, there is still some offgassing of materials, resin, whatever, going on.
 
Originally Posted by Astro14
If you had experienced brake fade (loss of performance with heat) then I would agree that they were overheated.

But they performed normally despite the smoke, right?

So, I think they merely got hot for the first time. Since they're new, there is still some offgassing of materials, resin, whatever, going on.


The manufacturer does not give an acceptable temperature limit for the pads (as it happens with some upgrade pads), so I couldn't answer the question even if I had measured the rotors' temperature.

I'm quite sure that treating normal pads as track day pads would be against the manufacturer's recommendations though. They are probably not officially intended for that kind of use.

Yes, they are still performing OK, but I wonder if they are up to the task for repeating that driving style or they need an upgrade even if they are not damaged at this moment.
 
I just had the same thing happen on my 2010 Accord. Front brakes were replaced 10k miles ago with Centric High-Carbon rotors and Akebono pads.

2 weeks ago, I was driving aggressively and had to make several hard stops coming down big hills with the traffic light at the bottom of the hill. After the 3rd such stop, I noticed smoke coming from the front left. I thought it might have been my engine (overheating) but I got out at the light and it was my brakes.

I feel no difference since the incident. But I did not some fade in braking power as the pads were heating up, especially right before they starting smoking. But no difference after they cooled.
 
Originally Posted by Phishin
I just had the same thing happen on my 2010 Accord. Front brakes were replaced 10k miles ago with Centric High-Carbon rotors and Akebono pads.

2 weeks ago, I was driving aggressively and had to make several hard stops coming down big hills with the traffic light at the bottom of the hill. After the 3rd such stop, I noticed smoke coming from the front left. I thought it might have been my engine (overheating) but I got out at the light and it was my brakes.

I feel no difference since the incident. But I did not some fade in braking power as the pads were heating up, especially right before they starting smoking. But no difference after they cooled.


Have you pushed the car again since you saw the smoke? Can it take a second round?

By the way how did the pedal feel when you say you experienced some fade?
 
Originally Posted by HangFire
You may have had the brakes exposed to oil or something else that smoked off once hot.


No. The rotors were clean. The smoke arose from the calipers. It was definitely from the pads. If it was oil it would have smoked earlier. I was driving on a 2 hours long mountain road journey, so the rotors were quite hot several times during the journey. It was only after the most demanding part when smoke appeared.

By the way the rotors have acquired a dark blue shade, which I think is another sign of overheating.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by inquirer
Originally Posted by Char Baby
I may have missed something in your post and others comments however, I am curious to know if you also installed new rotors and if so, did you clean off the machine oil that rotors are shipped with?


No the smoke wasn't from oil. It was from the pads. The rotors aren't new. I had installed them a year ago. They were painted, so they had no oil.
I had them turned before installing the pads.



Very good!
 
Originally Posted by Char Baby
Originally Posted by inquirer
Originally Posted by Char Baby
I may have missed something in your post and others comments however, I am curious to know if you also installed new rotors and if so, did you clean off the machine oil that rotors are shipped with?


No the smoke wasn't from oil. It was from the pads. The rotors aren't new. I had installed them a year ago. They were painted, so they had no oil.
I had them turned before installing the pads.



Very good!



I'm not sure if the pads are good though. I don't mean damaged, but if they are up to the task as I have never experienced smoke from other pads in the past.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

K
VW Brake Pads - Left, Right, Inner Outer
Replies
12
Views
1K
Audiman
I
Brake fluid overflow
2
Replies
23
Views
1K
inquirer
L
I spent about 1.5 hours JUST TO inserting brake pads into a brand new caliper. Do I need to redo it again? A few queries.
2 3
Replies
52
Views
3K
D60
The Critic
Brake Noise - only when pads are warmed up
2
Replies
22
Views
2K
D60
JHZR2
Caliper piston chrome corrosion
2
Replies
27
Views
1K
atikovi
Back
Top