Quote:
Originally Posted by RedDevil
I do have some kind of AB data though; the 'hot brake' test.
When I just got my car I was glad with the FE, but not really impressed. There seemed to be bad days; low wind, reasonable temperature, moderate driving, but not able to get the same figures as the previous day under worse circumstances.
After one of these days I saw the air vibrate in one of the wheel wells. Heat! Sure enough, the disk was almost too hot to touch. But only on that wheel; the others were lukewarm.
After that I regularly check brake temp after a drive, esp. when FE is less than hoped for. And sure enough, I had several hot brakes in the course of half a year; usually the left front but sometimes another, even the smaller rear brakes take turns.
Now that I have the extra springs up front I only have the occasional hot rear disk.
No hard numbers; the decision to check them is subjective after all. But a night and day difference for this one aspect.
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The 1997 Plymouth Voyager my Father owned had a similar problem once but it was much hotter and was smoking when I noticed it; It melted a hubcap out of shape! I think if brake drag reduction clips would help against that sort of thing they could be worth looking into. (Edit: Depending on if it's necessary for the particular vehicle.)
Come to think of it, If that smoke wasn't noted perhaps the car would've caught on fire or the tire would've popped? At this moment I don't know.