Brake Pad Chunking

[NorrFam]

May not be the best place to ask this question but here goes.

 

Ive had several sets of pads that had small chunks come out of the pad with lots of pad left. Didnt seem to affect braking as it was around the edges, not out of the middle. Maybe reduced pad surface by 10% or so.

 

Anybody got any ideas on why this might happen?

 

Happened on both smooth and slotted rotors.

 

PN

[STRINGER]

Good question for sure!!!!

 

If you remember I experienced that to the extreme degree at VIR in March when a pad failed on the last session.

 

If I had to guess from lack of knowledge it would be a heat issue compounded by age of the pads. Would seem to make since to me. High heat, cool down...high heat, cool down would seem to harden the pad surface and make them a bit more brittle as time goes on. Much of this thought idea is what I think caused my pad failure at VIR in the last session.

 

With some great wisdom offered....I will be replacing my pads when they hit 60 percent used and will keep a set of those for spares for a weekend. Good advice for sure.

 

But I am sure the CMC guys will have some great wisdom to share to help you out.

[Hi Ofcr Cobra]

I had an issue with this on some hawk pads. I emailed hawk and actually got a call back from a tech. He said a small amount of material "chunking" off the edges is normal but severe crumbling is usually from not getting enough heat into them. You should see a white ash on the sides of the pad material if you are getting them up to temp, he also said running race pads under their optimal operating temp range is way worse than overheating them (from a longevity standpoint). The rotor literally grinds the pad down.