Lotus Europa Community
Lotus Europa Forums => Garage => Topic started by: 2766R on Tuesday,August 28, 2018, 06:55:14 AM
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I seem to have an issue with excessive brake dust on the front wheels even after a short drive, i.e. ~15mi. As background, I'm running OEM brakes with rebuilt M/C, rebuilt servos , new calipers and cylinders on a '73 TCS. All was done during recommissioning at Ragtops and Roadsters. I have confirmed they used the standard road pads from rdent. Question: has anyone else had this issue and what, if any, solution they may have come up with. I'm thinking either semi-metalic or ceramic as opposed to (I assume) organic on the OEM set. I'm not to concerned about disk wear due to harder pad material as I will not be putting on excessive mileage or braking excessively. BTW, if memory serves me right, I had fitted Ferodo pads for Autocross (can't find a current listing), but that was over 35 years ago. Yikes!
Thanks in advance for everyones sage advice,
Gerry
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EBC greenstuff pads work very well for the street. Good braking even when cold and minimal dust.
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I've gotten very good wear and no dust from ceramic pads on my Mercedes. Many years ago I heard of a place that would make pads from a tracing but I don't remember where it was. Maybe somebody here knows.
Your autocross pads were probably DS11. I think they would require more heat for street use. They were commonly used on race cars back in the day. They may still be common.
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Hi Gerry,
Ahh, brake pads..... I'll bet you get so many alternatives that you'll end up even more confused :)
My 2p worth; I've also used EBC Greenstuff in both the Elan & Europa without servo assistance, in the UK these pads were sold as being suited to non-servo applications. I still have them in the Elan with type 16 calipers and they work well from cold and you'd be driving very hard on the road to get them to fade. It's purely subjective but I think they give more dust than the previous (supposedly standard) Ferodo pads.
The Europa now uses Mintex 1144 in the front with EBC Ultimax 2 in the rear, a combination which I do like. I think the 1144's work even better from cold than Greenstuff and again a bit subjective but I'd don't notice that much black dust on the wheels.
But... I'll be honest and say that dust/disc wear doesn't bother me too much. I look more at the friction coeff's and operating temperatures with preference to things that will work better on the road where brakes don't get the same heat ranges as track days. I just want them to work well from cold and not fade too easily.