Brake temp

B

Baronbb

Member
Hi, I have standard brakes with 18's on a 20i. I went out for a drive the other day in the country and there was a lot of acceleration followed by braking into corners.
When I got home I put my hand near the wheel and the heat was pouring off it.
So question is what temp could they get up to?
Anyone measured their own?
 
Sounds like a sticky caliper ! Are both wheels of same temp or one worse than the other ?
 
KERMIT1970 said:
mad4slalom said:
did you expect to be able to touch them :? ?
Click to expand...
You should be able to touch the wheel without getting burnt !
Click to expand...

Did the OP say he got burnt? Discs can easily reach 100C under high load, you can see them glow when used on track if given significant hammer. Hence brake fade at high use. Of course you'll feel heat from them for quite a while after. The wheels will take some of this heat also, but nowhere near as much as they're alloy.
 
Maniac said:
KERMIT1970 said:
mad4slalom said:
did you expect to be able to touch them :? ?
Click to expand...
You should be able to touch the wheel without getting burnt !
Click to expand...

Did the OP say he got burnt? Discs can easily reach 100C under high load, you can see them glow when used on track if given significant hammer. Hence brake fade at high use. Of course you'll feel heat from them for quite a while after. The wheels will take some of this heat also, but nowhere near as much as they're alloy.
Click to expand...
What I ment was the wheel souldnt be hot with road use !
 
Op said; 'I went out for a drive the other day in the country and there was a lot of acceleration followed by braking into corners.'

I'd take that as a bit more than usual road use so I'd expect hot brakes after a more 'spirited drive'.
 
Hey, thanks for responses.

Maybe I wasn't clear, I didn't actually touch them and don't think there is an issue, was just surprised at how hot they were when I put my hand near them.

It was as some would say a 'spirited drive' and I was just interested in how high the temp could get. If I had a fancy thermometer I would have checked, just wondering if others already had.

Cheers
 
Lidl have some cheap infra red thermometers on offer at the moment.
Ideal for checking disc temperatures.

When i first bought a Peugeot 106 i changed the brake pads.
Driving to work i could smell them burning. When i looked at the disc it was glowing orange and had cooked the pads, when i removed them at the side of the road. The calipers had jamned on.
I later discovered i had just copied the 'way round' the original pads had been fitted when i replaced them. Turns out the originals had been fitted wrong. I had fitted them in mirrored pairs, exactly as they came off. This was wrong as they should be fitted as odd pairs.

Just shows when fiiting parts, don't just copy as they come off, cross check with a diagram.
 
Do not try touching the disc after any spirited drive - you will end up in A&E Lol !

I have seen car brakes on fire - literally pouring smoke ... but that was a police traffic car years ago and they had to uprate the brakes on them all. Police drivers are taught to brake very heavily and standard cars do not like it ! BMW 5 series as traffic cars are Ok though so either brakes have come a long way or BMW's are very, very good.

Do not worry too much - brakes can take a lot of abuse and be totally fine.
 
BMWs are, generally, derided for their brake fade, which is seen as disproportionately high compared to other marques.

i'm not sure why though. I haven't looked at an M Power car that wasn't criticised for its early brake fade. It seems the heavier cars suffer the most, which makes sense.

My friend won't track his M39 as a result; he's paranoid.
 
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