Repco pads on an e30

[3 SERIES 93]

Sounds like you know all the facts and figures

Merely going off the facts given, good one

Edited November 18, 2008 by 3 SERIES

[mark247 39]

Merely going off the facts given, good one

Long straight back roads ( turns into gravel ). No drive ways on the straight at hand. No trees around. Only farm land. Nearest town around 25 minutes drive away. Yea being a TOTAL idiot i guess.

[320guy 0]

Repco pads kill kids.

[Forrest 35]

I have Silverlines (from Repco) in the fronts of my e30 when i took it to manfield for a track day (car had drum rears at that stage) and they lasted about three laps at full pace before the pedal went soft with what 2-3 times per lap on the brakes from 150-160kph, surely that is alot better performance than one slow down to 100 from 190kph. just my 2c. And they work fine for general road use.

Edited November 18, 2008 by Forrest

[320guy 0]

Silverline are the worst!!!!

You need to brake harder if you arnt fadeing them in a couple of quick stops from 120 to 40~.

Edited November 18, 2008 by 320guy

[Jamez 2147483647]

Silverline are the worst!!!!

You need to brake harder if you arnt fadeing them in a couple of quick stops from 120 to 40~.

ha cracked me up

i have the oem pads that have done 300k put my foot to floor at 120km and ummm yeah nothing much happend haha

[E30 325i Rag-Top 2956]

I managed to catch my repco brake pads on fire on the weekend. The brand is Lucas. They are rubbish. Dont buy them if you actually want to be able to brake hard more than once in a single drive. Never buying pads from repco again. And they were the "best" ones they had, not the cheapies. After braking hard from around 190k once, they were toast. You could see smoke coming out from behind my wheels, oh and the smell... I am running slotted discs but i think the same thing would of happened with oem discs as well.

Just a thought i should let people know. EBC pads next time for me...

You would have serious problems if you managed to make the pads catch fire, they need to get up over 800 degrees celcius for that to start to happen. What you probably saw was something like grease or dirt burning off from either the caliper, the pads or the rotors. Any brake pad will do the same given enough hard braking, all the speed is turned into heat. Watch truck racing or the V8 supercars and often you will see actual flames, again this is dirt and grease burning off, not the pads themselves. If you had only recently installed them it is most likely they had grease, etc on them from when you put them in, hence the smoke.

Smell would be a combination of hot pads, which yes would smell, plus the burning dirt, not too bad a smell.

The reason for the bad fade could also be the fluid you are using, which can boil and give a spongy pedal. When was the last time you bled it through and replaced all the fluid - if you want to drive your car hard do it at least every year or so. Brake fluid attracts water, which makes it boil at a much lower temperature and ruins the cylinders and lines.

If you are running slotted rotors, you should really have a harder pad that is suitable for that application, not the standard Lucas pad which would be designed to operate with the solid disc face.

Final point, what do you have in the way of ducts on the brakes, you need good airflow through to cool them down, which in all honesty with a standard front bib and undertray you do not have with an E30. Are the rotors vented (325i rotors), as this again makes a big difference with fade, as they cool much, much quicker?

I would check all the above, before pointing the finger at just the pads, its only one part of the brake system, not the be all and end all.

Edited November 19, 2008 by E30 325i Rag-Top

[tibbs.james 1]

Long straight back roads ( turns into gravel ). No drive ways on the straight at hand. No trees around. Only farm land. Nearest town around 25 minutes drive away. Yea being a TOTAL idiot i guess.

As a cyclist myself and the other half as a horse rider, we frequent out back country roads with long straights that turn into gravel that also don't have any driveways on it.

I can not count the number of times i have had to quickly cut off to the side of the road because a driver has gone flying past even at a mere 120 with no regard to who else may be on the road at the time. I do not care if there was nobody on the road because anybody can come out from anywhere at any time driveways or not.

If you did 190kmh on a public road it was illegal no matter where or how you did it.

end of story. It was irresponsible and you have no way justify it.

I respectfully wish you luck with your brake rebuild and hope you can vist the the drags or a track day next time.

[3 SERIES 93]

THANK YOU JIMMY! Good to see someone else here on this forum feels the same way I do.

I was going to bring up the exact points that you did. So yea, being a TOTAL idiot I guess is correct.

[Forrest 35]

I managed to catch my repco brake pads on fire on the weekend. The brand is Lucas. They are rubbish. Dont buy them if you actually want to be able to brake hard more than once in a single drive. Never buying pads from repco again. And they were the "best" ones they had, not the cheapies. After braking hard from around 190k once, they were toast. You could see smoke coming out from behind my wheels, oh and the smell... I am running slotted discs but i think the same thing would of happened with oem discs as well.

Just a thought i should let people know. EBC pads next time for me...

Didnt I see on e30 Tech you lost ur licence a while back?? Funny how that happened.

Yes my silverlines are sh*t, will be replaced with something decent when my car is built and I may not have experienced fade early enough because that was my first time driving on the track so was being cautious.

What my point meant to highlight for "standard driving - town speeds to 120 ish" repco pads would be fine unless you were thrashing it. Seriously cant workout why you would spend so much $$ on slotted rotors and then skimp on pads...kinda canceling the improvement in performance you were looking for wouldnt it?

Anyway just my opinion

Edited November 19, 2008 by Forrest

[320guy 0]

As a cyclist myself and the other half as a horse rider, we frequent out back country roads with long straights that turn into gravel that also don't have any driveways on it.

I can not count the number of times i have had to quickly cut off to the side of the road because a driver has gone flying past even at a mere 120 with no regard to who else may be on the road at the time. I do not care if there was nobody on the road because anybody can come out from anywhere at any time driveways or not.

If you did 190kmh on a public road it was illegal no matter where or how you did it.

end of story. It was irresponsible and you have no way justify it.

I respectfully wish you luck with your brake rebuild and hope you can vist the the drags or a track day next time.

I hope your not one of those cyclists that rides in the middle of the road and dosent move over for cars.

Man that f**ks me off.

Wow, he broke the law. Who cares, Im sure everyone here has at some point aswell.

[mark247 39]

As a cyclist myself and the other half as a horse rider, we frequent out back country roads with long straights that turn into gravel that also don't have any driveways on it.

I can not count the number of times i have had to quickly cut off to the side of the road because a driver has gone flying past even at a mere 120 with no regard to who else may be on the road at the time. I do not care if there was nobody on the road because anybody can come out from anywhere at any time driveways or not.

If you did 190kmh on a public road it was illegal no matter where or how you did it.

end of story. It was irresponsible and you have no way justify it.

I respectfully wish you luck with your brake rebuild and hope you can vist the the drags or a track day next time.

You have a point. I think i would of been able to see a horse. But you are right.

[320guy 0]

Cars are for roads, horses are for paddocks.

[mark247 39]

Didnt I see on e30 Tech you lost ur licence a while back?? Funny how that happened.

Yes my silverlines are sh*t, will be replaced with something decent when my car is built and I may not have experienced fade early enough because that was my first time driving on the track so was being cautious.

What my point meant to highlight for "standard driving - town speeds to 120 ish" repco pads would be fine unless you were thrashing it. Seriously cant workout why you would spend so much $$ on slotted rotors and then skimp on pads...kinda canceling the improvement in performance you were looking for wouldnt it?

Anyway just my opinion

I have already stated in the thread why I needed to use repco pads.

Me losing my licence has nothing to do with speeding at all... and before you guys start thinking "DIC" it wasnt that either. I was just in the wrong place doing the wrong thing at the wrong time =P

Dont get mad at me man. I didnt say anything about Silverlines, are you mistaking me for 320guy?

Edited November 19, 2008 by Mark247

[mark247 39]

You would have serious problems if you managed to make the pads catch fire, they need to get up over 800 degrees celcius for that to start to happen. What you probably saw was something like grease or dirt burning off from either the caliper, the pads or the rotors. Any brake pad will do the same given enough hard braking, all the speed is turned into heat. Watch truck racing or the V8 supercars and often you will see actual flames, again this is dirt and grease burning off, not the pads themselves. If you had only recently installed them it is most likely they had grease, etc on them from when you put them in, hence the smoke.

Smell would be a combination of hot pads, which yes would smell, plus the burning dirt, not too bad a smell.

The reason for the bad fade could also be the fluid you are using, which can boil and give a spongy pedal. When was the last time you bled it through and replaced all the fluid - if you want to drive your car hard do it at least every year or so. Brake fluid attracts water, which makes it boil at a much lower temperature and ruins the cylinders and lines.

If you are running slotted rotors, you should really have a harder pad that is suitable for that application, not the standard Lucas pad which would be designed to operate with the solid disc face.

Final point, what do you have in the way of ducts on the brakes, you need good airflow through to cool them down, which in all honesty with a standard front bib and undertray you do not have with an E30. Are the rotors vented (325i rotors), as this again makes a big difference with fade, as they cool much, much quicker?

I would check all the above, before pointing the finger at just the pads, its only one part of the brake system, not the be all and end all.

Yea they were not "on fire" as such, just smoking like heck.

I have not owned the car long so I have not done brake fluid yet.

I am planning on going with EBC pads next time around, considering the discs are the EBC sport discs I think they should be suitable. They are vented.

In the way of ducting, i guess i just have the standard ducts which come in from beside the fog lights.

[|ncary 0]

But then cut off the splash guards behind the rotor and run tubing from the ducts to the back of the rotors. I'll post up a picture tomorrow. Makes quite a difference on repeated stops.

[Forrest 35]

I have already stated in the thread why I needed to use repco pads.

Me losing my licence has nothing to do with speeding at all... and before you guys start thinking "DIC" it wasnt that either. I was just in the wrong place doing the wrong thing at the wrong time =P

Dont get mad at me man. I didnt say anything about Silverlines, are you mistaking me for 320guy?

Fair enough, wasnt getting mad at you, forgot to quote the 320guy in my post. Sorry for any offence, atleast your gonna improve the safety of the car by getting decent pads for the job you require.

I am also a avid cyclist so Jimmy's post I fully agree with, I too have had many close calls.

I am looking into getting EBC's for my car as well, let me know how they go Mark

Cheers, Nathan

[bmuu 0]

i work at repco and i can tell you silverline brake pads are dangerous! they are good for you nannas toyota starlet but not much else. TRW Lucas arent the best pads you can buy from repco but you do not need to bed them in, they work when cold, low dust, low noise and are a really really good pad for everyday driving. Ferodo GP pads are the same. Ferodo XL are more for performance and are kept on the shelf. then theres Ferodo Zero and Ferodo Formula that are designed for hard use but need to be ordered. we also do Bendix

Lucas are repcos best pad for day to day driving but as you learnt not ideal for high speed braking