hey guys. I'm getting an excessive amount of brake fade when I'm driving quickly around town, or really early on when I make mountain runs. the rest of the car isn't too bad from factory in terms of performance, and it can't really be changed without spending a lot of money. I'm just looking to cut down on brake fade so I can make at least a run without having to back way off.

do I look for a different brake fluid? brake pads? if so, what is recommended for a car that is used as a DD but would also like to be driven hard every now and then?

 

Is your car an Auto or Manual? Can you consciously use more engine breaking and less brake breaking?

Also... Keep in mind that a GREAT majority of your breaking force comes from tires... The factory OE Dunflops... are not great for aggressive driving... If you really enjoy chucking the car around, swapping to something less Eco oriented and more grippy will make a HUGE difference all the way around (Personal recommendation is the 205R50/16 Continental DW)

Either way, for around $40 and an afternoon with a friend you can flush the fluid out with something like ATE Super Blue and that should make a good difference in the amount of heat the system can soak up. If that still does not do it for you, try a pad change to something like Hawk HPS. Stainless Steel lines are also readily available for the GE chassis if you want to round out the brake system upgrade. There is no reason to get fancy "drilled" rotors, they will just act like a cheese grater on your pads. If you want to do rotors too, at most get slotted, but "blanks" work just fine.

 

It's a manual. I used to race karts and did a little bit of formula car stuff, so I heel/toe when slowing down out of habit.

The tires will help, but I'm having brake fade issues, not loss of traction. I was just curious as to what sort of brake fluid to replace factory fluid with. Down the line I'm gonna mod it to be more suited to the turns, but it's got four wheels and an engine...I can still find ways to have fun in it...

 

Haha, sounds like me! I started in 1/4 Midgets, then Motocross, then back to SCCA Solo (AutoX) in the Fit

I like ATE Super Blue because it's easy to tell when the fluid is fully flushed. You can then swap back to an Amber fluid on the next job to keep things super easy.

Also at like $7.50 each, these are a cheap/simple upgrade to make the brake bleeding easier: SB8125LL Speed Bleeder

 

I'll throw this out even though it might not be relevant to your case. When I bought my Fit at 94,000 miles, the car had a lot of brake pedal travel at the top, and the car never had rear brakes done. As such, I thought that never having new rear brakes at 94,000 was excessive and that the rear brakes must not be doing their job. I had my mechanic do a brake fluid flush and adjust the rear brakes as close as possible without burning them out. I love the brakes now, and I no longer have significant travel/fade issues with the brake pedal at the top. Response is much better. Good luck with your situation.

 

^Actually... Adjusting the rear drums is sort of an easy/cheater way to effect brake balance...

Not at all a bad idea to check, and easy to pop off a wheel/drum and see where things are if your familiar with antiquated braking tech

 

Preventing brake fade? Don't use the brakes. Look how well that worked for ayrton senna

 

ah...
maybe that is why my current brake had a bit long initial pedal travel...
hopefully this initially long pedal travel will be gone after I finish changing my rear drum brake to disk brake...

anyway,
back to the thread topic,

I think if after you flush your brake fluid with better one like ATE Blue
or Motul or Castrol, and some better stock size brake pads like recommended by TPC here,...

if after the above you still experience brake fade,
then perhaps it is time for you to upgrade to larger front rotor and larger caliper.
some people here had successfully upgrade their front rotor with the Integra Type R caliper:
https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/fit-...tallation.html
and the price can be cut lower if you can source your caliper from a junk yard or rebuilt caliper...

or perhaps try this wilwood kit,... which is not expensive compare to other kit out there...
https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/2nd-...rect-bolt.html

or if you have extra budget and want to go Brembo GT kit,
they have the kit for Integra (NON Type R) that should bolt on to our car.
but this is a bit expensive, ...
oh, StopTech should have this Integra NON type R kit too, and they should be much cheaper then the Brembo, but of course this should be still over $1,500 at least... (don't know the price of stoptech)...

but then if you use larger rotor, most likely you will need to upgrade your tire too, otherwise the tire will be the limiting factor again...

Larger rotor mean it have more mass and more surface are to give you faster cooling and that mean less brake fade, and of course more braking power from larger friction area and more powerful brake torque (due to larger diameter).

again, try the cheapest method first which is changing your brake fluid,
and brake pads,
if that doesn't work, that mean you drive aggressive enough (read: late braking) that you will need larger rotor.

Good Luck

 

+1 to everything the other guys said, but if you go the route of upgrading to a OEM or aftermarket BBK (big brake kit) make sure your rims fit. I know the stock rims don't fit ITR calipers.

 

Reviving this thread.

I'm finally getting to the point with this car where fade is becoming an issue, along with spongy pedal, all that fun stuff. Pad life is getting lowish, I think i've used more pad life in the last six months than I have in the previous three years.

Was contemplating Type R calipers, but I don't think I quite need all that just yet. So i'm going to do Porterfield R4-S and Brembo blanks.

Reason i'm posting is about brake fluid. I see ATE Superblue is pretty much the cheapest performance fluid. Castrol GT-LMA is even cheaper, but i'm wondering if it will be enough. I used to run the Castrol DOT4 on my Corolla and it was fine but I didn't do as much heavy braking. I've heard internet rumors that ATE superblue will gel up when overheated, idk if there's any truth to that, I don't think these rotors/pads will get nearly hot enough to do that though so probably a non issue?

I don't think I need Motul or anything like that. Any other ideas for some semi-performance or cheaper performance DOT4 fluids? I can't find anything decent at local parts stores, it's annoying. Any chain places carry decent fluid?

 

We use ATE in our motorhomes. There is a lot more heat generated stopping one of them than there is in a Honda Fit. The reason for going to something like ATE is it's higher wet boiling point and resistance to fading do to boiling. I suggest that any DOT 4 ought have a high enough wet boiling point for a light vehicle like a Honda Fit.

DOT 3 has a wet boiling point of 284 F.
DOT 4 has a wet boiling point of 311 F,
ATE has a wet boiling point of 396 F.

 

Ah yeah, that is another reason I thought ATE SB would be good... I read that it is more moisture resistant than some of the other performance fluids and doesn't need to be changed yearly. I DO NOT want to be bleeding brakes once a year, and I think some of the higher end fluids recommend that.

30F improvement going to DOT4 is not that much... I guess i'll go with the ATE, the extra $10 is fine.

Any other suggestions for performance brake fluid that doesn't require a ton of maintenance?

 

You may have difficulty finding ATE Super Blue. ATE makes that fluid in 2 colors (Gold and Blue). The color change makes is easy see the color change when new different color fluid makes it to the wheel cylinders and calipers during bleeding.

Our Federal government has determined the blue is the wrong color for brake fluid and forced the recall of Blue only. The other two colors are still available. The airtcile I read said 440,000 liters of the stuff was recalled. I heard, but can not verify, that the recalled blue fluid was sent to Canada and Mexico. I bought some extra blue stuff before it disappears completely eoff of the market. I wonder if they will ban Rain-ex windshield fluid next because it is orange.

It seems that that our nanny state government thinks some mechanics can not tell the difference between it and windshield washer fluid.

Braking News: ATE Super Blue Deemed Illegal for US Distribution | Hooniverse

 

type 200 is the same... just different color...

getting better pads will help, along with titanium shims if you're really having some issues...

 

Thanks n9cv and apexanimal. I totally forgot I read about that recall on this board actually. That is rather silly to recall something because of color. Should ban Royal Purple people might think it's grape drank.

Type 200 it is.

Has anyone had any luck finding any decent brake fluid OTC though like in Pep Boys or NAPA? I can't find ANYTHING and all the speed shops over here are open on inconvenient hours during the week and Saturday. Unless someone knows a speed shop in South Bay that is open all day Saturday, that's be good.

I'll order online if I have to but i'd rather have a local source.

 

Yes I used PENTOSIN SUPER DOT 4 I got this at pep boys only high temp fluid I could find local and this brand makes oem fluids for vw Audi so they are legit.
http://www.pentosin.net/specsheets/p...superdot_4.pdf

Built a vacuum bleeder so bleeding is stupid easy now.

 

Perfect! Thank you, going to take a look at this as well.