Melted Brake Sensors - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

thstone · 08-06-2011, 08:36 AM

Anyone ever melt their brake sensors?

I spent last Sunday at the track, hot day (92F) on a course with lots of heavy braking. During the mid-afternoon session, my brake wear dash light came on. I pulled off the course and went to the paddock and did a quick check and everything looked ok - more than enough pad left, so I finished out the day with the dash light on and brakes working great.

This week I pulled the wheels and found that 3 of the 4 brake wear sensors had melted. 2 of the 4 sensors had pulled out of the pad (I assume after melting and losing the shape that keeps them "snapped" in) and were ground up by the rotor (which is why the brake wear dash light came on).

Replaced all four sensors and the brake wear dash light is off and all seems well.

1999 Boxster 2.5L, EBC RedStuff pads, Cquence cross drilled rotors.

As you can see here, the pads aren't worn down to the sensor holes - lots of pad left.

Here you can see the brake sensor end melted.

harryrcb · 08-06-2011, 01:27 PM

Happens often when on the track the fronts get really hot. That's why a lot of track people don't use the sensors.Make sure you cool those front brakes by installing larger coolin dams up front. the ones for ther GT2 are a little pricy but the largest you can get.

jaykay · 08-06-2011, 03:59 PM

What do the larger cooling dams look like?

Lobo1186 · 08-06-2011, 04:23 PM

suncoast here

[IMG]http://www.****************************************************.com/mm5/graphics/00000001/gt2brakeducts.jpg[/IMG]

harryrcb · 08-06-2011, 06:57 PM

Here is a picture of the stock 986 s on top, GT3 in the middle and the GT2's on bottom. you are apperently getting faster on the track and if you don't take care of this now you will most likely warp your rotors and possibly boil your brake fluid which is equally important to use a good quality hi temp fluid.

jaykay · 08-06-2011, 07:41 PM

Thanks guys....yes I have to admit I was totally out to lunch on this. I am not even sure where these are fitted. I will have to get under my front fender well again...I simply am not recognizing this component. Yes I am becoming a trackie...brakes are not feeling solid at the moment

thstone · 08-06-2011, 08:56 PM

Yes, I am getting much faster on track (and actually starting to use the brakes to more of their capability).

I already have the GT3 cooling ducts and I'm running a race brake fluid. I didn't realize that the GT2 ducts are even larger (but makes sense).

Will get those installed before I go to Laguna Seca for 3 days at the end of the month. Thanks guys!

thstone · 08-06-2011, 09:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaykay

Thanks guys....yes I have to admit I was totally out to lunch on this. I am not even sure where these are fitted. I will have to get under my front fender well again...I simply am not recognizing this component. Yes I am becoming a trackie...brakes are not feeling solid at the moment

The brake cooling ducts are actually mounted to the front control arm. They just snap onto it. Here is a pic of the GT3 brake ducts installed on my car.

Lobo1186 · 08-07-2011, 04:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thstone

Yes, I am getting much faster on track (and actually starting to use the brakes to more of their capability).

I already have the GT3 cooling ducts and I'm running a race brake fluid. I didn't realize that the GT2 ducts are even larger (but makes sense).

Will get those installed before I go to Laguna Seca for 3 days at the end of the month. Thanks guys!

honestly if you have dot 4 (thats the best right its been awhile) race fluid and gt3 ducts you shouldnt have any issues. That is exactly my setup and I used to AX up in Monterey all the time. Granted the difference in my setup is I have a base, I use steel brake lines (probably a good idea) and I removed the sensors.

DFW02S · 08-07-2011, 06:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by harryrcb

Here is a picture of the stock 986 s on top, GT3 in the middle and the GT2's on bottom. you are apperently getting faster on the track and if you don't take care of this now you will most likely warp your rotors and possibly boil your brake fluid which is equally important to use a good quality hi temp fluid.

Thanks Harry!

The GT3 ducts are $29.95.
The GT2 ducts are $273.

WHAT?
They're plastic too!
Almost 10x the cost?

thstone · 08-07-2011, 08:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lobo1186

honestly if you have dot 4 (thats the best right its been awhile) race fluid and gt3 ducts you shouldnt have any issues. That is exactly my setup and I used to AX up in Monterey all the time. Granted the difference in my setup is I have a base, I use steel brake lines (probably a good idea) and I removed the sensors.

Yeah, it seems that the only thing I need to do is to remove the brake sensors (and I'll see if I can find the GT2 ducts cheap somewhere, like a dismantler). The brakes themselves worked perfect all day, I was just surprised by the melted sensors.

Topless · 08-07-2011, 11:07 AM

A common problem on a hot day is to fry your sensors. Just tie em up out of the way. Solid rotors, a good set of track pads, Motul 600 fluid, and 997 GT3 ducts should do the trick and keep your brakes cool. This is the Boxster Spec race car setup.

Note of experience: The big GT2 ducts sound like a good idea but probably are only useful on a dedicated track car. They hang down really low and get scrubbed off on everything. I just hate leaving $300 plastic ducts in my mirrors.

jaykay · 08-07-2011, 12:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lobo1186

suncoast here

[IMG]http://www.****************************************************.com/mm5/graphics/00000001/gt2brakeducts.jpg[/IMG]

Okay great a 996 GT3 part....can't find them on suncoast right now....thanks for the part number. So I take it that most can get away with GT3s? The 2s look massive; especially when I tend to catch a little curbing here and there

jaykay · 08-07-2011, 01:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thstone

The brake cooling ducts are actually mounted to the front control arm. They just snap onto it. Here is a pic of the GT3 brake ducts installed on my car.

Yes! Thanks! I have seen these and wondered what they were intended for. I had
thought they were for streaming air flow around the arm and no way big enough to direct air to the brakes for cooling

harryrcb · 08-08-2011, 08:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Topless

A
Note of experience: The big GT2 ducts sound like a good idea but probably are only useful on a dedicated track car. They hang down really low and get scrubbed off on everything. I just hate leaving $300 plastic ducts in my mirrors.

I have been running the GT2's both on track and street, and I do a lot of street driving, for over 2 year without an issue. Maybe in San Fransisco you might have an issue. dont know for sure.

steved0x · 07-07-2014, 07:42 AM

Bumping this old thread because this same thing happened to me last weekend at Road Atlanta. 2nd day of a two day track weekend, on session 2 of 6, the brake wear warning comes on as I am coming into the hard braking into turn 10a at the end of the back straight. I wasn't sure what it was at first, but once I got through 10a/10b and headed up the hill I was able to take a closer look and read the light. I knew that I had tons of pad left all the away around, but went ahead into the pits to do a quick check of all of the outer pads. All was good so I finished my session ( basically about 1 or 2 essentially cooldown laps as we were at the end) and then I went into the paddock, ate lunch, and then took all 4 wheels off to verify. All was good, tons of pad left all the way around (not even close the hole where the sensors go). The sensors all looked good from the top (I figured I must have melted one or more of the fronts) and I was running out of time so I decided to just leave them in and ignore the light, and then remove them all when I got home. Buttoned everything back up, and then later in the day the light just magically turned itself off. I guess it must have melted in such a way to break the electrical connection, and then re-melted and closed the connection once again? Odd.

I'll update once I get in there, I figure I will find a blobbed up sensor just like in this thread...

Steve

Quote:

Originally Posted by thstone

Anyone ever melt their brake sensors?

I spent last Sunday at the track, hot day (92F) on a course with lots of heavy braking. During the mid-afternoon session, my brake wear dash light came on. I pulled off the course and went to the paddock and did a quick check and everything looked ok - more than enough pad left, so I finished out the day with the dash light on and brakes working great.

This week I pulled the wheels and found that 3 of the 4 brake wear sensors had melted. 2 of the 4 sensors had pulled out of the pad (I assume after melting and losing the shape that keeps them "snapped" in) and were ground up by the rotor (which is why the brake wear dash light came on).

Replaced all four sensors and the brake wear dash light is off and all seems well.

1999 Boxster 2.5L, EBC RedStuff pads, Cquence cross drilled rotors.

As you can see here, the pads aren't worn down to the sensor holes - lots of pad left.

Here you can see the brake sensor end melted.