Mixing Compounds?

[x2percentmilk]

Part A: Any definitive answer on swapping out some race dedicated pads on race day, and using crappy auto parts store pads on a the street (daily driver) without changing the rotors?

Part B: As a compromise, how long do the bobcats last on the street with an autocross every weekend or every other weekend? What about the AX6/bobcat combo?

Racing is mostly autocross or similar, maybe one, maybe two, road course days a year.

[IPD]

i'll leave this for someone more knowledgeable than i--though i do seem to recall hearing about people doing this without ill effect.

dollars to doughnuts it only works for certain types of pads though. carbon/carbon setups won't work like that, i'm 99% certain.

[x2percentmilk]

Hmm I think you are right. After a little bit of searching I came across this stoptech article:

StopTech : Balanced Brake Upgrades

Seems it will be ok if you just make sure you bed them after you change them. Neat.

[IPD]

well that's the thing, in my opinion, bedding is probably 80% "braking in" the pads & 20% making them work with the rotors.

you might be able to squirrel on by if you follow the stealth 316 advice for bbq'ing your pads to "cook" the gasses out.

[R/T93]

My ax6's wore through NEW rotors in less than a year...... 500 track miles, 10000 street miles (I am sure most of the wear was during street miles) Bullshit.

However, the rotors arent wearing evenly at all, it might be my calipers not applying evenly. The outside of the rotors is probably worn 2mm more than the inside, I need to install my SCE wide kit before these ones become unsafe.

[x2percentmilk]

Someone else mentioned the bobcats last a good long time, maybe ill just buy those and stick with them.

As the only road course ill be hitting will be at NG and MAYBE one more, I think they will suffice.

Have the rotors worn more than the pads? Do the pads look uneven as well? Id assume uneven wear is uneven caliper pressure like you mentioned. One of the caliper bolts seized on my rear brakes causing my pads to wear down so much the top of the pad looked brand new and the bottom of the pad was worn straight through to the shim. Id also assume a higher compound like that to wear alot on the street, so either is understandable, however sucky it may be :/ New rotors in 10000 miles is still surprising.

[GTOJOE]

well that's the thing, in my opinion, bedding is probably 80% "braking in" the pads & 20% making them work with the rotors.

you might be able to squirrel on by if you follow the stealth 316 advice for bbq'ing your pads to "cook" the gasses out.

There was a thread a while ago that taked about htis. I believe Maxclass [or something like that] had a lot of good things to say and the bbq'ing thing is suppossed to be no longer relevant. Was used in the old days before they improved pad material.

[MR2]

I've swapped between all sorts of pads in my car and had no problems...go nuts

[Maximal]

It really depends on the pads and the compounds. I run carbotechs and they do allow switching between their compounds but not with other brands...basically it comes down to the base compound.

Rotors are not crazy expensive so it might be best to just get a set of rotors to go with each set of pads. What I'd do is run Carbotech AX-6's on the street and XP-8's on the track. With that I never had an issue with the different compounds. You just have to bed the brakes everytime you swap compounds.

[x2percentmilk]

Yeah I'm definitely going to run carbotechs, so I guess the autozone swap is out of the question. I think for the time being bobcats will hold up on the street/autocross, and if I find myself doing some more road courses then anticipated ill look into getting some AX6's or XP8's.

Also, ill be responding to that PM soon maximal.