Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Brakes wet weather brake fade

Is anyone else experiencing brake fade during wet weather? This only happens occasionally and feels like I have no brakes at all but I have a full pedal though. All new disc set up about 4 months ago and just started noticing a problem. I am not losing any fluid. And of course the nit wits at Ford seem to be clueless. Hell I even put all new brake lines on the thing when I did the brakes. Talk about a pain in the arse job. Had to drop the friggin gastank.

I get that too. You didnt mention what kind of pads you have but I read that my pads (KVR carbon fibre) are affected by the wet weather.

If you've got full pedal, it's just a case of the rotors and pads being really wet. Some pad/rotor combinations are worse than others. After I go through a big puddle or heavy rain, I keep a light foot on the brake for a short distance while driving to dry them out. That way, I have brakes when I need them.

Im running standard ford pads. Damn thing is I didnt have this problem with my old pads and have never had this problem with any other car.

Do i ever! It almost feels like no brakes at all. Very scary. My next set might be cross drilled rotors. We see a lot of rain here.

*warning* This is a wild ass guess-

Do you know for certain that your pads were bedded in properly? If not bedded in, the pads will not have the optimal interface with the rotor for maximum friction. This lack of friction could be exacerbated by the wet.

How long does it take for you to get your brakes back?

Now you know why they put the "Check your brakes" signs on the highway/tollway.

I just pump and hold it for a few secs then everything is fine. But the first time scares the hell out of ya. I have done more brake jobs than I can count. It happens all to often in hard front end collisions that I work on. but this is the first time anything like this has come about.

Well i will be upgrading to the big brake kit from BAT soon and maybe this will help out.

If not just have to try to keep the some what dry and keep my distance.

After changing pads several times on these cars I found they will not tolerate cheap pads. I tried Performance Friction, Raybestos, KVR, ACDelco HP and Mintex. The Mintex are the only ones that worked better than the OEMs that came with the cars. These so called long life, low dust pads suck when it comes to stopping power. Only other ones I would try are the EBC greenstuff.

I experienced the same thing with my stock pads and discs after about 30,000 miles. I went to the KVR cross drilled rotors and carbon fibre pads hoping they would solve this problem. NOPE. The KVR's suck so bad in the rain that the problem is worse, even with the drilled rotors. I'll be going to Mintex A/F pads next spring.