Ceramic Brakes - when do I need to start saving??
Discussion
Just wondering what experience people have with the carbon ceramic brakes needing replacement?
I have a 650s and given it is a £20k job, I feel I should probably plan for it :-)
Of course it will depend on how the car is driven - I don't do track days, and spend most of the time pootling along at motorway speeds or driving around town. Very light use.
Brakes have got a bit squeaky recently hence pondering this issue..... (nothing was mentioned at recent service however).
Currently on around 27k miles.
Anyone had to replace theirs??
TIA for any advice.
I have a 650s and given it is a £20k job, I feel I should probably plan for it :-)
Of course it will depend on how the car is driven - I don't do track days, and spend most of the time pootling along at motorway speeds or driving around town. Very light use.
Brakes have got a bit squeaky recently hence pondering this issue..... (nothing was mentioned at recent service however).
Currently on around 27k miles.
Anyone had to replace theirs??
TIA for any advice.
Your use does not sound dissimilar to how I use my FF (albeit my motorway speeds and braking are at higher speeds I suspect), my discs were still at more than 50% went I replaced them at c 100k km. I only had to replace them due to rust, which should not be an issue for you. As the FF is much heavier, I would hope the discs on your car to last a very long time.
Just replaced the discs and pads all round on my 570. I sourced a NOS set of discs for £5.5k (PM me for a contact if anyone else looking, including for a set of P1 discs), new pads were £1.5k and then fitting at Thorney was a few hundred (along with new Thorney springs all round).
Surface Transforms discs would have been C £12k plus VAT
There is a very interesting thread on the beetle forum with a chap who bought a set of CCM discs from a supplier in Taiwan, link below. I would have tried this route had I known I think. This type of Carbon disc is much more hard wearing than the McLaren type.
Porker discussion:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Website:
https://www.ctecarbon.com/
I replaced my discs because the surface was becoming rough and (very) small slivers of Carbon were coming off occasionally. The car is a keeper for a number of years and I'm enjoying getting the car to the standard I enjoy.
Surface Transforms discs would have been C £12k plus VAT
There is a very interesting thread on the beetle forum with a chap who bought a set of CCM discs from a supplier in Taiwan, link below. I would have tried this route had I known I think. This type of Carbon disc is much more hard wearing than the McLaren type.
Porker discussion:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Website:
https://www.ctecarbon.com/
I replaced my discs because the surface was becoming rough and (very) small slivers of Carbon were coming off occasionally. The car is a keeper for a number of years and I'm enjoying getting the car to the standard I enjoy.
jerrytlr said:
Just wondering what experience people have with the carbon ceramic brakes needing replacement?
I have a 650s and given it is a £20k job, I feel I should probably plan for it :-)
Of course it will depend on how the car is driven - I don't do track days, and spend most of the time pootling along at motorway speeds or driving around town. Very light use.
Brakes have got a bit squeaky recently hence pondering this issue..... (nothing was mentioned at recent service however).
Currently on around 27k miles.
Anyone had to replace theirs??
TIA for any advice.
Reading the forums on this I was under the impression that for non-track driving McLaren consider the discs to be lifetime of the car items, and just pads and fluids that are replaced. It's the heat that wears the carbon ceramic material, and if you aren't getting them hot on the road they just won't wear. I've also heard that they say 2000km of track driving is the life of the discs, and that doesn't go down with road driving on top. I have a 650s and given it is a £20k job, I feel I should probably plan for it :-)
Of course it will depend on how the car is driven - I don't do track days, and spend most of the time pootling along at motorway speeds or driving around town. Very light use.
Brakes have got a bit squeaky recently hence pondering this issue..... (nothing was mentioned at recent service however).
Currently on around 27k miles.
Anyone had to replace theirs??
TIA for any advice.
With the McLaren open diff and differential braking you have to be careful on track I think. The McLaren discs are not as robust as Porsche and CCM discs (Surface Transforms / CTE) are even harder wearing. (I had a set of ST's on a 991 GT3 and they were as hard and smooth as new after many track days).
You simply cannot judge brake life on miles.
If I drive from Watford to Newcastle on a Sunday morning I'll cover 270 miles and probably hit the brakes fewer times in those 4.5 hours than I will during 15 minutes of enthusiastic B-road driving, or 5 minutes of hard track driving. There are definitely McLarens out there on 50k+ miles which are on their original brakes, as well as some which have had them replaced at well under half that. Even if you don't work them hard you don't know what kind of use they had from a previous owner (assuming there were any). All I can suggest is that you explicitly ask about that next time they are serviced - although I have heard that it is hard to tell wear level with ceramics as they don't wear down in the same way as steel.
If I drive from Watford to Newcastle on a Sunday morning I'll cover 270 miles and probably hit the brakes fewer times in those 4.5 hours than I will during 15 minutes of enthusiastic B-road driving, or 5 minutes of hard track driving. There are definitely McLarens out there on 50k+ miles which are on their original brakes, as well as some which have had them replaced at well under half that. Even if you don't work them hard you don't know what kind of use they had from a previous owner (assuming there were any). All I can suggest is that you explicitly ask about that next time they are serviced - although I have heard that it is hard to tell wear level with ceramics as they don't wear down in the same way as steel.
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