Brake Failure!!

Mr.David

At the moment I have one of those "glad to be alive" highs of adrenalin.

Was just out on the test track here at work in a competitor vehicle (would rather not mention the brand) and was doing brake fade tests.

Hammering around the track and doing hard ABS stops into corners from 150mph+ down to 50mph. Anyway, exited one corner (After 10 laps) about 80mph and put the boot in and......nothing.

Car didnt have any throttle and I presumed it had gone into limp home mode due to an electronic fault. Was just coming up to the track exit so pulled off and started to apply the brakes.

Next thing I know the rear of the car is engulfed in black smoke and I have almost no braking force (pedal to the floor) and I realise whats happened.:eek: Eventually manage to stop the car and get out and the RH rear calliper/disc is on fire and burning all the leaking brake fluid.

It burned out after a few mins, but wow did I get a fright!! So glad it happened after a corner along the straight, had that happened coming into a corner at 160mph Mr.David would no longer be an active member of this forum!:eek:

Vegeta

You test cars for a living, nice.

Its obviously a performance vehicle if it can do 150mph, scary stuff

homer90

Beats My job

Mr.David

Work for Jaguar Land Rover as a chassis engineer. To be honest 95% of the job is mundane but it does have its perks.

What a morning!

mickdw

Nice job.

unkel

Glad you're around to tell the story

Mr.David wrote: »

Work for Jaguar Land Rover

So how are your new overlords?

Mr.David

Our indian overlords are good to be honest, much better than Ford! Ford imposed all their processes and systems upon us (which didnt transfer well from such a massive company to a niche manufacturer) and forced us to peddle out models such as the x-type.

Tata have given us much more free reign and are quite happy to let us do our thing without imposing too much.

Now lets hope this bloody recession eases up some time soon and people start buying Rangies again!

EPM

Can you tell us at all whay you were driving?!?

I'm guessing Big fast ___________________

Mr.David

I'd rather not to be honest.

Well its a Jaguar competitor - for the XF....and yes its rather quick.

Car is being towed to the workshop now so will go down and have a look (now that its not on fire) and see what the F*** happened! Presuming the brake hose was rubbing on something as I dont think the fluid boiled.

Big Nasty

Any job oportunities there?

Mr.David

MCMLXXV wrote: »

Any job oportunities there?

The only revolving door here is the exit door unfortunately!

there is a website though that you could keep an eye on, I think its jaguarlandrovercareers.com not positive though.

darragh o meara

Very scary feeling happened me last year in the rally car, 120mph along a big straight into a square right with nothing but a 6 foot stone wall in front, I hit the brakes and nothing!!!! got it around the corner with little damage but it was a real brown trousers moment. Had to nurse the car 10 miles back to service which was eventful too!!!!

Biro

Them M5's have terrible brake problems...
How many laps have you under your belt with the new XFR?

Mr.David

Just had the car up on a ramp......

The rear pads are completely worn down (though there is no pad indicator and was no noise as a result). Basically due to the pads being low their thermal capacity was greatly reduced and hence they got extremely hot. So hot in fact, that they completely melted the metal backplate!! Its completely warped!:eek:

So, the massive heat melted the piston seal which then went on fire, and the brake fluid added to the mess and flames and hey presto - brake failure!!

Now to find out, who in the workshop did the pre-test safety test for me....

Mr.David

Biro wrote: »

Them M5's have terrible brake problems...
How many laps have you under your belt with the new XFR?

Have only driven it on the roads so far, hopefully will get it on the track soon.:)

Johnboy Mac

I'm sorry but I'm finding it hard to empatize......................;)

Biro

Mr.David wrote: »

Have only driven it on the roads so far, hopefully will get it on the track soon.:)

It's my lotto winning family car without a doubt. I'm not a Jaguar fan, but I love the XF! The XFR reviews make it hard not to choose! Did you ever meet that blonde chick who's over the project with the XFR and XKR? Can't remember her name now, must look it up in the review at home again. She seems to know her stuff!

Mr.David

Do you mean Michelle O'Connor? She works with Mike Cross who is pretty well known?

Biro

Mr.David wrote: »

Do you mean Michelle O'Connor? She works with Mike Cross who is pretty well known?

That could be her. Wasn't she in charge of the XKR project?

Mr.David

Yeah she works on attribute setting so basically development of all tunables.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIHqJFxiUOc

thats her there

Ya I've worked with her briefly alright. She really really really knows her stuff!

Biro

Mr.David wrote: »

Yeah she works on attribute setting so basically development of all tunables.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIHqJFxiUOc

thats her there

Ya I've worked with her briefly alright. She really really really knows her stuff!

Yep, thats the one I'm thinking of. Clever lass!