So I have a dual duty car, 50/50 street and track. Street pads did not cut it last time at the track so I decided to try the powerstop track day advance pads. I am thinking of only switching to those pads for track days and switching back to street pads afterwards.

I know there is a specific break in procedure...my question is lets say I bed them in, drive out to my track day, come back and switch back to street. The next time I go to a track day and switch back to track pads, do I need to bed them in again?

Or could I get away with just leaving those pads in 100% of the time?

 

Are you going to have a dedicated set of rotors for track usage?

 

As 1993 hints, if you use the same rotors you will need to bed them again when you install the track pads. You won't have to be as aggressive as the first bedding because the pads will already be "cooked".

 

Your question was answered but in case you want some light reading. Track day brakes 101:

The first time you use a new set of pads they will gas heavily and fade to the point where you wont stop effectively but you go into the first bed-in session or street drive expecting this. After repeated heavy braking zones the pedal will get hard and the car will struggle to slow down. The pads will smell as well. This is brake fade. It may take 5 heavy braking zones or 10 to get the pads to fade depending on the pad brand, speed, and tire traction. After two or three heavily faded braking zones let the brakes cool while moving and they will be "bedded". When the brakes are fading they are super hot and will degrade rapidly if you persist with 5+ heavy fade braking zones. For this reason you should cut your first track session short to let the brakes cool. The pad curing/cooking process represents 80% of making the brakes effective and its where most people in your position stop to make life easy. The pad and rotor will wear into the same shape and some of the pad material will impart into the surface of the rotor making up the other 20% of effective brakes.

If you do this on track-only pads and rotors they will stay bedded and installing the pads and rotors in the same place every track event will result in consistent braking every session including the first one. That's how you maintain the 20% brake effectiveness.

After bedding or a successful track weekend, if you drive your track setup on the street for more than a day or two without track braking force and temperature the bedding will go away. The pads are still and will always be cured which is 80% of good braking but the rotors will clean themselves. On the street most rotors are quiet when bedded and will squeak when cleaned. Your first session back to the track, bedding in clean rotors on pre cured pads may feel unbalanced or unpredictable at the limit but you shouldn't be driving 10/10 on the first session anyway. If you install pads in a different direction or corner than previously they will also feel unbalanced and unpredictable until they wear and bed in during that first session. Some pads will wear crooked or more so than others so you may think you are extending pad life by rotating the pads around but you do so at the expense of drive-ability in the first session. You could always repeat the bed in process the day before an event to save the first session.

Take advantage of having a street car and bed on the street so you dont lose your first session at the track. If you dont use separate, track only rotors with your track only pads, welcome to the majority and dont think the first session will be a total waste. If you eventually install ducts block them off during bedding to expedite the process. If you eventually install big brakes and attempt to bed in pads on skinny, hard, Chinese, street tires good luck. You might be out there for a while. Install pads in the same place every event to prevent the wiggles in the first session. If the pads are wearing really uneven rebuild or purchase new caliper(s) or try a different brand of pad. Always keep fresh brake fluid in the system so the boiling point stays high. None of this post maters if you boil your brake fluid and crash. Inspect your rotors for cracks after they have cooled down, every session. Rotors crack when the car is not moving, usually. Micro cracks are ok (see bronze wheel pic) but major cracks will occur soon after micro cracks have occurred (See rotor only pic). Keep spare front rotors for this. Autozone has lifetime warranty rotors. They look at you funny when you plop a cracked track car rotor on the counter buy they always replace it if you have the receipt. Roll the car in the pit/paddock to promote even rotor cooling and prevent cracks. Slotted and drilled rotors feel good in the brake zone but crack sooner than blank rotors. Never set the hand brake when the brakes are hot. With skill and sticky tires you may fade those pads you bought long after the bedding is done. Try em, its fine. Just trust in the bedding procedure so you dont assume the pads arent bedded properly if you experience chronic fade. If you experience chronic fade inspect the pads for disintegration and chunking. Chronic fade post bedding, due to overheated pads, will not correct itself so the pads must be allowed to cool or you risk boiling your fluid and pad failure. Both of which will cause a loss of control. If the pedal goes soft that is not brake fade, its hydraulic failure and the brake fluid has air in it. Immediately abandon any idea of speed and pit in. Hydraulic failure will only give you one warning if your lucky. Bleed the brakes and drive the next session with caution. If you cant remember the last time you changed your brake fluid, it needs to be changed.

 

I leave my track pads in 100% of the time for this reason. I only drive my car to and from the track with some occasional street driving a few times a year so it's not a big deal. Depending on the track pads you go with, you will likely have significantly less bite for street driving which can be a safety concern if you are doing a lot of street driving in cold weather.

You mentioned the car is 50/50 street and track but you didn't say how much you drive it.

 

Some MFRs (carbotech is one) claim that their pads are bedding compatible, so that you can swap between different compounds and not have to re-bed. Pretty expensive pads but they seem worth it so far and maybe you can find other companies that claim this.

 

It depends on the pad materials. Right now I'm using Hawk HP 5.0 on the street and Raybestos ST43 for track and I don't do anything special to bed them (re-bed them?) when I switch. I just drive normally and within a few stops they are back to normal. But I've read there are some other materials that are more sensitive such as those based on ferro-carbon. Try it and see how it goes.

I'm not a fan of driving with track pads all the time. Some pads, such as DT60, will be super abrasive on the rotors when driven at cold temps such that they never get up to normal track temps. I used up about half of the life of a set of front rotors doing a club drive one winter day in Colorado. I was going to the track the following day so prepped the car before the club drive. Pads were unaffected but rotors wore ridiculously fast on a 100 mile drive. If you live in a warmer climate perhaps this won't apply, or happen to the same degree. But I did not expect it and was quite surprised.

 

Apologies for posting and disappearing. This was a good read and gave me a better sense of how bedding them in works.

I went through with the procedure the night before driving to the track, and really enjoyed these powerstop track day advance pads on new centric blanks. My original plan was to switch it back to stock pads for street driving but they seem to be braking just fine at street temperatures. As you mentioned, it did slowly start to squeak and make a bit of noise as I drove on the street more but it doesn't really bother me as it's fairly quiet.

 

They work okay when it's warmer out. Even in the 60s and 70s, the first couple of stops are a little wooden until they get a little heat into them. They'll be quiet or a week or so after a track day, and the squealing will slowly return.

Swapping pads is easy, and though the Powerstops are cheap, they're still pricier than something like a Stoptech Sport, and they're a little more abrasive on rotors too.

 

I've been daily driving on them, and they seem fine in our 70s southern california weather. I will check the pad life and see how it's going, now that we have a big hold on any sort of track activity I may just switch back to stock type pads for the time being.