Wondering how often this happens to yall. I ran my first set of carbotechs @ CMP this weekend and went to put my street set of pads and rotors back on last night. Found that both front dust boots surrounding the caliper pistons were damaged. The passenger side even looked a little melted. Is this common or was it something other than heat?

Front-left (driver's side)
Attachment 184930

Still need to grab a pic of the other one, it looks a little melted actually.

As a side note...I also bent both inside pads on the front (Carbotech XP9)

Attachment 184931

 

Dust boots? what are those? Mine disintegrated, and you can barely even find traces of their existence - that's after 6 track days. I continued to use them for another 20+ track days before switching to a BBK.

Anyway, the first thing I would do is ditch the Carbotechs... They're popular and a decent starting pad, but after having tried out different pads - DTC70 and Project Mu - I'd rather go with their offerings over Carbotech.

And yes, wearing pads down to the backing plate/cracking your rotors is a pretty common occurrence on stock calipers. Mine typically lasted 3-4 track days once I got up to pace and started driving a little bit faster and pushing harder.

 

Agreed. Ditch the carbotechs. I was lucky to get 2 days use out of a set. Also had both inner pads on a set of xp12's bend exactly the same as you.

I wouldn't worry about the dust seals on the pistons. As long as you're not offroading or driving in snow, you'll be OK for awhile. Just give em a quick check and clean when changing pads.

 

My boots also no longer exist. Comparatively, yours look new lol

 

That is normal for the boots. +1 on ditching the carbotechs. I still can figure out why people like them so much.

 

Good to know Im not the only one. I often wondered how much heat those things could really take. I'd like to find a pad that's non-corrosive, Carbo's seem to fit the bill there, plus I got a set of XP9s and a set of XP10/8 for $300. Not a bad deal even if for a single use Rears held up great though, and I used to track on OEMs and they were the first to go...couldn't even made oem rear pads last a weekend.

 

I have gotten decent use out of Front XP10s but I am eating rear XP8s. Won't run them again. Time for a brake kit for the fronts and a different pad out back. I have also gotten pretty noticeable tapering on the front and rear but I think that's normal with how much the stock caliber flexes.

 

Slightly off topic, just wanted to say I think this thread convinced me not to buy any more Carbotechs. So thanks everyone for your input.

 

I would give WinMax a try. I didn't like how project Mu club racers brake pads starts to crumble.

 

tama05 (Austin) was at the track this weekend with WinMax W4s all the way around w/ spoon calipers up front. He said he felt like the XP10s were a better pad.