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So often that I got so frustrated when needing to see in difficult lighting conditions. Often while peeking up Desire's miniskirt. I had tried to make do with LED flashlights or work lights but found them more to be desired. I often wasted so much time trying to jerry rig up barely adequate lighting. I have toyed with buying one of these LED light that uses the same battery as the power tools but they are a bit more than I was willing to spend.
Today I found out I could get this Ridgid light from Home Depot for 12% cheaper than the lowest price on Amazon, and can have a lifetime warranty so I jumped for it. I already have three of their batteries and 2 chargers so they sucked me into their ecosystem.
It is really really bright, and can articulate nicely. It can be used without the battery as it comes with a 12-foot cord for plug into the vehicle power socket. It will be nice to have this at the tracks. It looks top heavy but the head is very light. It is that big because of the LED lights and individually reflectors. I am very impressed with the design and quality of these Ridgid tools. They came out of nowhere as a battery power tools company.
I want to have a post on Raybestos brake pad compounds in one post that I can refer to.
Raybestos ST38 "B" slightly lower mu than ST-42. Wear still not as good as ST41. Good performance over broad temperature range with minimal rotor wear. Successful in a broad range of racing series. Use in dirt where you want less bite than ST-41/ST-43.
Raybestos ST41 "A" the best high energy input racing material available. Extremely successful in all the top three NASCAR series Raced by the 2002 NASCAR Champion Tony Stewart. Maintains high mu level at extremely high temperatures without sacrificing good wear - both pad and rotor. Needs some heat to work well.
Raybestos ST42 "J" lower mu than ST-41 and ST-43. Extremely stable average and in stop output over a wide temperature range. Has been very successful when used on the rear brakes in conjunction with the ST41 on the front. Best high-temperature wear of all their materials.
Raybestos ST43 Friction level and wear rate between ST-41 and ST-42. Stability is not quite as good as 42 but better than 41. Excellent open wheel formula.
Raybestos ST44 High friction material, slightly less aggressive than ST-41
Raybestos ST45 Lower friction level than the ST-47. Could be used as a great rear to compliment the ST-47 compound.
Raybestos ST47 Has the highest friction and torque available to date. It has been engineered for long-lasting extreme heat situations and maximum rotor life. If you are looking for the most advanced-performing road race brake pad, that will simply out perform all the rest, this is it.
For some reason I thought I had posted a temp/friction graph of their entire ST series friction compound but I cannot find it. Here is a chart only. I did a bit of search and I think they never publish one. If they do they might get a lot of their industry customers very unhappy as many use their compounds for their special sauce racing pads. After using their racing pads I am a believer that you can get excellent pads at very reasonable prices if you have one of the most popular BBKs.
I cannot tell you how pleased I am seeing the ST-45 pads and the value line $35 Wilwood straight vanes rotors have been holding up so far. This has been the only set of pads that do not wedge pronouncedly after a day of track driving. I were expecting to see badly crazed rotor faces on these bargain basement rotors and they look like new. The ST-45 has less grab than the ST-41 that I used before but not too bad, and is much gentler on the rotor and itself.
It could be that I now religiously do a cool down lap which may very well the reason the rotor are holding up better.
after one hard day at ORP and the pads worn down so little
no sign of stress on this $35 Wilwood straight vanes rotor
the inside face is good too
I am going to get a set of ST-47 and try it as soon as I can. It has the highest Mu of the ST series friction material.
This was my second session of the first day. I spent the morning preparing lunch for the entire organization and only had a chance to take Desire out in the afternoon. I used the first session to break in the new Toyo R888R. What was new too is the increased rear cambers and reduced front toe in that was my DIY alignment. This was the first session that I begun to drive the new tires hard.
In the beginning of the video I include the portion leaving the paddock. It was funny as the Red Baron was just coming in after his session. He spotted Desire and decided to had another session so he could play with another Mini, and naturally Desire played hard to get . For the good first half of the video the Red Baron was on hard pursuit on our tail. A few unusual things occurred during this session.
I noticed soon the ST-45 front brake pads had significantly less bite than at PIR so I had to really stand on the pedal to extract enough deceleration at the braking zones. I noticed Desire has increased tendency to understeer at the slow corners and I initially attribute this to the Toyo tires. I would later reflect on this a realize it has more to do with the increase in camber at the rear suspension. You can hear the front tires squeal at some turns but I would soon got used to the slight increase in understeer tendency.
About half way through the session the brake light on the tachometer illuminated (you can see in the video) and I didn't think much of it. It would do that when the front pads wear out fast and the reservoir level drop below the sensor threshold. Only this time the pads were very new and they don't wear out as fast as all my prior pads. I thought it was odd that the brake warning light illuminated but didn't think its a big deal.
I came in at the end of the video to give a few things a look over and intended to check the lug bolts too as the wheels were all new. I pulled into the launch area and that was when I discovered the right front wheel arch and tire side wall covered in brake fluid. I thought no doubt one of the piston seals of the caliper has sprung a leak because of prior brake fluid boiling episodes. I was very fortunate that I didn't stay out longer and keep driving. I would have loss so much brake fluid and introduced air into the ABS module.
Oh, I didn't choose that Youtube preview. It automatically picked it for me. It is priceless as it is a 991.1 GT3 RS that I overheard the owner paid close to $300k for. I should write a misleading Youtube title like "2005 R53 Mini trashed a Porsche GT3 RS on race track" as a click bait.
I have a small day today. Just trying to ride out the sweltering heat here in the PNW and waiting for the $18 MAP transducer to arrive is like watching paint dry the progression of the infamous leaning tower of Pisa crashing down. Today's goal is not that ambitious. I would feel accomplished if I can procure a set of ST-47 pads for the Wilwood SBK (small brake kit).
I know all too well that in life most decisions are a matter of recognizing the trade offs. Racing pads are no different. What am I willing to trade to get more grab from the brakes that are contrained by the tiny 15" diameter donut wheels and tires? I had a call into my brake pad guy to find out even if it is available. I have no disillusion that with increased MU and temperature tolerance something has to give. The bad to the core Red Baron has BBK the size found on Porsche, Corvette, Camaro, and Mustangs.
Nice on the Raybestos pad info. Thanks for publishing...
As I read that post and looked at the Raybestos chart I thought... Hmmmmm, the ST45 looks like a really good pad for the MINI. Then in your next post, in your first line you said how happy you were with the ST45 pads. Well, that seems like a pretty good pad. It will be interesting to hear what you think of the ST47 pads when you get a chance to use them.
I have to believe that this idea of using a lesser pad in the rear is old-school thinking that goes back to the day of plain hydraulic brakes and no ABS where you want to make absolutely sure you had no rear wheel lock up as that will cause the car to spin. However, this makes no sense with today’s cars with ABS all the way around. Even if the MINI rear brakes are only doing 25-30%, a loss of 5 percentage points in braking ability in the rear from putting putting in a lesser pad in there, is still a 5% loss in overall braking capacity. The MINI can ill afford any loss at all, especially when we all jump though hoops to increase the car’s braking. As I noted before, I run DTC 60 pads in the rear to maximize the braking back there.
I know that in the nuclear power industry, the operators are taught to trust their instruments as they have no other basis as to determine what is happening with the plant. Part of the problems that precipitated the Three Mile Island mess was that the operators chose to ignore instruments that were tell them what was really going on and they didn’t take action based on that information. They just “knew that could not be what was happening”. This incorrect action made the TMI problem even worse than they might have been. It is a lesson I take to heart, even if I find, after checking, that there is a reason to have ignored the instrument, like when I got a low tire pressure light that I was pretty sure was from the tire having cooled off I checked it anyway. It was from the tire cooling off, but I didn’t want to go out on the track with the warning light on and take a chance that the tire was really going flat. I put the TPMS monitors into the wheels because I had 2 tires go flat on me that I found after coming off the track but didn’t know about on the track because I didn’t have the TPMS in the wheels at that time.
And, please, no more checking wheel bolt torques when coming off the track and before they have cooled to ambient. That will result in broken bolts. Just want you to be safe out there.
The sole reason that I ended up with ST-45 is I ordered ST-43 but it was forever on back order. I would eventually found out Raybestos' dim wit operations decided to take the production line off line just in the prime track season. I didn't feel like paying more than $100 for set of front pads so I was told ST-45 is the closest thing and I can have them right away. At the time I also order a set of ST-41 to try which I knew is more racy. Sure enough it is more racy and have globs of bite but seemed worn itself and the rotor out fast. ST-45 has less bite even warmed up but seems gentle on itself and the rotor, and not generate as much heat. Only time will tell.
With our tiny Wilwood that is thermally constrained the solution space is very small. Gaining something we bound to lose something.
Yes, I once thought the BRAKE indicator is such a nuisance as the rapid wear of the past pads always triggered it due to the fluid level drop from the extending pistons. I now more familiar how much the main reservoir drop to expect from different kind of pads and it is an important indicator. Losing brake or a front wheel at the end of the long straights can make a very bad day at the track. My Miniac track buddy survived the latter twice and lives to tell me about it.
I cannot say enough about the importance of knowing your car. When the axles started to go I knew immediately they were likely the cause even before I finished the turn. Attentions to detail is everything with performance track driving.
I have a set of ST-47 on order. It will not arrive soon as Raybestos has a sh1+ load of back orders to fill. I have two more sets of ST-45s to tide me over so I won't be missing any track event because of front brake pads.
about the brake indicator. I never knew it would trip from pad wear and low brake fluid level.
Who have you been ordering your Raybestos pads from?
My cousin runs a Pagid endurance pad in his M2. From your description of the ST45, it seems the pads are similar. His Pagid pads are easy on the rotors and wear well. I wonder if they are the same compound under different names? Any rate, sounds like you have a “winner” with the 45s, with no real want for the 47s. The 45s may be on my short list for pads to try once I clear out some of the new pads of other brands that I have in stock.
You are right about the tiny 12-ish” Wilwood rotors needing all the help they can get. That is why I upped the thickness to an inch; more mass. That means more heat capacity. I am hopeful that in 2 months i’ll be able to test that theory, with some amount of success. That will be with the Hawk DTC60 pads I had reasonably good success with on the 0.81” thick rotors. I expect them to be even better with the rotor upgrade. And so far, so good at the track that is less brake intensive. And that is with the BP30 pads. They love that track. I have done 3 days with them and headed into my 4th next week.
There are two brake warning indicators on R53. The yellow one in the speedo (not the thingy in the sexy swimwear when you are aroused ) that looks like an old fashion drum brake illuminates when one of the two pad wear sensors is rubbed (hold your evil thought ) through. Of course with our Wilwood sBK (x-small Brake Kit) we defeated the one for the front. The red one that says "BRAKE" on the tach illuminates when some moron leave the parking brake engaged or let the brake reservoir goes too low . I first learnt of the latter at PIR and I sweated bullets thinking of imminent doom. It turns out the BP30 worn out so rapidly that the fluid level drop below the trip point and sloshing around under hi-G didn't help.
The official supplier for Raybestos is Porterfield but they only want to sell at list prices plus shipping. I buy mine from one of the online brake pads vendors.
A number of threads got me musing a bit of how I choose to spend my hard earned money. For a long time I wasn't willing to buy this excellent LED work light and it was only $70 without battery. We often are so willing to spend money on silly things on our Mini's in the name of "upgrade". For just a set of fancy rare metal spark plugs this light is paid for. Much more if you buy that high energy coil pack, or the superconducting spark plug cable set.
Now my go to NGK spark plug is under $10 shipped, and not one but a full set of 4. They never miss a beat driving flat out on track, and I will not consider anything else no matter the fantastic claims. Oh, and I tried very hard not to get into the throttle manipulators that are supposed to make your Mini more responsive . Desire gets very aroused with just a bit of my right foot tickle. Too much foreplay and she claims to have a headache.
Its always good to get some idea of my adversary, and in this case is the MAP sensor in question. I know it is a 3-pin device so it likely has power, ground, and analog signal that the voltage is proportional to the atmospheric pressure.
This is an excerpt of the R53 wiring diagram for the MAP and TMAP.
The one in question is (before supercharger) second from the right at the bottom.YEL/WHT is the analog voltage output, RED/GRN must be + power (guessing it is 5V), and BRN/WHT must be signal ground reference.
You will not find a data sheet if you go by the part number; and not even with the generics on Alibaba. The Bentley give 2 voltage as function of pressure examples but take that with a grain of salt.
This EDN article is the best I could find that depicts a typical schematic of this type of MAP transducers. The article dates to 2006 so pretty close in the technology of that period.
It should be a relative easy trouble shooting only if I am willing to poke through insulations of the wire harness to be able to monitor the voltages. However I hate doing that if I don't need to.
I have been rather skeptical of these under chassis braces, but I was talking to my frenemy pilot of the infamous Red Baron at the track. He said that it makes a huge difference, but I didn't pursue the specifics. I was equally skeptical with the upper strut tower brace until I installed one and experienced for myself, and I was pleasantly surprised the marked difference in tightening up the ride quality as well as high speed braking stability.
I am interested in the OMP for its simplicity and lightness. Here is an old thread that most posters has R52s. Interestingly many claimed to experience slight increase in understeer. Again I am skeptical that you can feel it if it changes the over or under steering tendency minutely.
If the OMP does not make a positive difference, I should make the Red Baron pilot eat it.
I have a friend who had this one on his MINI. When I helped him change tires, the whole side of the car, including the rear wheel, came up in unison with the front of the car when jacking on the forward jack point with almost no flex to the body. He liked it on the track.
I suspect that either will be of a benefit, although the TSW one might add a bit more stiffness. Although I have not added one of those, it is a thing that works.
Just a word of caution. These will change the dynamics of the car and may improve front end grip. With your springs and swaybar, you already have a lot of rear bias to your roll stiffness (IE: more prone to transition to oversteer) and if front grip further improves, it will become even more prone to transition to oversteer. I noticed a change in handling from the roll bar when I added it.
Mini is pretty stiff. The big head makes the front heavy and is really nice when you need to swap the front tire with the rear. Just jack her up at the front jack point and the whole side comes up. No jack stand needed as long as you don't try to peek under the miniskirt as you can be decapitated for being a dumb pervert.
While the TSW brace might offer more stiffness my inclination is keep it simple for accessibility when servicing under. If I have a 2 pole lift I would likely opt for the more elaborate brace. Someone offer me the underbody aero panels for free and I declined because of the added complexity which just make it more PITA to service underneath. Everything is a tradeoff and the key is to recognize the best compromise.
Because of the increased in rear grip from the increase rear camber I actually want more rotation from the rear. I plan on stiffening the rear sway bar next tract outing.
BTW, it has been twice now that I wished I bring a spray bottle with me to the track. Now I bring a compact one. I will add a brake bleeding hose to the quiver too. Yes, just a proper size short hose to bleed brakes with a helper. Driving on track the highest priority is brake, brake, tires, suspension, and mental faculties. More power ranks very low on the priority list.
I have a subscription to Good-win-racing because I bought 2 sets of wheels from them. This is a daily mail the photos of those Konigs looks just like my atrium. 3 sets of boxes that I should just throw away.
These wheels are like precious metal, and going up in price every day thanks to the "so easy to win trade war" .
I bring a doggie pee pad or two with me and lay one under the car at the spot I am working. They do nice at catching fluids if they miss the respective container they are supposed to go into or the arrant nut or washer that tries to escape when working on something. When you are done doing whatever, they just roll up and go into trash, mess and all.
You are right about simple and as you said everything is a compromise, though. Maybe add a rear strut tower brace across the back? Simple but it does make a mess of the luggage area.
I have a subscription to Good-win-racing because I bought 2 sets of wheels from them. This is a daily mail the photos of those Konigs looks just like my atrium. 3 sets of boxes that I should just throw away.
These wheels are like precious metal, and going up in price every day thanks to the "so easy to win trade war" .
What, we didn’t win yet?
Figures we didn’t. But you know that “someone” is winning on that one, just not us and we get to pay for it...
Maybe I should grab a set of NM wheels for my JCW before their price goes up...
It's like boiling frogs. Few consumers notice the increase in prices on the products we buy. I paid $113 for my first set from Amazingzone . It is now nearly $140. I would like to think because of my promotion on NAM . The truth is even at $139.64 this is a bargain for being no sh1+ no nonsense form follows function wheels. I call them black hole wheels as they resemble the black hole wireframe depiction. All physics and no fashion.
The MAP I bought for a rock bottom price arrive a day earlier than schedule, and I immediately set out to test the replacement. This is at the upstream intake of the supercharger.
I went for a test drive and all seemed well. I accelerated to utilize the SC and all seemed well. I did this a number of times, and no! It went into limp home mode again. Strangely I notice the traction control light also illuminated in addition to the Service Engine Soon. It would taxed all my debugging skills, and an hour and a half later after probing with improvised test leads and DMM with the help of this additional MAP which is really a TMAP, I am very certain I got to the bottom of it. Not wanting to over optimistic of my fault isolation I conducted a sequence of verification tests a number of time to confirm the causality.
In addition to the electrical debug I first made sure I didn't do something stupid when installing the new supercharger a month ago. It is very easy to screw up something like a vacuum line or gasket and to fix it you will have to remove the whole front end. Certainly not a mistake you want to make. I was satisfied there is none of that.
Only that I will have to order another part to verify my diagnosis. If I am a MINI shop I would certainly have spare parts like these on the shelf ready to swap in, but we are a very small track team with limited budget. Like I said in the outset, you cannot trust the fault message to tell you what the root cause is/are.
I am extremely thankful to have INPA which allow me to conduct a number of tests very quickly. It is an invaluable piece of software for debugging drivetrain problems. If you bemoan it is a horrible piece of software, don't use it and write your own.
Oh, I found out through these psychoanalysis sessions Desire root is Deutsche. Her native name is Verlangen.
here is proof Desire is really Verlangen
OK, went online shopping for the needed part. Part on order but will be like waiting for glacial movement for it to arrive and the worst is this is the beginning of a weekend.
Here are more photos from the debug session. I would eventually narrowed down the culprit.
Desire spoke German under the spell of psychotherapy
There is not a chance in hell that this diagnostic could be done successfully at the track. Come think of it, may be not if I had all these equipment plus a spare parts or two.
Sad to say, but I’m lost here. I’m not seeing differences in the pictures that would show me that something is amiss somewhere. But, clearly you are far ahead of me in reading this mix of data you are showing. Go-you that have the where-with-all to do this diagnosis. The rest of us would call AAA, have the car delivered at the Dealer (who I have a good relationship with) and cover the charges in plastic. Hope the new part that is on order comes a day early and it is what is needed. Oh, and no need to write anything more for me on your diagnosis. As long as it is sufficient for you to refer to at a later date, I only need to await the end to this chapter in Desire’s tale.
I also missed how that one picture shows Desire’s name is Verlangen. I found Fehler vorhanden, but clearly not the same... Also, I am terrible at Scrabble... Such is life...
06-12-2019, 11:51 AM
I had tried to make do with LED flashlights or work lights but found them more to be desired. I often wasted so much time trying to jerry rig up barely adequate lighting. I have toyed with buying one of these LED light that uses the same battery as the power tools but they are a bit more than I was willing to spend.
as it is a 991.1 GT3 RS that I overheard the owner paid close to $300k for. I should write a misleading Youtube title like "2005 R53 Mini trashed a Porsche GT3 RS on race track" as a click bait.
.
My Miniac track buddy survived the latter twice and lives to tell me about it.
