I've noticed several times that during high speed deceleration, lets say from 100mph to 55 for a off ramp or because someone cuts me off in traffic the brakes have quite a bit of give to them, and it's almost like I have overactive anti-lock brakes. I've noticed this 5 or 6 times. I do track days on sport bikes and drive trailers heavy trails and know what brake fade is like. It feels like brake fade, but in the situations that it has happened I've been happily motoring along with no braking at high speeds before it happens.

When I took the car in for my 8k service and took the tech for a ride about the waste gate noise he asked me if I had any other concerns and I told him about the brakes. I did a panic stop at a light from 50 mph and the brakes worked perfectly fine. Squealed and pulsed the way I would expect anti lock brakes to work.

When I've had issues in the past there hasn't been any major pulsing, squealing, or flashing of DSC etc. on the dash like I would expect. I didn't push the issue, because I mentioned taking a corner and the tech said it was probably the DSC. I dropped the discussion, with him but didn't notice DSC flashing etc.

I noticed yesterday same issue from a high speed slow down, but in this case I was going in a straight line.

Any thoughts or has anyone else noticed anything similar to this?

 

One single squeeze from 100-55? Not going to be brake fade, especially on a JCW with these Brembo's.

I did the Miles Ahead school and whole sessions of the Indi F1 track didn't induce fade.

I've noticed as the pads have bedded the pedal feel is softer and less resolute than I'd prefer, but not actually problematic.

 

Yes, once the car is brand new the brakes are very touchy, when they bed in and you get some mileage its more normal , which might seem like fade.

 

As my JCW has broken-in over the miles it seems the exact opposite has happened. The pedal was a bit wooden and firm at first, but now the pedal pressure is quite light for killer stopping power. This makes sense from when the pads weren't broken in, and now that the transfer layer is good and the pad surface has bedded-in, it makes sense since the interface is more efficient.


I just drove a Cooper today [had my JCW in for a firmware update], and it's surprising how weak the regular brakes feel. All the more reminder how amazing these Brembo's are.

 

Both my JCW 6 pots and JCW 4 pots were very touchy at first , then they bedded in and became more predictable. Must be the compound on the F56 JCW brakes that are different if you felt that ryephile. I have not driven the new F56 JCW that much.

 

Could be either the compound or the chamfering on the pad face to assist with bed-in. It also wouldn't be the first time bed-in pads require less pedal effort in my experience.


Some pad manufacturers use an aggressive pad "break-in" coating to quicken the bed-in process. That's very likely what you experienced in the past.

 

Did your factory JCW F56 pads say brembo or Jurid/ pagid ? Did you see the pads in the F56 JCW, was it stock or did they upgrade the pads for the school. Met the whole Miles Ahead gang at a corporate event. Very nice guys. I pushed BMW driving school in SB, SC to do something like this back in the day for MINI.

 

Can't say I've looked at who made the pads, or if a telltale is even visible.

The Miles Ahead instructors were adamant however the JCW's had bone-stock brakes. Only the tires were changed.

 

You may be experiencing "ice mode." If you jab the pedal too quickly you can invoke it with the newer German abs systems. It feels like about 75% of normal stopping power. When autocrossing I remind myself to get bite before pressing the pedal full on.

 

http://www.pagidracing.com/products/pagid-rsl/

Or

http://www.pagidracing.com/products/pagid-rs/

http://www.pagidracing.com/products/pagid-rs/

Only thing I've found That's available this side of the pond that's not from BMW

 

Yea, bet its pagid or brembo, I figured the pads at Miles ahead where stock since no real aftermarket out there. But they could have some one off make from a sponsor that not into production cars yet.