Quote:
Originally Posted by kannibul
I was doing a bit of "hard driving" in an empty parking lot, and with that comes some hard braking...
Afterwards, my wife who was with me, commented on something being stinky, to which I replied that's the brakes. She asked me why, which I said they smell when they get hot - she of course said, aren't they semi-metallic - I said I don't think so, I think they come with organic...
So, with that, I guess this is a two-parter...
1) Are the stock pads semi-metallic or organic, or something else?
2) What makes them stink?
Bonus:
3) If they are Organic, would switching to semi-metallics be "better"?
4) When they smell, are they hot enough to be less effective?
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The smell (assuming everything else in your car smells "normal") is what the resin binders give off when they are being chemically converted to carbon. You are burning the pads and turning them into charcoal. If pushed harder, they will start to fade and become MUCH less effective!
The OE semi-metallic pads have lower temperature binders, which will melt/burn before higher temperature pads will. The binders are what holds all the chopped and ground bits in the pad together. Overheating the binders is what causes pad glazing and uneven pad deposits on rotors.
When switching to higher temp, semi-metallic pads, they will out-gas initially during bed-in when they go in to "green pad fade". Once they are bedded properly and completely cooled, you won't smell them again unless using them very hard, such as at the track or a serious canyon run.
Chris