Anybody have any suggestions for brake pads? I have a 2013 Fit Sport and the ones I have overheat and fade.
Thanks!

 

Are you tracking the car?

 

As the previous poster asked; are you doing track days and/or auto cross and will it still be a daily driver or is it a dedicated car? If daily, will you be swapping pads and rotors back and forth or are you expecting them to do both? What level of dust and squeal are you willing to accept?

 

Just for canyon carving. One especially steep mountain road always has them over heated and fading by 3rd quarter down. Dust and squeal don't bother me.

 

So basically a daly driver?

That limits your choices to basically street pads. You will tear up autocross pads and probably not make enough heat for true race pads. I've run Hawk HPS and they seemed marginal. Basically same or slightly more stopping power than OEM without fade. Assuming they have them for your application there's a huge list of pads you can run from manufactures like EBC Green or maybe even Yellow, Hawk HPS or new HP 5.0, Carbotech 1521, Ferodo DS2500, Portifield, Project Mu (very confusing to figure out pad application and Stop Tech Sport. There's probably more?

My experience is with Hawk HPS, Hawk HP+ and Carbotech AX6. You don't want the AX6 or HP+ or any autocross pad on the street. They aren't meant for that and will get too hot especially in stop and go traffic. A friend has the Ferodo on his AP2, and they seem OK. Another has EBC Yellow on his ZO6 and again it seems OK and lastly another friend swears by his Stop Tech on his WRX.

My guess is your limiting factor is going to be what's available for your car?

I usually buy my high performance brake stuff from KNS Brakes. Call them, they're quite helpful.

KNS Brakes

FWIW: All of us autocross are cars. Mines a dedicated autocross car that the only street miles are too and from an event. The friend with WRX daily drives his WRX. He has been auto crossing for 30 years, is a national caliber auto crosser (came in 8th in his class at the 2016 Solo Nationals) and says he's tried all the brake pads and swears the Stop Tech are the best for a double duty car.

 

IANAE, but wouldn't disc upgrades help reduce fade better than pads?

 

Eh.

Better pads & fluid matter more.

I'd go with Motul RBF600 & some higher end pads, maybe something like a G-Loc R8.

 

IMHO Slotted rotors good.. Drilled rotors Not Good, they will eventually crack. (If your heating them up) Even the 1500 dollar a piece Brembos crack eventually. I've seen a section of a rotor come off at about 150 and went through the wheel and the fiberglass fender.. Brake ducts are WAY more useful than fancy rotors, the stop tech plain rotors last awesome and with ducts never had any fade issues.. (S12 Nissan with SR20, Ford mustang, Mazda RX3 etc.. )

 

You bring up a good point. When was the last time he flushed the brake fluid especially if he's been cooking the brakes?

Myself, I use the Ate 200. Probably just out of habit. It's 1/2 of what the Motul costs and has always seemed to work for me so I guess I tell myself "why change?" Been waiting for the weather to get better to do an annual brake system flush on my car.

 

I second the brake ducts. If you are driving/attacking some seriously steep mountains, you need cooling. And also good technique. Maybe you already know, but you can't ride them all the way down, you need to slow using a lower gear, or overslow and have time for brakes to cool, etc. Yes better pads will also help if they have a higher heat range, but then they might not be so good for in-town driving.

 

If you kinda look it over the fit body does just about everything it can not to catch air, I haven't looked at it much but there is almost no way to get airflow through the wheel wells to the brakes. I may add some ducts now that I'm thinking about it and happen to have the nose off the car this week...

 

Anyone know of someone who makes brake cooling ducts for my 13 fit sport?

 

FWIW there isn't any thing really magic about them, I'm thinking of cutting the fog light surrounds to attach a generic, probably use 3" duct hose from one of the race suppliers. I'll just make a tin piece that gets tweeked to fit the gap by the fog light, then hole saw through the plastic fender filler to get the air behind the wheel.
Key thing is to keep it as hign up in the body work as possible to prevent it from getting banged up.