^ I'm going to let all that pass over as 'heat of the moment stuff' and only say thanks to JantzenRX-8 for his thread. I already said my peace concerning RB. I'm confident the 1 pc story will end well, and will post the end result.

 

Agreed, it is a pet peeve of mine hence the slip up. My apologies for taking it a bit to far.

 

I really appreciate everyones input into this, I was going to buy these rotors but after seeing this discussion I can tell it would be better to wait until they get them fitted properly.

 

Installed everything today (BBK, rear rotors, brake lines). Rear caliper bracket had to be grinded on both sides.

I have a "click" sound every time I engage the brakes. Its like you can hear the pistons engaging or something is the best way to describe the sound. Everything is tight and has been double checked. Any suggestions its driving me mad.

I can be doing like 5 miles per hour, just barely press down on brake pedal to engage brakes...and "click". WTF

 

Click in the front or the rear? If its just a click in the front on slow speed braking, thats seems to be the norm with the racing brake front BBK. I have it too, I have not tried to get rid of it yet.

 

It is a clicking that is heard from the front. I can only notice it during slower braking due to engine noise and exhaust sounds at higher speeds..but if i had to guess, id say just low speeds.

 

Yay if everything is tight, no worries. Go break in the brake pads according to the pad manufactures recommendations.

 

clicking, clunking, clanking...it's "normal" for RX-8 brakes it seems. But at least they stop like cat's claws in a rug

 

LOL nice analogy...the braking is quite amazing. Im very impressed.

 

what kind of pads are you using with your new kit?

 

ET700 in front, ET 500 in back

 

There is def something goin on...sometimes i get a "popping/clunk" sound that sounds like its coming from the engine bay when I brake..I can kinda feel it in the pedal when it happens too. The noise is similar to the sound you get when an endlink is loose or something, but that is not the issue here. I dont know jack about brakes...could I have an isssue with the master cylinder or ABS or something? All I know is I had zero noises, clicks, pops clunks or w/e before the install. Pedal is stiff and the brakes can throw you from the seat if need be.

 

Not really sure and may not mean a hill of beans, but do you have a brace on the master cylinder................much like that which comes with the Mazdaspeed strut bar? I guess I'm wondering if it could be moving around on you? I don't really know though. We need someone with more experience and knowledge than I now!
I would get the wheels off the ground, try to spin them, and have someone touch the brakes and see if you can tell where it may be coming from. How's the distance from the caliper to the rim spokes....any clearance issues there? Wait............you only hear it when you brake, so that last one doesn't make a lot of sense.

 

^My 2c. I've had 7 yrs worth of driving, 6yr worth of tracking, 5 sets of pads, three different front rotors, and what I note is that with aftermarket pads/rotors and with me redoing the brakes, at low speeds (Iguess where I can hear it) going over road irregularities the brakes sound a little like they're falling apart lol. I was worried at 1st, maybe 2nd, but am used to it, even if annoying. I've tried fresh clips to no avail thinking that track heat caused the clips to weaken, but no luck. What I do do when rebuilding is use lubricant/anit-rattle grease on all components. I believe (but no proof) that the pads are simply free to move in the calipers due to this, which is appraently by design, so they move around and rattle pretty noisily over bumps as they are not in contact with the rotors and can bounce off them when shaken sufficiently.

Here's what you can try...find a place (bad road) where they rattle alot, and as they are, press gently on the brakes...you'll find the noise immediately stops.

My feeling it's the Mazda brake design. I have another car I have done the brakes on and they use springs (like a mousetrap) to hold the pads solidly, of course they don't rattle or make noise. Mazda choose not to do some design like that so they do rattle. As I said annoying, but harmless.

 

He has the Racing Brake BBK so not really applicable. There is a known clunk or clink sound at low speed.

The other thing is that 99.9% of people will hear a new noise, feel something new or notice something about their car after doing anything to it. Even as simple as an oil change or a car wash. Its human nature, out senses get hightened and we notice everything. Scratches, rattles, smells even features we didnt see before. I did auto repair for 5 years and someone thought we added window auto roll down to their car. They had it for almost a year and didnt notice.

I am not suggesting this is the case, however it is something to be awear of. Some noises may be new, some may not.

All you can do is check hardware for being tight, and component clearances. If something is loose, hitting or rubing you should see some evidence.

 

^ well, if the BBK doesn't have a method of holding the pads tight, the same reasoning applies I would think and I don't believe it does (he should know for certain).

 

Paranoia will destroy ya' ...

 

Im going to shop on Monday but here are the known facts so far:

Everything is tight.

Clicking sound every time brake pedal is pressed, ONLY while car is moving...cannot be heard if just parked and pressing brakes. If I am rolling in motion, I can press the brake pedal quickly in succession, and you will get ONE click per pedal press every time. No more, no less (assume it is the piston hitting the brake pad when brakes engaged..shouldnt the piston always be touching the pad though? What would cause it not to? Air?).

Clunking/popping from engine bay is pretty loud (if someone was in car they would react "wtf was that?!), not backfire loud or anything obviously, but loud enough to make you think something is breaking lol. Not only audible, but can be felt as well. Could be suspension related sound, very similar type clunk, but suspension was fine before install, would be strange coincidence. Is heard at low speed braking. I can feel vibration in brake pedal when it happens. Can not be reproduced while parked.

Brake pedal is pretty firm, and brakes work awesome.


Im headed in first thing Monday morning to see what can be discovered. I will update then. Thanks for the help and ideas guys, I appreciate it.

 

I can press on the pad near the top, or bottom, and get it to move slightly inside the BBK caliper. Is this normal, or should I not be able to move it?

 

That's normal, they need some float clearance ...

 

UPDATE:

No more noises..at least for now. No more caliper clicks, and no more clunking from the engine bay. What was the resolution? I took the car out to a country road and did a 80mph-10mph brake bed in. The first set I got to the 9th repetition before the pad caught on fire. I had brake fade and let it cool. I then did one more set of 6 hard 80-10 brakings without lighting them up, but smoking very well.

And that was it. No more braking noises what so ever. To clear the air, I did previously perform the racing brake "street bed in" as per their web page after the install. Its a mostly street driven car, so that's what I did. Today, in frustration, I decided to just go out to the country and light them up to see if it changed anything, lol, and apparently it did. After a 15 minute cool-down after the bed in, I drove in town for 15-20 minutes and did not experience any of the braking noises I had before. I will assume this is case closed until further problems. Wish me luck!

 

You may well have solved your err..ahh...'problem', but you also just about made me LMAO and nearly blow my dinner sandwich all over my keybd ... as I read... "The first set I got to the 9th repetition before the pad caught on fire."

I'm assuming ETxxx pads? They have a bit of history...

 

Yeah, ET700

 

Update:

Yesterday i got to test out my new braking kit on the track.

My new gear consists of:

• Racing Brake 2-piece slotted rotors
• Cabotech XP10 in the front and XP8 in the rear
• Stainless Steel lines from Epikeddie clicky

**And some 255/40/17 BFG R1's

First of all, hats off to Carbotech. I've never felt a pad bite like that and they seem to have endless grip. I found myself over-braking all the time and had to push my braking points way past my comfort zone into the unknown.

This was my first time on R-comp tires though so there were a lot of variables in the mix. I was in a constant struggle of adjusting my driving taking into consideration how my car used to perform vs how it performs now. The extra grip in the corners allowed me to reach a higher speed down the straights which instinctively made me want to brake earlier for the next turn but in reality i could brake even later than i previously was despite the extra speed. These things quite literally feel like dropping an anchor. 5x15 min sessions with zero fade, minimal dusting and they look like i just took them out of the box they wore so little. Overall the new tires and brakes shed 2+ seconds per lap. I went from consistent 1:36's down to 1:34's but i'm sure i have a second or two more shave, its just a matter of getting used to my new found performance.

The stainless steel lines from Epikeddie performed top notch as well. Pedal feel is much improved over the ole squishy OEM lines. Pedal travel has been seriously reduced and they're much more confidence inspiring. They felt rock solid from session one to session 5 when it was way over 100 degrees out.

Now for the rotors. I'd say they performed well but i dont really have a way of measuring that other than the fact that they stopped me well and didn't break on me. But i did have one problem. May be the pads fault, may be the rotor's or it may just be my own fault but i had some pretty serious uneven pad deposit issues . I bedded them in on the street how i usually do and they felt great. After the first session i couldn't really feel uneven pad deposits but when i looked at the rotors they were clearly there. During the second session i felt some vibration in the brake pedal which i assumed was as a result of the uneven pad deposits. From what i could tell it never really effected my braking performance and never really got any worse so i just carried on the day getting an occasional vibration through the brake pedal. On the street though its pretty bad and quite annoying and i need to do something about it.

So why did this happen? I had used Racing Brake ET900's on these rotors for about 100 miles before my carbotechs arrived. Are the two pad materials not liking each other? I dont really want to get my brand new rotors turned so is there any other way of removing the pad deposits? I've heard sanding works but.. Once i remove the uneven pad deposits should i continue to run the Carbotechs on a daily basis or should i swap in the ET900s or OEM?

Pics of deposits:




Pic of a happy RX8 on the track

 

You should be saying "Yeah, ET700 "

RB's pads are terrible, just ask me how i know.