We get to see cars in various cosmetic and mechanical condition thanks to offering Service. An Elise came in recently for a fluid change and the client mentioned his brakes were making some 'noise'. When we inspected the brakes, we came across wear we had never previously seen. See the picture below of the rotor that is worn so badly that the internal vanes are starting to show!
Lotus recommend that you replace your rotors when they get to 24mm thickness. This owner let it go a bit longer than that! The good news is that his rotors still 'stopped' the car well enough for him to drive 30miles to our shop! No, we don't recommend trying this at home!
We dug into our Service files to see what may have happened here. The car had just under 31k miles on it when it arrived this time. The last time we had serviced it, the car had 27k miles. We had installed new CL RC6 pads, front and rear and the rotors were used but healthy. The car is used predominately for track use but lately the client had been driving a fair amount on the street. Hmmm....
We introduced the CL pads to the Lotus community because of how well they stopped when then are cold. Getting heat into Lotus brakes is a challenge so a pad that can bite, when cold, seemed like a bonus. Since this car was getting also used on the street, the brakes were probably cold much of the time. This suggests that the CLs will wear out the rotors at a faster rate. Most people are getting 15-25k miles on a set of rotors. These rotors were worn out much faster.
We discontinued the CL back in 2018 as the dust they generated was too corrosive for our liking. Plus we were seeing accelerated wear that made us concerned about rotor life. This is another example of the tradeoffs that we need to understand when choosing brakes.
I have written about the different types of brake pads: HERE. Pad choice, like tires, is about tradeoffs that each of us are willing to accept!
