Yesterday, I got my Hawk HT-10 race pads installed on the M3. I’d like to say that I did the work myself, but I didn’t. Curt did the work, and I watched and learned. In addition, we bled the brakes, flushed the coolant, and replaced the plastic coolant reservoir tank that had cracked. This is a known failure point in the cooling system on E36 BMWs, because the epoxy connecting the base of the tank to the top cracks. I knew that I was losing coolant, but it wasn’t until we pulled off the underpanel that we saw how much coolant had been leaking. It was everywhere.
Apparently BMW has redesigned the tank, and I shouldn’t have problems.
Why Curt didn’t replace the plastic tank when he overhauled the cooling system when I first bought the car, I don’t know. But, now, I can say that every piece of my cooling system is brand new, and hopefully I won’ t have any more problems with leaking coolant or overheating. Oh, and I changed the ratio of antifreeze/water to 25%/75%, plus added a bottle of Water Wetter.
Anyway, about the brakes. When I redid the suspension a couple of months ago, I put on Axxis Ultimates front and rear, hoping this would be a nice compromise of a street and track pad. I should have listened to everyone on the forums; there’s no such thing. Sure enough, the Axxis pads sucked on the track, overheating quickly, fading, wearing badly, and leaving pad deposits on the rotors. I really need a race pad. After lots of research, I decided on the HT-10. I thought about keeping the Axxis pads on the rear, but they were pretty worn, and I need to get used to the same bias front and rear anyway.
I knew the race pads would make noise, and yes, it sounds like a bus everytime I stop. I knew they wouldn’t have much friction when cold, and no, they don’t. I know they will eat my rotors, but I have an extra set. I knew they would dust, but I wasn’t expecting completely black wheels when I got home from Curt’s. Ah well, welcome to race pads!
I’ll be at the track this weekend to try them out. I made the mistake of bedding the pads on the street, but since I’m going to drive to the track with the pads on, the transfer layer will just be abraded off by the time I get to the track. So, I’ll have to re-bed at the track.
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