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72 Posts
I had a teaching moment recently. All summer, I fought with my car, very frustrated that it was trying to put me off a cliff on a nice twisty road I like to take as a shortcut.
I had done two things very recently, and while one was actually done wrong, it was not the problem.
My first thought was that Midas had put the wrong fluid in my car when flushing out my brake fluid. They actually did. I verified this at a second shop where we heated it to boiling and measured the temperature. Dot 3 does not ever belong in a smart due to the extremely small capacity of the system. Dot 3 cannot absorb the heat into that small volume of fluid. Dot 3 boils under “spirited” driving.
That was not the entire problem, though. Clear of the fluid issue, I replaced my now trashed rotors and pads with some cross drilled very thick, to my eye, rotors and ceramic pads. I was still having issues, although less pronounced.
My instinct here was to suspect the rotors were dragging, and with the way they would buzz when warm, I really thought I was right.
My front track is significantly narrower than my rear, and my belief was that the brakes were dragging, and whenever the front track arc extended outside the rear track arc I was being pulled to the outside of the curve.
That was in fact the science of it, but not the cause. You see, as our cars get stiffer and lower and wider, we depend more on artificially helping the front tires win the fight between HP go straight, and steering go maybe over this way more.
The second thing I did way back at the beginning of this was buying 4 new tires. I do not usually do this. My tire rotation has always been burn the rears to death, buy new fronts, move old fronts to rear. As it turns out, all of my many many modifications have biased traction severely toward the rear.
On advise from a friend, I found a couple used matching tires. I put the scuffs on the rear, and I am back to carving corners and scaring the crap out of tailgaters by taking them into corners way faster than they can hold.
Now, I am looking into the possibility of a rear sway bar. This is exactly what the track cars do to correct the issue I am fixing with used tires.
The moral is that sometimes we need to stop trying to be right and take a step back. Look at the big picture and consider the things that we don’t think are it.
Modifications: smartmadness blue 1x1.7 lowering springs, with upgraded silver madness springs to replace coilbound rears. H&R 50mm track spacers rear + 5mm shim per side. H&R 30mm track spacers front + 3mm shim per side. Rail LeMans rear 15x6 wheels all around with Toyo T1R 195/45-15 tires. All under Panamex fender flares in river silver from Madness. Trailer hitch to stiffen the rear/protect the large oil filter.
Unrelated modifications (for fun): SFR header Cat delete, Solo side exit resonator, silicone intake baffle delete. Chin spoiler, eyelids, led fogs, leather floor mats, leather sand seat covers, fosgate audio, scangage, gps digital speedometer aforementioned large oil filter.
I had done two things very recently, and while one was actually done wrong, it was not the problem.
My first thought was that Midas had put the wrong fluid in my car when flushing out my brake fluid. They actually did. I verified this at a second shop where we heated it to boiling and measured the temperature. Dot 3 does not ever belong in a smart due to the extremely small capacity of the system. Dot 3 cannot absorb the heat into that small volume of fluid. Dot 3 boils under “spirited” driving.
That was not the entire problem, though. Clear of the fluid issue, I replaced my now trashed rotors and pads with some cross drilled very thick, to my eye, rotors and ceramic pads. I was still having issues, although less pronounced.
My instinct here was to suspect the rotors were dragging, and with the way they would buzz when warm, I really thought I was right.
My front track is significantly narrower than my rear, and my belief was that the brakes were dragging, and whenever the front track arc extended outside the rear track arc I was being pulled to the outside of the curve.
That was in fact the science of it, but not the cause. You see, as our cars get stiffer and lower and wider, we depend more on artificially helping the front tires win the fight between HP go straight, and steering go maybe over this way more.
The second thing I did way back at the beginning of this was buying 4 new tires. I do not usually do this. My tire rotation has always been burn the rears to death, buy new fronts, move old fronts to rear. As it turns out, all of my many many modifications have biased traction severely toward the rear.
On advise from a friend, I found a couple used matching tires. I put the scuffs on the rear, and I am back to carving corners and scaring the crap out of tailgaters by taking them into corners way faster than they can hold.
Now, I am looking into the possibility of a rear sway bar. This is exactly what the track cars do to correct the issue I am fixing with used tires.
The moral is that sometimes we need to stop trying to be right and take a step back. Look at the big picture and consider the things that we don’t think are it.
Modifications: smartmadness blue 1x1.7 lowering springs, with upgraded silver madness springs to replace coilbound rears. H&R 50mm track spacers rear + 5mm shim per side. H&R 30mm track spacers front + 3mm shim per side. Rail LeMans rear 15x6 wheels all around with Toyo T1R 195/45-15 tires. All under Panamex fender flares in river silver from Madness. Trailer hitch to stiffen the rear/protect the large oil filter.
Unrelated modifications (for fun): SFR header Cat delete, Solo side exit resonator, silicone intake baffle delete. Chin spoiler, eyelids, led fogs, leather floor mats, leather sand seat covers, fosgate audio, scangage, gps digital speedometer aforementioned large oil filter.
