I am in a lot of stop and go traffic and car brakes feel perkier than my previous porsches with stock brakes, after market brembos, etc. They work right out of the garage wet or dry.

Aloha

Byron

 

One of the features of the 997 brake system (don't know if it applies to other models) is, if you lift off the throttle abruptly, the system senses a panic situation and applies pressure on the brakes (in other words it'll beat your foot to the brake pedal). This would preclude a wet rotor. Reading a manual (something auto jounalists rarely do) will give you a better explanation of this feature. My experience is limited to 2 PDE's where I was able to drive both steel and ceramic. Ceramic seemed more authoritative in stopping power, but the steel was easier to modulate for trail braking. Steel also seemed to make heel and toeing easier, because of more peddle travel. Even so, I've opted for the ceramics for my car. I was convinced ceramics had shorter stopping distances, which was also verified by the PDE instructors.

 

I think this is a Continental feature that is in other cars (including my M5). I believe it also supposely lightly engages the brakes specifically to dry / heat the rotors in the rain.

Again, in my experience, the PCCBs are slippery immediately after a car wash (when pads / rotors are cold and soaked), but not in the rain (when they are heated and not as wet). In the real world, this is not an issue.

I don't think the PCCBs stop faster/shorter in one-off tests, they just have better feel and resist fading.

 

I do believe that the PCCBs would consistently stop within the same or near the same distances under hard braking loads long after the steel versions have overheated. That's probably where the PCCBs would shine.

 

13k and change for the full kit. Check out Suncoast, a sponser of the site. Only 19.95 for the ceramic brake rotor keychain.

 

I think I read something about the self drying feature having to do with switching the wipers on.

 

Last year I called Skip Barber school, the porshce driving school in Birmingham +porsche NA. All claimed stopping distances between ceramic and steel the same. If the stopping distances are shorter for ceramics, someone should get the info published.

 

There's a difference between calling them and actually talking to the instructors themselves in person. They did tell me and Larry that the stopping distances is shorter with PCCBs on a consistent basis. The steel rotors will start to exhibit fade much sooner which would cause lessened stopping distances. Make sense?

 

Leaving aside that controversial and non-ending stopping distance issue (there are many posts on this already, I hope we won't have to go through the same thing again), I would rather focus on the areas that ceramic is an undisputed improvement: brake "feel" & fade, and lower unsprung weigtht.

For street use, it comes down to the somewhat difficult to quantify "brake feel" being the main & major gain IMO. It's for each of us, and our budgets , to determine how much this brake feel is worth. And that's what I am trying to learn from those with more experience: If it is a night and day, life-transforming experience .

A little OT now, but a couple more questions for the long term users please:

How do you know when the pads need replacement? By direct examination, and if so, how could you tell (Is it true ceramic pads don't become thinner with wear like steel pad?)? Does ceramic pad have that built-in high-pitched squeal pad wear indicator? Or is it some electronic indicator, as I seem to have read somewhere?

In your experience, *in general* how many thousand miles between pad (not rotor) change? And how much did it cost you?

Thanks again for your comments.

 

Steel brakes and ceramics are similar in the rain. Any advantage ceramics had in the dry, are probably lost in steady rain. Are ceramics worse in the rain than standard steel brakes? I really don't think so...however, the difference between wet and dry is greater for ceramics, IMHO.

 

I've driven both, I have pccb's, my good buddy's TT does not, and we both liked pccb's better. I think its like your TV, you never know how good it is, till you go to your brother in laws house and relize yours is second rate. You always get what you pay for, rain or shine. Is a TT faster in the rain?

 

I know this is an old thread, but I want to take my comment back about driving in the rain being no problem. Today it rained quite hard in Irvine and I got caught in a good shower. The brakes, which normally are GREAT in the dry were completely unresponsive for the 20 minute duration of my trip.

I have also experienced the first brake after a car wash to be unresponsive as well since my original post.

I have an 05 Turbo S, from all that ive read it is equipped with Gen 2 pccbs.

Anyways, with all that said I'd still get PCCB's because I love them

 

Aaron,

Next time, lightly press your brake pedal periodically as you drive throug the rain and then you'll have no scary braking issues. That's what I usually do.

 

Wow, it's "spooky" you've brought back this thread; I was just thinking about this issue driving to work yesterday, in fact getting caught in the "same" downpour as you (I work in Long Beach).

I went ahead and ordered PCCB for my 2008 Turbo Coupe--delivered 3 weeks ago, and yesterday was my first experience with the car & brake in heavy rain. I agree with you, there is NO QUESTION that the brake is different in the rain, as if the initial bite is not there. In the dry, the car nose would dip, in the wet, nothing. I did have a chance to stomp on the brake once, and the brake still feels slippery but ABS *did* engage. So it appears the brake would work for an all out emergency stop in the wet, how well (stopping distance vs. dry), I don't know. Does anyone know if there is any published data?

I had thought part of the problem was my brake is new, but since your experience is similar, I guess this is just a "feature" of PCCB?

And yes, I would also order PCCB brake again.

 

Can,

I still remember the first time I experienced the "oh S***" feeling when I pressed my brakes after a heavy downpour. Now I'm used to it. Just have to remember to either press lightly on the pedals periodically as I stated earlier or press the pedal harder than usual. It's really easy to be lulled into a false sense of security by these awesome brakes in the dry. They're good but they're not perfect.

I also experienced a similar scary feel after a hard driving session through a series of twisties to the point where I "boiled" my OEM brake fluids. You're supposed to flush out the brake system on high performance sports cars once a year. I recently had this done but I elected to go with Castrol SRF braking fluid which has a higher boiling point.