Carbon ceramic brakes

JJbing

Member
Messages
445
Hi all,
Not Maserati related, but seeing as there is a wealth of knowledge on this forum I thought I’d ask.
I’m about to pull the trigger on an AM vanquish s 2016. With carbon ceramic brakes. The car has done 16k miles. I’m reading a lot online about not getting them wet (when cleaning) or even cleaning product on them, the replacement cost of discs seems to be north of £10k.. so keen to avoid warping them or accelerating wear.
Anyone have experience of how long they should last, or am I just reading the worst case scenarios? Any advice appreciated.
 

Scaf

Member
Messages
6,511
I asked the very same question recently when I got my Strad.
What I have been told is no issue with water / jet wash but avoid wheel cleaning chemicals.
 

conaero

Forum Owner
Messages
34,593
You can get them wet it’s just best not to use heavy chemicals on them such as TFR (truck wash) silicones, wonder wheels, tyre black and the likes.

Regarding life, your not going to wear the discs out in 100k miles but you will go through pads.

As a guide, front pads are at 50% worn at 25k miles but I would say by 30k miles you should change them and they are a grand for the fronts.

Rears, will last twice as long but actually wear quicker than the fronts on Ferraris with the cleaver rear braking electronics if you track them.

So 100k miles normal road spirited driving 2-3 sets of front and 1-2 sets of rear pads.

I don’t know about AM but Mas/Fer don’t have dust covers on the caliper pistons and do have a tendency to seize. Hills do replacement stainless pistons. We have just had to do them on Blondie’s Strad.

Generally, all the CC brakes are the same believe it or not, just the mounting bell that are different to give the model specific offset.
 
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Zep

Moderator
Messages
9,110
What Matt said. will never warp a CCM disc.

Disc wear is measured by weight, you take the disc off, clean it and weigh it. As long as it is above the minimum weight you are all good.

There is a good AM brembo CCM brake document doing the rounds of the web, useful to read and learn about the potential pitfalls.
 

midlifecrisis

Member
Messages
16,101
Disc wear is measured by weight, you take the disc off, clean it and weigh it. As long as it is above the minimum weight you are all good.

Why weight and not just thickness?

And for interest, what's the new and minimum weights? (if you know)
 

Zep

Moderator
Messages
9,110
It’s because CCM brakes wear by reducing density. They lose material from within the body of the disc but are generally dimensionally stable.

Minimum weight for the fronts is around 5300 grams if I recall correctly. No idea of the new weight, and I have tried to find out.

For comparison the std dual cast rotor weighs around 12 kg.
 

midlifecrisis

Member
Messages
16,101
That's hard to get my head round!

7kg of rotating mass per corner probably makes the steering a tad lighter.
 

Zep

Moderator
Messages
9,110
This is probably true. I have driven 3 Stradales and they all had slightly different steering weighting. It’s probably better for wheel control. Plus the lower rotational mass will improve acceleration by a minute amount.
 

JJbing

Member
Messages
445
Thanks all for the helpful inputs, especially Matt!
Looks like I’ve been reading the horror stories. I don’t intend on tracking my own car so should be fine.
 

DavidL

Member
Messages
214
My 996t had ceramic brakes and they made a really odd noise when wet. Sort of a whine that got slightly higher in pitch the harder you pressed. There appeared to be no effect on braking ability mind. It didn't usually live outside so the first time I experienced it was when we were away for a weekend and the car sat outside in torrential rain overnight. I wondered what on earth had happened! I was terrified of them mind, I could imagine the conversation if a type place chipped disc..
I bought new pads which were alot more than standard but not taht bad but fortunately not discs.