Hi everyone, I am new this forum and this is my first post, I have been visiting this forum for the past 8 months since I have made a decision to purchase my dream car and my first Ferrari... 458 Italia. After 7 long months, I finally took delivery of my car. It's been a little over a month now and I have put ~1200 km on the car. For the first time, I took the car out to the track yesterday... to bed-in the brakes. I took it easy and after about 8 laps, I think the brakes are finally "bedded-in." I'd like to thank this forum and everyone who contributed to this forum, thus making it the most resourceful Ferrari forum ever exist. Here a few amateur pics of the car... Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Thanks for the warm welcome +/- US$ 800,000... Damn taxes... LOL Thanks, I've been enjoying her... I will take the interior pics and post them as soon as I get a chance Yep, It is Rosso Scuderia... Thank you...
Here is a video on the track... I'm not a professional driver... so please be understanding on my sporadic driving... need a little more time to get familiar with the car and the track... And special thanks to forum member gasterus who has been helping and assisting me with all the process in purchasing the car... and inviting me to the track day... thanks so much bro!!! [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnPvDuh6tvo[/ame]
Great footage! You beat up that poor cone! Looks like you kept it in race mode the whole time did you dabble with any other settings? Lovely car! Enjoy!
Hi, Welcome to f-chat. Taking your car to the track to bed in the brakes makes a lot of sense. Question: do you notice a difference in the brakes now? Can you describe how the pedal has improved? Thanks! Ron.
+1 - my question precisely. I did read/see a thread about this last year sometime, trying to find it right now. Sunny
It is a stunning car... Thanks... I did have a hard time choosing between Rosso Corsa or Scuderia... Yeah that damn cone in the middle of the track... I didn't let off the throttle and beat up the poor cone... luckily I put on clear bra on before tracking the car so it got away scratched free... I kept it in race mode the whole time... I don't have the balls yet to turn off the traction or stability control (CST off)... the Race mode is very smooth and the "electronic nanny" intervenes only when the car is on the verge of spinning out... it still lets you accelerate smoothly without abruptly cutting-off the throttle... I hope I make sense in explaining my experience with the f1-trac system on this car. Thanks... it is a pleasure driving this incredible machine Thanks for the welcome... the brakes feels much better now. Before the brakes have a marginal initial bite to it and then I have to mash really hard on the brakes and it feels that the car would not stop... Now it feels much better, I don't have to mash it as hard as before and I have more confidence in braking late @ the end of straight away, although I may have to test it again on the track to see if the brakes still fades after bedding it in. Terima kasih... Yes I took it to Sentul race track... Do you take your car to the track in Brunei?
I took it out on the highway when traffic was light and did a sequence of 90-50 mph stops, then let them cool then repeated. I noticed a better initial bite as well.
I believe the general, "semi-official" best practices method is to find a clear piece of open road and do several (8-10) 80-100mph down to 20mph hard braking cycles. The idea is to get a lot of pressure into the pads and also generate a lot of heat....and then let them cool down. The pressure seats the pads/rotors, and the heating/cooling (annealing) physically conditions the pads. You REALLY need to attack the brakes, get them into ABS. An alternative method, advised by some smarter-than-us Ferrari racing and mechanical gurus, is to do a full track session, be hyper aggressive on the brakes, get them a lot hotter than you'd otherwise think.....and then let them FULLY cool down to ambient. Race pads have proven to be a one (maybe two, max) shot deal....you bed them right or they never come in. Street pads I am unsure if you can "re-bed" them. Poorly bedded pads obviously perform less than optimum, interestingly CCB pedal feel will improve as they get to working temperature (race pads have a much hotter sweet spot than street pads). I have done this with race pads, have yet to do attempt it on the street pads, but I did the "traditional" method and it worked fine. Brakes do NOT come bedded from the factory...at least not on any new Fcar I've seen/owned/driven.
Thank you for that feedback. What I would like to know is when would you do these runs to bed in the brakes? After the engine break-in period? Thanks Sunny
the day I brought them home! it's easy to get this car up to 120 without even stressing the engine.... I do believe in engine (and gearbox, diff) break-in, some differ, but you can get going plenty fast enough with the engine under 6k RPM to bed the brakes. It's not about the acceleration, it's about getting hard on the brakes. I would be cautious if the car is new to you; do it on a CLEAR, STRAIGHT, DRY road with no traffic. Also keep the car pointed straight and hands straight...(i.e don't do this in a quick turn...the end will want to come around). Had not thought about it but would keep it in Sport mode so the nannies are engaged....again, this is not crazy driving, it's cycling pressure and heat into the brakes....and then letting them fully cool
Brilliant! Thank you so much for your help. So just to clarify - as soon as I can get the car up to 90-100 mph and do breaks to 20mph or thereabouts then do it? 8-9 times? And then letting to cool? - is this all in the manual and do they tell us this at handover? Thanks. Much appreciate your help. Sunny
I cannot recall seeing anything specific in the manual, however what I outlined is what 1) our local dealer "uber-master-tech" suggested 2) is quoted (similarly) here by many owners and 3) what our Ferrari and CCB experienced challenge team suggests... other folks may have similar (or divergent) opinions, but this approach worked well for us just be careful....too many "first week of ownership, spun the car into a ditch" stories on Jalopnik. Get comfortable with the car
Thank you so much for your expert advice. The car will be arriving in 12 days time! I shall drive it a good couple of hundred miles before attempting the bedding in brakes. Thanks again. Sunny