[Red02]

I was driving from Pittsburgh to southern Maryland yesterday, and while I was on the PA Turnpike, it rained hard most of the way.
So, being on the Turnpike you don't use your brakes that much unless someone does something stupid. The first time I had to use my brakes, I had none. I had to slam the pedal down hard just to get any brakes at all.
THis happened several times. It was like the pads were waterlogged, or something. I have had several Subarus before this one, and never had this happen before under the same conditions.
Anybody else have this happen to them?

[srf]

I assum there wasn't extra pedal travel (which could mean air bubbles in the lines)? I've had this happen a few times (but not in the STi yet) and wonder if it's just because the brakes get really cold and need to heat up a few degrees, since they're not exactly econobox pads.

[SabreOfSD]

Hey Red,
I've gone through some pretty deep puddles and never had problems. I did it pretty much to see if anything like this would happen! Definitely check to make sure that you don't have air bubbles in the lines.

BTW, ever think of joining us for a meet? Out next on is on 4/22 right across the Wilson

[Red02]

The temperature when this happened was 37-43 degrees according to the readout in the car, but I think it was the fact that I was driving over 35 miles or more between using my brakes, while driving in constant heavy rain the whole time might be responsible for this.
The brake pedal still felt the same, the car was just not slowing down. Very scary when a semi is beside you throwing up a wall of water, and the car in front of you hits his brakes. THis is while driving between cement barracades on both sides of the two lanes.
No where to go, no way to pull off the road.
I only have 1800 miles on the car now. I will have them check this out on my 3000 mile service.

[TwisterX]

This used to happen to me in my last car. What is probably happening is that the steady driving in heavy rain manages to build up a layer of water between the pad and rotor, so when you get on the brakes, there is a delay while the layer is cleared. At least that's what happened on my last car, and it sounds like the exact same problem. Scary, I know. I don't know what the solution is, I just learned to give myself more space and get on the brakes a half second earlier during heavy rain.

Slotted rotors helped too. It seemed that they cleared water faster and more efficiently, and I had less issues with wet braking.

[mx_9]

Red02,

Have you logged a case with SOA? Every now and then someone posts a similar story. If everyone is logging a case it may draw attention to the situation.

I've never had this happen to any of my cars. It's dangerous.

[jrich523]

it happened to me the otherday and i think its more along the lines of what twisterX said.. the breaks work fine i just had to apply more pressure the first time.. i only noticed it once.. once i got the water out (i guess) it worked fine.. i have seen other posts (a post on the slotted rotors not long ago)

just know that you may need to apply a bit more pressure which you will know about in under 1 seconds..
no cool but once you know its not too bad..

[Singletrack]

Originally Posted by Red02

I was driving from Pittsburgh to southern Maryland yesterday, and while I was on the PA Turnpike, it rained hard most of the way.
So, being on the Turnpike you don't use your brakes that much unless someone does something stupid. The first time I had to use my brakes, I had none. I had to slam the pedal down hard just to get any brakes at all.
THis happened several times. It was like the pads were waterlogged, or something. I have had several Subarus before this one, and never had this happen before under the same conditions.
Anybody else have this happen to them?

Same thing has happened to me, especially in bad rain. It is just a function of the brake design/pad material in my opinion. I wouldn't worry about it - you just need to remember to get on the brakes a few seconds sooner if you haven't used them in a while. Honestly, the same would happen in any car with ultra high performance brakes, they are really designed to be used constantly.

-st

[ahamel]

The problem is the brake pad. The are made to run at higher temp. If you think rain is scary, try snow and -30... There is basicaly no brake for 2-3 second. The disk and pad get so cold driving on the highway with rain or snow, it just makes it really bad. Also remember this, the STI has air duck to cold down the brake, notthing to help in those condition. Get a better pad for street but then if you go at the track, they will over heat and fade... There is no prefect world.

I had a guy doing a 360 in a snow storm at 60 m/h, it was nice trying to stop special with a semi right behind...

[crashsti]

this happens to me too. the first time it happened it was raining/snowing out and about 32 degrees. i went to brake and to my surprise i had none and had to really mash the pedal to stop and not hit the car stopped in front of me. nowadays if its been raining out and my car has been sitting for awhile i make sure to "ride" the brakes to get them hot before i get out in the main traffic. once thier warmed up i have never had a problem.

[mx_9]

Have any of you opened a case with Subaru on this? It finally happened to me this past weekend. I had been driving on a highway in steady rain for about an hour without having to hit the brakes. Up ahead a car pulled onto the highway. I hit the brakes to scrub some speed and had maybe 10% stopping power available. I had my track Azenis on the car so was driving cautiously to begin with but if it was an emergency situation I would have been in trouble. I rode the brakes for a couple of seconds, let off, pressed the brake pedal again and still did not have good brakes. On my third attempt the brakes started to return ~85% grab. It took 5-6 seconds to get decent stopping power. That's not good. Be careful in the rain folks! I plan on opening a case with Subaru.

For the remainder of my trip I hit the brakes every 10mins or so, traffic permitting, with the same results..much reduced stopping power.

[leadfoot]

I have a theory on why this is such a problem for these cars. This past weekend I replaced the front brake pads on my car, replacing the stock pads with a set of Padgids. There is a huge difference in the leading edge of these pads compared with the stock pads. The stock pads have a very large champhired section of the pads, where as the Padgids are square to the rotor. I wonder if by not having a hard edge to sort of squege off the water, that the water (and snow, which is REALLY nasty) just sort of scoots under the pads.

Anyway, it is just a though.

Michael

[ldivinag]

my theory is the rotors themselves.

water does not compress well. so the first time, it's wiping action. second pump will get the pads to the rotor.

that's why my first thing to change are the front rotors with either a brembo cross drilled ones or maybe a slotted.

i've have cross drilled brembos on my truck and i dont have these kinds of issues.

[ValvetrainEngineer]

This is a very common problem with STi's...My theory is that it's the pads fault. I say this because I had the problem when the car was sitting in a parking garage for 5 days in moist (foggy) weather. No heavy water on the rotors. I'm thinking the pads 'absorbed' moisture (they are somewhat porous), and they had to get real heated to bake it out. The problem didn't go away with a few brake applications...

[ss3homer]

Do you think pumping the brakes before moving would help? Or kinda heat em up I suppose.