[addyb0y5]

Proud owner of 19 Crush M6 ZL1 1LE.

I recently tracked my car at mid-Ohio and was blown away by the performance and how forgiving this car is. I love this car !!!


BTW, I traded in my 18 Focus RS for this. Just a quick opinion -
Comparing the Focus RS ride comfort to ZL1-1LE is like comparing a go-kart to a Cadillac. For me it was a big upgrade coming from RS in terms of comfort (Except you hit a sudden elevation change, a rough patch road or a pot hole, it reminds you that you are in a “1LE”)

Now coming to the main point.
Before tracking the car, I tried flushing the brake fluids from dot3 to dot4. The power bleeder failed on me and I gave my car in Chevy dealer to get it professionally flushed. I gave them 6 qrts of Motul 660. I read here in some post - The complete flush takes about 4 qrts..

Fast forward to picking up the car from the dealer. The tech has used on 2.5qrts of fluid and I spoke to the "chief tech adviser" and he told me that they have a flushed both the outside and inside valve with a very fancy machine and it is perfect. I drove the car and brake pedal felt normal and I drove home.

Now during track session - I was checking the brake fluids after ever session. No drop in fluid or no fade.
but I felt the brake pedal depresses more during the cool down lap, it has a very soft spongy feel. But during the hot laps it felt fine and had a good bite.
Is this normal ????

After getting back home, I was prepping my car for this coming weekend track session at Nelson ledge road course and I noticed the oil dripping stains on the calipers. (please see the attached pics)
Now my biggest question is -
Did the fluid boiled? (I'm guessing cause of Dot3 and Dot4 mix)
Is the bleeder valve loose?
should I bleed the entire system again ? just to be on the safe side ??

Thanks for reading and sorry for the long post. This is my first post since I bought this car.

Thanks in advance for the help !

cheers !

[djfury05]

https://www.camaro6.com/forums/showthread.php?t=561322

Hit up the OP of that thread he seems to be very knowledgable about the brakes on these cars.

[rickybobby]

It looks like the dealership didn’t torque the bleeder screws properly and/or cleanup the residual fluid after they bled the system.
I have a similar thread that I just started but my leakage wasn’t to that extent. I would re bleed and tighten the bleeder screws to spec just to be safe.
I personally wouldn’t trust a dealer to bleed my brakes either.
Good luck.

[cdb95z28]

-Castrol SRF is known to have "hot compressibility" issues. This means that the pedal softens when high heat is put upon the system. After a cool down, the pedal returns to normal. Since you mentioned the pedal returned to normal, I wonder if the Motul 660 has a hot compressibility trait.

-When I see photos like yours of fluid exiting the bleeders I normally will attribute that to a lack of cleaning the bleeder and its threads after bleeding. But your rear calipers show alot of fluid leakage that probably isn't just from uncleaned bleeders. It is possible the bleeders were not torqued enough. The front caliper pic isn't bad, and that probably was just uncleaned bleeders. Do you have a pic of the bleeders on the rear calipers?

-With so much fluid on those rear calipers, it's possible that it made its way onto the pad material and/or the rotor. You might want to remove the pads and take a close look at it.

-Awesome hot rod you got there!

[mt.nichols]

I also have a '19 ZLE but with Castrol SRF. I have had a bit of fluid exit the bleeder valves and drip down the caliper, but not enough to have fluid to drip on the wheel. It's a slight amount that just runs down the caliper and I consider it normal since I've run this fluid for ~15 track days and never had an issue.

Since you had the dealership do the work, I'd have them look over the braking system to be sure everything is torqued properly. It seems to me it could be a loose or over torqued bleeder valve (at least on the caliper that leaked bad enough to have brake fluid run all over the wheel).

[AZ_1LE]

The 2nd 3rd and 4th photos all look exactly like my old SS 1LE after its first track day. When they originally installed the brake pads at the factory, they used WAAAAAAAAY too much grease on the ends of the pads where they slide in the caliper, the grease heated up and turned into a liquid and ended up getting all over my rotors and actually gunked up the pads so bad that they replaced them under warranty. I would take the pads out and hose everything down with brake parts cleaner.

I also recognize the brake fluid weeping. Happened on my old 1LE as well, but it stopped after I torqued the bleeders a tiny bit more (maybe a 1/16th of a turn).

[Russell James]

A bit of fluid gets left in the bleeder valve unless someone is real meticulous - like taking a q tip and swabbing every last drop out.

Soft pedal is a different story, something is not right.

If it were me... I'd redo a manual bleed at all 8 bleeders using a helper that could use a leg work out. Then clean the bleeders and calipers real good before some spirited driving/hard braking. Then recheck if any leaks.

I have a mityvac power bleeder, but also like just doing it manual with a helper.

If tracking, bleeding the brakes often will just be part of the fun. I'd invest in a Mityvac so you can do it yourself.

When tracking cars or jumping out of airplanes there are some jobs you want to do yourself. Like bleeding your brakes and packing your own parachute.

I trust nobody to put a tool on my brakes other than myself.

[SFV1LE]

Originally Posted by cdb95z28

-Castrol SRF is known to have "hot compressibility" issues. This means that the pedal softens when high heat is put upon the system. After a cool down, the pedal returns to normal. Since you mentioned the pedal returned to normal, I wonder if the Motul 660 has a hot compressibility trait.

-When I see photos like yours of fluid exiting the bleeders I normally will attribute that to a lack of cleaning the bleeder and its threads after bleeding. But your rear calipers show alot of fluid leakage that probably isn't just from uncleaned bleeders. It is possible the bleeders were not torqued enough. The front caliper pic isn't bad, and that probably was just uncleaned bleeders. Do you have a pic of the bleeders on the rear calipers?

-With so much fluid on those rear calipers, it's possible that it made its way onto the pad material and/or the rotor. You might want to remove the pads and take a close look at it.

-Awesome hot rod you got there!

Thanks for the heads up about SRF, I was planning to use this instead of the RBF 660 I used last time but I'll stick with Motul or maybe try the Brembo racing fluid. RBF 660 pedal feel is great, no leaking on mine after 3 events and 6 days total.

[SWZL11LE]

Originally Posted by SFV1LE

Thanks for the heads up about SRF, I was planning to use this instead of the RBF 660 I used last time but I'll stick with Motul or maybe try the Brembo racing fluid. RBF 660 pedal feel is great, no leaking on mine after 3 events and 6 days total.

Next time you are going to flush the fluid try Brembo HTC64T, it is worth every penny

[Junkyardspecial]

Never a bad idea to bleed, better safe than sorry.