How to set your polo on fire! - not recommended

**shaneth** · 30-09-2007, 06:11 PM

ok guys leave it or it gets deleted. Yes it may not have been the smartest idea but pomme obviously wanted to do it. He is the one who is going to have to pay to fix it. And nobody was hurt.

BTW VWW ADMIN doesnt condone this kind of behavior.

**GT3** · 30-09-2007, 06:24 PM

well he did say they were bored

..what some ppl do in the name of R&D

**pomme** · 30-09-2007, 07:04 PM

Gee, obviously didn't think people would get so agro, wasn't my intention.

Just to put this into perspective, from research, I believe the rotors will start glow around 500+ deg. An emergency stop from say 100km/h would get rotors to 200 degs. An emergency stop from 200km/h, around 500+ deg.

While we aren't allowed to go these speeds here, the vw home has the autobahn, where this car would travel at these speeds... and therefore the brakes have to work, and be safe, and continue to work at these temperatures.

Knowing this, a lot of lower speed braking, esp. when gravity is against you, will get the rotors to these temperatures… and beyond.
Obviously I wasn't expecting the brakes to get that hot, and yes it was a pretty stupid thing to do, but it was my stupid thing to do, and not illegal in any shape or form.
But when rotors are designed to take these kinds of heat, you would have to assume the parts surrounding the rotors can take these kinds of heat, otherwise there would be a catastrophic failure, at the worst possible time.

Warping of rotors comes from excessive heating and cooling cycles, and so long as you allow them to cool naturally they should be fine, much like after a drive you let the turbo cool down instead of just parking and shutting off.
The brakes are operating exactly as they were before. I took off the wheels the day after, had a really good look, and could see absolutely nothing wrong with them.

I would have thought in order to be in the running for the darwin awards I would actually have had to have risked my life. Front brake failure (which let’s face it was pretty damn unlikely in the first place) would have left me with a handbrake and 1st gear to stop the car, which if it didn't, and rolling down the mountain didn't spring to mind... I may have bumped the front end into a guard rail at a terrifying 15km/h.

Again, not my intention to go this way, apologies to those i may have offended.

I'm going for a drive.

**GoLfMan** · 30-09-2007, 07:08 PM

well its good to see that you know your facts

goes to show that VW are made of sterner stuff!
enjoy your drive

gpk_gti · 30-09-2007, 07:25 PM

dont think anyone was agro or offended! did I miss something? but thanks for taking the time to photo and post up a very interesting thread! great work!!!

**Ben_GTI** · 30-09-2007, 09:25 PM

Don't worry I know plenty of people who have found the same thing.

I've heard most of the time its just the outer edge of the paint on the caliper that is going.

My brother cooked the brakes in his broken ass BMW not long ago..... sucks when you can't go as fast as the car infront around the corners.

**Funkdancer** · 02-10-2007, 11:10 AM

Very interesting thread - I can certainly see the humerous side of it, and it contains some useful information as well.

Thought I might plug that I got a small fire extuingisher that I put in the left corner of the boot. Hopefully I won't have any need for it myself, but you never know when you'd come across someone in the need - could end up saving them a lot of money, or even more. (Note to self: Should probably look for some fire retardant gloves as well to stash in the same spot. Would make assisting in serious cases a whole lot easier).

**99gti** · 02-10-2007, 11:23 AM

Hmmmm - glad its your car and not mine. 10 kudos for effort though!

**PeterHBne** · 02-10-2007, 11:43 AM

Yeah Pomme - don't take the comments personally - everyone has done what others may perceive as 'silly' things in cars - the stories I could tell..................