Banana-shaped Hawk Pad?

When I replaced my front calipers on my Neon due to a blown seal, I found both inner pads banana-shaped. The outer pads were only half worn & straight. The inner pads were worn almost metal-to-metal in the middle & almost new on the ends. This is the first & only set of Hawk Blues that I have ever used. I know that I had alot of heat in them, both caliper pistons (plastic) were cracked/shattered. But to warp the pads that bad?????
Has anyone had a similar problem???:shrug:

FYI about the brakes:
1) NAPA reman. calipers
2) Only 2 weekends (Daytona & Sebring-short) on Hawk pads
3) Napa pads for 1 weekend (Sebring long) gave me no problem (before Hawks)
3) Non-racing brake fluid
4) Master cylinder MAY have caused some dragging (bad?)

Do the Hawks sometimes do this or did I get a bad set?? Or was it the heat from the brakes dragging?? The car gave me no sign until the last turn when my foot went thru the floor & the turn went past me. :o Thank god for run-offs..................

It certainly is not the pads' fault.

I used to consistently warp Hawk Blues that way with the Nissan NX2000. It took a switch to DTC-60 compound pads custom (waterjet?) cut out of larger NASCAR pads with thicker backing plates before I was able to not worry about it.

Call the guys at RaceShopper.com, they can set you up.

Hi Mark, hope you get it all fixed for the enduro this weekend!

My ACR had homemade ducts mounted on the backing plate mount.
I used the blues at Sebring with no problems.

We are not able to work this race, other stuff in the way,, but you do good, OK? Rember, no bump-drafting !

Mark I have ran Hawk Blues for 3 years now with no problem on my Neon. I used to use Mopar calipers and rotors but found rotors and calipers from Pep Boys work better and last longer. I am using Motul brake fluid and have never had a problem with the hawks. My guess is you had a piston hanging up causing the inner pad to partially stay engaged.

I ran 3 doubles last year on one set of Hawk Blues with older calipers with no ducts and no special fluid with no issues. Of course 2 of those weekends were at Nelsons which is pretty easy on brakes and the other weekend was at Beaverun which is hard on Brakes.

Definately sounds like you have some deeper issues. The neons tend to be pretty good on brakes as long as you use elcheapo no name pads on the back. If you use anything more at least without a brake bias valve, expect lots of rear lockup under heavy braking.

Sounds like not enough clearance between the pad and the caliper. Add heat and stuff starts locking up. Could be the the pads were too big, or the caliper is too small. Or maybe some shims weren't put in right?

The banana-pad problem can occur with a combination of a fairly heavy car (or at least heavy front end- i.e., FWD), single piston calipers and a long pad. A Neon qualifies on all counts. I've seen it on my Nissan 200SX (2850 lbs) and my old Dodge Charger (2300 lbs and FWD). I don't know there is really a solution except the one noted of cutting a pad with a thicker backing plate to your shape. And that's not easy to do with a pad as big as the Neon's. Cooling helps, but not much. I've also tried using a second backing plate once you've worn down the pads, but if it's as bad as you describe, by then the pad's already dead.

Did it to a set of Hawk HP plus on my Neon. I had maybe 3 mm of material on the edges vs steel at the piston. That was after maybe 15 hours of track time. Makes for a spongy pedal, too, since you are flexing the backing every time you step on the pedal.

I think its the nature of the beast, to a certain extent.

I have had this problem on my ITA SE-R. I believe the backing plate gets a bit soft with extreme temperatures. Do the best you can with ducting to the center of the rotor and flip your pads after every session to even out the wear.

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Originally Posted by splats

When I replaced my front calipers on my Neon due to a blown seal, I found both inner pads banana-shaped. The outer pads were only half worn & straight. The inner pads were worn almost metal-to-metal in the middle & almost new on the ends. This is the first & only set of Hawk Blues that I have ever used. I know that I had alot of heat in them, both caliper pistons (plastic) were cracked/shattered. But to warp the pads that bad?????
Has anyone had a similar problem???:shrug:

FYI about the brakes:
1) NAPA reman. calipers
2) Only 2 weekends (Daytona & Sebring-short) on Hawk pads
3) Napa pads for 1 weekend (Sebring long) gave me no problem (before Hawks)
3) Non-racing brake fluid
4) Master cylinder MAY have caused some dragging (bad?)

Do the Hawks sometimes do this or did I get a bad set?? Or was it the heat from the brakes dragging?? The car gave me no sign until the last turn when my foot went thru the floor & the turn went past me. :o Thank god for run-offs..................

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Hi Mark-

You can give me a call at 800-733-8380.
We've ran over (10-15) 12 Hour events in this same car- using these SAME pads.
Perhaps I can shed some light on what some of the issues are - and the best way to mitigate them......
I can assure you that the Hawk pads are not at fault, and that the NAPA pads are not going to be your savior.
It looks like this - Right? http://www.empire1.net/racing/summit...cs/car_a_2.jpg

Best Regards,
Edwin Robinson.