So i found this out the hard way. If you spend a day at the track doing a lot of hard braking chances are you should park on flat ground when you get home.

I parked on a hill and this is what happened. The e-brake was completely set but i did not put it in gear.

After explaining the circumstances to a few regular track/autocrossers i found this was a common occurrence so i thought i'd share.

Damage was minimal.

 

Yes, thats why you should always park in gear. Also if you brakes are still that hot, setting the e-brake could cause the pad and rotor to weld together. Better off using wood blocks or something else to prevent the car from rolling.

 

I also never pull the e-brake up either the car is always in gear after running on the track.

 

When I ran at Englishtown last month they were very vocal about that, not using the e-brake all day. Boy, am I glad. lol Hope your 8 is all fixed up

 

So how does this happen? The brakes are so hot that the rotors melt the brake pads and causes them to slip?

 

The look on your face in that last pic is classic

 

That sucks. Good to know, I never park in gear unless I'm on a steep hill.

 

the pads could have become brittle maybe...

The other thing to consider though is that the rotary engine cannot hold a car on a hill if you just put it in gear

 

It's all about the torque, ALL ABOUT THAT AWESOME TORQUE.

 

I hadn't used the e-brake all day because of the risk of warping the rotors. I knew the possibility of that issue but i had no idea that after i drove home and parked it would fail on me.

The damage really isn't that bad but i'm going to get a couple of estimates just to see if its worth claiming insurance. For now i think i could get away with buying some Mazdaspeed side skirts and a new exhaust tip. There is some other stuff damaged but not that bad.

 

this happened when the brake got over heated and glaceed the surface. My friend a pro racer always put in gear when he park his car. I think that is the reason.

 

This happened to me on my first track day, but nothing major the stock exhaust burned my backpack

now I just put it in gear, and stick something under the tires

 

The very reason I have a cheap set of plastic chocks from Advance Auto, and use them. Even with the car in gear at Summit Point, it would eventually roll verrrryyyy ssllloooowwwlllllyy down the incline it was parked on and onto the paddock road. I only let it try that once, and no more.

I have to admit, it is surprising to hear it did this AFTER getting home. The transit home would offer more than ample time for the pads / rotors to cool back to normal operating temp range. I can only guess that the lack of e-brake use vs. the higher than normal pad wear during the day allowed the e-brake to get out of adjustment just enough to cause this unfortunate event.

Now I'm wondering what the procedure is to kick the self-adjuster into gear, so to speak. Several vehicles I've owned used the process of putting the car into reverse, get up a fair rate of speed and stop with the e-brake. You'd repeat this several times until the brake lever range of motion was back to normal.

 

Suprised me this can happen - thanks for the heads up .
Have you had a look at the rotors/pads to see why this happened ?

 

Ooops!

Although I'm not that surprised. It could've been a lot worse.
I only park in gear after running very hard or on a pretty good incline.

 

I haven't checked the pads yet but the rotors seem fine. After the tow truck got me out of the ditch i had to park it where i did to begin with (only temporarily). Before i moved it to flat ground i tried pulling the e-brake and violently shaking myself back and forth in the drivers seat to get it to break loose but it was tight as could be.

Must have been the heat. My drive was only about 20 mins before i parked.

 

your e-brake simply isn't adjusted properly, if you can pull it up more than a few clicks then it's too loose, nobody hardly ever touches this feature, not even the Mazda techs

the only reason not to mess with it at the track is the warping issue, otherwise being in gear with a properly adjusted e-brake should easily hold on a 30 deg incline regardless

 

Team is mostly right.

The reason this happens is you wear the pads down faster on the track than the automatic adjuster can compensate for.

There is an automatic adjuster mechanism in the rear calipers that is designed to compensate for pad wear. Every time you pull the brake handle, the adjuster is triggered to make up for wear. After a hard day on the track, never setting the parking brake, you've worn off a significant amount of pad, but the adjuster hasn't compensated. Setting and releasing the parking brake a number of times once you are off the track will readjust the adjuster.

 

Good info.

Thanks guys.

 

Just found this damage today...

What do you think? Could it do any harm to leave the tank like this?

 

Yes Team is right about the warping issue. And I'm fairly close to replacing my Hawk HP + pads and the e brake functions the same as it was when the pads were new.

I always leave it in gear when I park and chalk the wheels at home and at the track just as an extra safety measure.

 

I would get that taken care of even if it isn't a huge safety issue.