The importance of being cleanest, why clean hubs matter

All TAROX products are recommended to be fitted by a trusted mechanic or engineer, however many people are able to take care of brake upgrades at home. A well-equipped home garage and some experience in braking systems can give great results. If you are not 100% confident in your ability to fit your TAROX products please seek a professional installer, for those looking for helpful hints and tips you’re in the right place.

TAROX will bring you a series of technical blog posts to help you avoid common pitfalls and further your braking knowledge. First up is the importance of a clean hub.

It sounds simple but a clean hub-mating surface is of paramount importance. Thorough cleaning of the hub is essential as it ensures the disc has a flat surface to mount to. The mounting surface must be clean, free from rust and burrs. This is especially important on older cars that may have seen improper disc changes in the past. When cleaning the hub surface you should be looking to achieve a bright metal finish before securing the disc to the hub. If the hub surface has dirt or rust present the disc will not spin true and cause wear problems and reduced performance.

Any lateral movement of the disc is known as run out. Even very minimal run out at the hub face is amplified on the larger diameter disc face and is the primary cause of brake vibration and judder. Excessive run out leads to uneven wear of the disc that is eventually felt to the driver as vibration through the brake pedal, this is usually around 3000-4000km after installation.

It is a common misconception that this vibration must be because the disc is warped from overheating, but this is rarely the case. Almost all cases have fallen foul of improper fitment resulting in uneven wear. In fact, 90% of TAROX warranty claims relate to improperly fitted discs.

Now that we have identified the problem, how can we avoid it? Well, TAROX has a few points to remember when fitting and first using your new discs:

• Remove the caliper from the hub, you can keep the brake line connected but ensure the weight is supported. Never leave the caliper suspended from the flexible brake hose.
• Unbolt and remove the worn brake disc.
• At this point check that your new discs are dimensionally identical to the old ones. It may be possible that your car has different size brakes fitted at some point in its life, it is essential to find this out before the new discs are fitted in order to return them and have suitable discs supplied. If you are in any doubt as to which braking system is fitted to your car, contact a member of the TAROX team.

• Remove any corrosion and dirt from the mounting surface on the hub using abrasive paper or a wire brush. A ‘metal bright’ finish is essential to avoid run out and uneven wear; this is the most important point to take notice of.
• Do not be tempted to paint or lubricate your disc to protect it from corrosion; TAROX discs come ready to fit without any prep work.

• Secure the new disc to the hub to the manufacturers recommended torque.
• Inspect the caliper for wear, ensuring that all moving parts such as sliders, pistons etc, are freely moving and working correctly.
• Refit the caliper and tighten the bolts in-line with the manufacturers torque settings. There should be no need to modify your pads to fit, we do not recommend tapering or any other modifications to the pad as TAROX pads come ready to use. Avoid using copper grease when installing your new pads as it can corrode alloy components. A non-metallic high temperature lubricant should be used. If the brake hose has been disconnected, reconnect and bleed the brakes.

• Before moving the car pump the brakes to reposition the pads and ensure even contact. This settles the pads and ensures even wear

Bedding In–now the disc is fitted correctly you can bed them in for optimum performance.

• Bedding in is the most important step in achieving the highest levels of performance available from your TAROX discs. Improper bedding limits performance for the life of the disc.
• During manufacture your TAROX discs were surface ground giving them a unique, raw, metallic finish. This isn’t for looks though; this unique process ensures the braking surface is virtually flat, with the tightest tolerance in the industry. The flatter the surface the better the braking can be, but the pad must be given time to bed into the brake surface before being used to full potential.
• Light braking is not essential but avoiding premature overheating is. You must gradually get your new discs used to the pads. Like any new relationship this requires some patience. Force can be placed on the brake pedal but only at average speed and for short durations without continuous cycles to avoiding a build up of heat.
• Unless there is an emergency, braking hard to a dead stop must be avoided where possible. After 300-500 miles of this progressive driving style you should inspect the brake disc surface. You are looking for a visible contact patch across the whole surface of the disc, with very little discolouring. Any colour on the disc should be from pad transfer to the disc and not from heat. The colour should also be uniform across the full disc surface.

With the correct fitment and bedding you should be able to enjoy your improved performance for many miles to come, please remember to always drive safe.