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This is a follow up question to my never ending situation regarding the stock brakes on the 2018 Subaru BRZ SportTech RS (they're Brembo's from the factory):

Recap:

Essentially, my brakes don't decelerate as well on the highway when conditions are wet versus when they're dry. The two questions above provide a proper description.

New Developments:

Just today I talked to the dealership, and they claim that this might be an issue with all the Brembo's that come on this model. Basically, the service representative explained the problem by saying that with these Brembo's there's always a slight "hairline" amount of contact to keep them heated and better preforming. This may be causing the rotors to become "glazed" and faulty in wet conditions.

Essentially, this means that every new BRZ with this set of brakes would have the same issue. It could even imply that every performance set of brakes that apply that same about of hairline contact could fail in specific situations as well.

The dealership solution was to scuff the rotors and then just re-scuff them every time the problem returns.

Question:

Are vehicles with performance brakes unable to be used on the highway in the rain, due to the poor design of the brakes?

To me it seems highly unlikely that a car manufacturer would include Brembo's on a vehicle if they're not usable on road trips.

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  • Given racing cars can stop in the rain - it may be a tire issue as well as or even more than the brakes... Also, don't the Subaru's do fairly well in some of the rallies... wet conditions especially in some UK stages.
    – Solar Mike
    May 1, 2019 at 17:12
  • @SolarMike This situation is a bit unique because it only happens after excess periods without braking (20 minutes+). I've tried to check the tires as well. Once the brakes have been "cleaned" by applying them a few times, stopping returns to normal, meaning that even though the road is still wet, if I slam on the brakes the car comes to a quick stop. Something I would expect not to happen intermittently if it was a tire issue.
    – Paul Warnick
    May 1, 2019 at 17:16
  • So, what grade pads are you using? try a softer grade ie not so close to a "race" spec...
    – Solar Mike
    May 1, 2019 at 17:19
  • @SolarMike I'm sure I could swap out parts myself to fix the situation but that's slightly aside from the point. I'm more curious to see if the situation described by the dealer is possible. Meaning, is Subaru really selling a car with parts that don't function all the time.
    – Paul Warnick
    May 1, 2019 at 17:28
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    This comment chain is getting a bit long, but I just wanted to chime in and say that most OEM solutions are nowhere near as aggressive or compromising as true "race" products. I might expect a small decrease in braking; but going by the description from the linked older questions, for something as critical for safety as the brakes, up to 2 seconds of no brakes seems highly unusual for stock sport models. I'd probably say this is a specific case to this model of BRZ, or it might possibly just be your car.
    – Kitsunemimi
    May 2, 2019 at 16:10

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