Rs4 Brake FALURE!

[B8RS4]

Hi everyone.
I was at a track day in my B8 2014 Rs4 with 20,000kms on the clock. did 8 laps first session and car was fine.
On the second session I was 5 laps in and was hitting 210kph on the main straight of Hampton Downs Race track in Auckland New Zealand. Braked for the first corner and they were fine and all went well. Decided to slow down a lot for the second and entered the corner at about 130kph. ( was previously hitting and braking at 150-160kph) Went to press brakes and there was nothing. Ended up turning to try make corner but was too fast and with the brake failure I spun the car sideways to avoid major frontal damage. Managed to slide into the wall sideways at about 90-100kph across the grass. THERE SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN BRAKE FAILURE AS THE RS4 IS BUILD TO BE DRIVEN HARD AND ON THE TRACK. It was the cars first time on the track and I have owned since new. all driving before was done in the car around town and on the highways. Wondering if anyone else has heard of this happening or know why? About 45k in damage.

[14S4GWM]

Sucks, pics of the carnage. Glad you're ok

[B8RS4]

How do I post pictures?

[B8RS4]

http://www.audizine.com/gallery/show...g-8414&cat=559

http://www.audizine.com/gallery/show...g-8434&cat=559

http://www.audizine.com/gallery/show...g-8393&cat=559

[14S4GWM]

That makes me want to cry for you. Sorry to see those.

[Luis_Heineken]

Sorry for your loss

[VinnysS4]

holy shit!!! excuse my language. That was a very nice looking Audi too.... I would kill to have one of those here in the USA. sorry for your loss

[B8RS4]

Thanks guys. Yep Im fine. More just worried that audi can sell a top of the line car that they pride them-selfs on, on how well they car is built and how hard you can drive it. even done rs4 track days with Audi and they say they are ready to track as stock cars. Then this happens...

[LINDW4LL]

Was their actually a failure, such as a fluid leak or master cylinder failure, or did you simply overheat your pads/fluid?

It sounds to me like you simply over-drove the brakes (fluid/pads). You didn't feel the pedal travel getting longer as you progressed? Do you have the steel brakes or carbon ceramics?

[Cinna696]

What maintenance was done on the brakes prior to the track day?


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[DOCEVG]

Doesn't seem like there are enough facts here yet to presumptively blame Audi. It would be interesting to hear a post-mortem on your brake system, which should include whether they were properly maintained, whether they were properly driven within limits, a root cause analysis, etc. I have the same questions as to the two previous posters. That said, I feel your pain and wish you the best. Were you in the US I suspect most standard auto insurance policies won't cover track damage.
BTW, nice car. I'm sure you know there are many of the US who are jealous you can buy cars like that.

[B8RS4]

cheers guys.yes its a nice car and will be back on the road soon. They are carbon ceramic brakes and have been properly maintained. had been serviced at audi a couple months proir. There are audi techs going to look at the car tomorrow (Monday) to asses what happened.

[SquiddyB6S4]

What maintenance was done on the brakes prior to the track day?

This was my thought immediately. A friend of mine is driving his first track day in a few weeks, and I offered to help him flush the brake fluid. "Do I need to do that?" he asked.

[0396]

Sorry to hear of your incident. When I tracked my 914, I always flush with ATE Blue brake fluid before my next event.

[FormulaElement]

Damn dude thats horrible. Sorry to hear for your loss. Glad you're ok though!

Please keep us updated on what they find as the cause.

[Cinna696]

cheers guys.yes its a nice car and will be back on the road soon. They are carbon ceramic brakes and have been properly maintained. had been serviced at audi a couple months proir. There are audi techs going to look at the car tomorrow (Monday) to asses what happened.

I would take a close look at the service receipt and see exactly what they did.

Look for a fluid flush etc. if it doesn't mention it and they didn't charge you for fluid then they didn't do it.

Also, and for everyone else, just because the rotors are carbon ceramic does not mean a dedicated set of track pads isn't prudent.


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[b7scuderiafan]

Wow. Well while the car is a high performance car. The Audi brake fluid is very unlikely to be sufficient for track work. OP you should of flushed with racing brake fluid.... Especially with carbon ceramics which get hotter then steels.

Good luck but you probably vapor locked them, which isn't audis fault.

[jakeoboy67]

it's weird that nothing happened in the first session (8 laps) , was it slower than the second one ? or around the same speed/intensity ?

[wednesday]

It's unfortunate to hear and heart rending to see the pictures. Hopefully the car is covered by insurance of some sort and you don't end up footing the bill. I have taken quite a few stock cars with decent amount of mileage with just new tires and have not experienced complete failures like this. I have experienced it in a modified car and flat foot is the worse feeling to have. RS should be able to perform in stock form miles later and this is just not good. Folks will disagree, but fact is, this happened. Period.

On a completely different note, how was the crash experience? I see that air bags did deploy, so impact was severe enough. Glad to hear you are okay and able to talk about it. Safety worked!!

[dsgray16]

Sucks this happened. That thing looks virtually totaled. Did you have track insurance for it?

[TEB]

What's your prior track experience?

Small story: I had 5 years of experience tracking a very small, light car before moving on to my B5 A4 many years ago. The first time I tracked my A4 (while still completely stock), I had a near complete brake failure during the second session. It was completely my fault -- due mainly to overdriving the much heavier car into the turns. I'm sure I cooked the fluid or had bad pad-gassing. I immediately upgraded the brakes, and learned how to drive the car. Hard to compare an A4 with an RS, but you certainly could have induced this yourself.

It's painful to see your pictures. Glad you are OK, I hope your insurance company is able to help you out.

[Silver Streakin]

Sorry to here and see the pics.

I don't know if you mentioned running with a club, but here in the US... when you do track days with the Audi or Porsche clubs, you typical get a packet of information before a track day and it includes a form for a mechanic to do a pre-track inspection. During the inspection, it should include a fresh brake fluid flush and recommend going to a DOT4 or race fluid. The OEM fluid will boil. The OEM pads will overheat and fade. Hard lesson to learn, but it's a street car and things like the brakes need to be within the heat range of race track conditions.