tinman

Yup, been there, done that. http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread...threadid=455954 One word: Escrow!

Today I was driving I-90 into Chicago to help some friends move, when i noticed that my passenger-side rear wheel was making some strange "whooor,whooor,whooor" noises. I drove about a mile and it just got louder and louder. I pulled off on the next exit, walked around to the passenger side of the car but I didn't see anything of note. Then I put my hand on the rear fender above the tire and immediately some very hot air rising from the wheel. My wheel was spewing heat at a truly impressive rate. I licked my finger and touched the wheel hub, it actually sizzled! :o I let it stand for awhile to cool and drove it over to a friend's place who has far more tools in his garage than I do. When we got it up on a jack, we noticed right away that there was brake dust all over the wheel -- much more than the other 3 --- and the outer pad was worn to almost nothing but the inner pad was still ok. It looks like the caliper piston wasn't completely releasing and the pad was dragging on the rotor. In town this doesn't present a big problem, speed are low and it appears that the SC's vented rear disks are capable of dispersing a respectable amount of heat. However, at highway speeds, it sounded like it warped the rotor and obviously got way too hot. It couldn’t release the heat fast enough and just got hotter and hotter and louder and louder. Interestingly enough to mention -- the rotor looks just fine. It's not cracked or discolored. Also, I could push on the caliper piston and it retired back into the caliper piston housing just fine. I couldn’t push it back with my hand, but with a C-clamp it presented no trouble. I'm assuming that the piston is just getting hungup on something and couldn't release. So, to make a long story longer, has anyone seen something like this on their SC before? I ordered new pads for the rear and a rebuild kit for the caliper. It should be here Monday. I didn't wanna order anything else because i plan on upgrading the brakes anyway... and on that note, anyone know any good kits for the SC? AEM doesn't appear to make one and a complete Brembo "kit" is an ungodly 3 grand.

err make that a 1UZ motor. The SC300 has a 2JZ :D

If you live in the Midwest, go higher, especially in the winter months. We get reformulated gas here that is a little off in the octane rating when it's actually put in your motor. The SC does have 2 knock sensors and they seem to keep a good eye on things and the ECU learns pretty fast about what it can and cannot do with timing and fuel control... But, if simply for the sake of keeping the power up, I'd personally go with a higher octane with a high compression motor like the 2JZ. Look at it this way: You cannot go wrong with 93.