Now this was a surprise to me last Wednesday during the Northeast heatwave. Pretty much my entire brake system had been serviced by my dealer since I've had my Max back in 2000. Save for rearpads from last summer, did that myself. Although I figured they'd have bled the bloody system when I had the "brake service" a year and a half ago.

Keep in mind I've only got 54K on the her now. I didn't put much on her till the last year when I had to start driving to work.

So it was hot, showing abit over 100 in on dash ambiance temp gauge.
I'm sitting in bumper to bumper traffic on the parkway going home, and I suddenly felt the brake slumping to the floor. This is a very crappy feeling when you've got to stop in traffic every few seconds.
Since I've read a lot over my time hear, I figured awww spit..brake fade?!? Luckily they kicked in when it hit the floor and still got stoppage.
Unfortunately I couldn't get off the parkway, but had to brake extremely early to get a stop, but essentially there was no feel. Reminds of when you doing the 2 man bleeding actually. (yeah i did it on my friend's car but not my own like a dumba$$)

I managed to get off and get home still distance wise its not far, but any NYer can tell ya a couple of miles can mean a couple of hours.
I checked underneath and no leaks in the system. Just good ole heat that caused the break fluid to "fail". So for anyone out there who hasn't or isn't sure they've bled their brakes at some point, get it done or do it.

I'd been meaning to swap out the OEM rotors, pads etc all summer, so finally got forced to do it. I went to a Mavis and asked em to swap out all four rotors, pads and bleed the system and replace. Cost was less than $160. If it were the weekend I would've gotten to it, but I hate doing bleeding. For the cost I figured what the heck.
The mechanic checked the hoses said they were fine, but the fluid was abit discolored....

(Bot the machined rotors cross drilled slotted types from an ebay shop along with the PBR/Axiss ultimate ceramic pads, replaced with ATE super blue brake fluid. Yeah seen the different threads on setups etc many times).

So far drives nice and have a nice bite to the system. Can't complain yet, but I agree the PBR's dust like crazy.

Anyone else have a story they'd like to share?

 

From what I understand (which isn't much) bumper-bumper traffic won't give you brake fade, unless you're riding the brakes. It usually happens when the fluid boils, about 300*F.