Common Track Failures

[speedform]

My list of minor issues:
1. blown axle seals (rear)
2. pinion seal
3. axle vent (terrible design as stated above. I can't believe Ford sold it like this)

 

[Vorshlag-Fair]

Most common replacement parts we see at the track:
Pads, rotors, brake fluid, rear axle lube

Most common mechanical wear we see at the track:
Front hubs, front wheel studs, rear axle seals, Track-Loc differentials, various bushings (usually accident related, not worn out).

After a LOT more track use, these wear out:
Engine mounts, transmission mount, caliper bodies and seals, rubber bushing in the top of the axle.

There are other issues related to use, like if you run the tank too low, the pump burns up sooner than it should. If you jump the curbs, expect to replace upper strut mounts and tie rods. Shift with no mercy, expect to replace some transmission internals sooner than normal. Shift way up the rev range, higher engine temps and valve train wear start showing up. All of these things are manageable by how you treat the equipment.

Yep, this is a good list right here. We've managed to only have one weekend out of nearly 100 where we broke the car badly enough to stop racing - when 3rd gear let go. Still was able to use the other 5 forward gears, and drove it across town to the dealership for warranty repair.

Worst track repair so far has been for popped rotors (the small 11.5" stock rear size). Same goes for front hubs or rear axle seals (we've replaced both a couple of times) - there's usually plenty of evidence to let you know these are going before they completely sh!t the bed on track. Hubs make noise and have run-out, and the seals start to seep fluid.

Other than the trans failure and a popped rotor track side, we've managed to tackle these common track wear items on the S197 between events - a good shop or mechanic checking over the car beforehand (pre-track inspection) can make your life easier at the track.

And once you've upgraded beyond the worst offenders (clutch style diffs, under-achiever brake pad brands, overheating the front hubs by improper front brake cooling), and keep an eye out for the long term stuff, it just boils down to normal wear with the pads, rotors, tires and fluids.

Cheers

 

[sheizasosay]

And once you've upgraded beyond the worst offenders (clutch style diffs, under-achiever brake pad brands, overheating the front hubs by improper front brake cooling), and keep an eye out for the long term stuff, it just boils down to normal wear with the pads, rotors, tires and fluids.

Cheers

Terry, I know you have professed that you have used a ton of break pads and have stuck with what works. I'm assuming that you haven't tried ALL brands and that you might have found Carbotech and was so satisfied that you didn't see the need to go elsewhere. But to the question...have you tried Performance Friction track grade pads?

Sidenote interesting bit of info: they were tasked with doing the friction mapping for the ABS and their "12" and "8" pads were what one of the S197's ABS modules used during that mapping.

 

[Sky Render]

The stock TracLock can last anywhere from a single track day to a year or two, depending on how you drive it, the type of tires you're using, etc. Upgrading to the Cobra/GT500 carbon clutch discs increases the longevity only slightly. The TracLock is also inconsistent, since it's effective bias ratio decreases as the clutches wear.

In general, you won't realize how badly the TracLock is functioning until you replace it. Choices include Torsen T2s or T2-Rs and the Eaton TrueTrac, which is what I run.

Bmr ...control arms suck period as do Bmr parts !

Does it hurt being that stupid?

 

[Whiskey11]

The stock TracLock can last anywhere from a single track day to a year or two, depending on how you drive it, the type of tires you're using, etc. Upgrading to the Cobra/GT500 carbon clutch discs increases the longevity only slightly. The TracLock is also inconsistent, since it's effective bias ratio decreases as the clutches wear.

I would agree, except for the last part. My GT500 Carbon Clutch Packs didn't last as long as the factory organics did. Basically about a half a season, whereas the organics would last about 3/4 a season. Of course, 3700lbs worth of car and driver, 265 wide street tires and Lincoln's concrete are probably to blame... but really the stock T-Lok just sucks. I personally didn't like the way the carbon clutch packs drove either, way less lockup, or at least it felt that way, from the get go. At any rate, I can't wait to get my check for mileage from the city so I can replace the T-Lok with a T2R.

 

[Sky Render]

Really, you got less life out of the carbon clutches? I wonder if there were other factors involved. That's interesting.

I've never driven on a T2-R, but the Eaton TrueTrac has ~90% of the -R's bias ratio at half the price and is more robust...

 

[Whiskey11]

Really, you got less life out of the carbon clutches? I wonder if there were other factors involved. That's interesting.

I've never driven on a T2-R, but the Eaton TrueTrac has ~90% of the -R's bias ratio at half the price and is more robust...

Yes I got less life out of the Carbon Fiber clutches... only thing I can think of, and the only thing that was different between the two was the addition of the Ford Racing finned diff cover and the torque arm. Possibly the torque arm putting more power down causing the issue by forcing the diff to work rather than just lock and spin both tires? Possibly, although a huge stretch.

Thought about the TrueTrac since it is cheaper, but I'm not fully convinced it is 90% of the TBR of the T2R. Eaton lists a range of 2.5-3.5:1. I've seen a lot of 3:1 listed in the 8.8 31 spline applications.

 

[modernbeat]

Terry, I know you have professed that you have used a ton of break pads and have stuck with what works. I'm assuming that you haven't tried ALL brands and that you might have found Carbotech and was so satisfied that you didn't see the need to go elsewhere. But to the question...have you tried Performance Friction track grade pads?

Terry hasn't tried as many brands and compounds as I have. There are definitely some higher performing pads out there than Carbotech. But in the performance vs longevity vs cost equation, they come out very high.

And yes, I've used PFC, Raybestos, Pagid, Ferodo, Wilwood, Porterfield, BHP, Hawk, Cobalt, EBC and others. Some have their strengths. Some do not. I still use Porterfield because of how easy it is to get custom pads and shoes from them for the oddball brakes on our vintage SAAB rally car. I've used some others for endurance rally with massive left foot braking, but they were $700 per axle. And yet other brands (with varying degrees of success) when I was campaigning a cost-no-object autocross car.

For general purpose track use where performance, constant availability, cost and longevity all have to be considered, Carbotech won. And that's why we carry and recommend them. And we race our car on them with good results despite it being incredibly demanding of the brakes.

 

[modernbeat]

We switched to the carbon clutch pack in our diff and had to rebuild it every three events. Between the heat generated and the failing, inconsistent diff, we quickly decided to go to a Torsen and bought the T2R. Diff heat is much improved and the seals, bearings and fluid is lasting much longer with the Torsen.

 

[ddd4114]

I knew the stock diff was a turd, but I didn't realize how quickly you guys were rebuilding them. I've put ~25 track hours on mine since it was last rebuilt, and right now its performance is garbage. I was hoping to last through one more event before dumping money into it, but it sounds like it's already beyond toasted. I'm hoping that only the clutch discs and fluid need to be replaced...

 

[steveespo]

Clutch failure is almost inevitable with stock Valeo setup. I had 23k miles with 6000 on track when mine let go on a 3-4 upshift at Summit Point. Marcel spring shot right out of the disc and jammed the pressure plate. Have McLeod RST and have had no issues over the last 5000/2500 miles. Friend of mine has blown 2 Ford clutches in successive years at Watkins Glen, also damaged two transmissions in the process, he stepped up to a McLeod setup as well.
Steve

 

[Sky Render]

I knew the stock diff was a turd, but I didn't realize how quickly you guys were rebuilding them. I've put ~25 track hours on mine since it was last rebuilt, and right now its performance is garbage. I was hoping to last through one more event before dumping money into it, but it sounds like it's already beyond toasted. I'm hoping that only the clutch discs and fluid need to be replaced...

There are several nationally-competitive SCCA guys who rebuild their TracLocks after every event.

I guess they just prefer the way the TracLock performs. That sounds like too much work to me.

 

[Travis R]

Did my first track day in the Mustang yesterday and agree with other that a rear axle catch can is REQUIRED! It wasn't even very hot here and I had the right side of the rear axle soaking wet after my 2nd session.
My question is, how much fluid will that thing puke out? Should I be concerned about the amount of fluid left in the diff? How do I even check it, or top it off?

 

[Sky Render]

Do you have the stock differential cover? If so, there is a fill plug on the FRONT of the differential housing. Remove it. Add fluid until it comes out of that hole with the vehicle level.

 

[Travis R]

Great, Thanks!

 

[Sky Render]

If you're down more than a quarter of a quart or so, you'll need to add some friction modifier back in. If that's the case, you'll be better off just draining the diff completely so you can make sure you get the right ratio.

 

[csamsh]

Very important to keep the fluid level good. I killed my diff carrier bearings from not having enough fluid. The heat levels started to literally take chunks out of the rollers.

 

[ddd4114]

There are several nationally-competitive SCCA guys who rebuild their TracLocks after every event.

I guess they just prefer the way the TracLock performs. That sounds like too much work to me.

Yeah, that would drive me nuts. I'm fine with an annual rebuild (6-7 HPDE/TT events for me), and even a semi-annual rebuild is tolerable if it's just fluid and clutch plates. Anything more than that will get old pretty fast. I'll have to see the carnage lurking inside my diff to see if I want to risk it in the future. I'm just hoping that the carnage remains inside and doesn't spread elsewhere...

 

[Vorshlag-Fair]

We switched to the carbon clutch pack in our diff and had to rebuild it every three events. Between the heat generated and the failing, inconsistent diff, we quickly decided to go to a Torsen and bought the T2R. Diff heat is much improved and the seals, bearings and fluid is lasting much longer with the Torsen.

Indeed. The T2-R was one of the best upgrades we did to this car, and I only wish we would have spent that money sooner. I cannot count how many carbon clutch pack rebuilds we did, but at one point the shop was ready to revolt and they insisted we upgrade the stock style diff.

On one track that has a particularly nasty off camber tight turn (MSR Cresson 3.1 mile course, shown above) we picked up a full second with the Torsen. It also made a big difference exiting an uphill, off-camber right-hander at Eagles Canyon (Turn 5). Whether you use an Eaton (less proven but cheaper) or the Torsen (proven longer and by more people - so yes, there are likely more broken ones out there) or even the WaveTrac (have zero experience with this) or the upcoming OS Giken for the 8.8 (I love these units in other cars), if you track an S197 one of these is likely in your future.

I knew the stock diff was a turd, but I didn't realize how quickly you guys were rebuilding them. I've put ~25 track hours on mine since it was last rebuilt, and right now its performance is garbage. I was hoping to last through one more event before dumping money into it, but it sounds like it's already beyond toasted. I'm hoping that only the clutch discs and fluid need to be replaced...

There were a lot of factors at play with our super fast diff wear: power levels (430-440 whp), tire size (315mm Hoosier A6s at the time), and "amount of yaw angle" from the driver. Yea, my "style" of (over)driving was probably the leading factor to early diff demise, heh.

Clutch failure is almost inevitable with stock Valeo setup. I had 23k miles with 6000 on track when mine let go on a 3-4 upshift at Summit Point. Marcel spring shot right out of the disc and jammed the pressure plate. Have McLeod RST and have had no issues over the last 5000/2500 miles. Friend of mine has blown 2 Ford clutches in successive years at Watkins Glen, also damaged two transmissions in the process, he stepped up to a McLeod setup as well.
Steve

clutches are funny... I've heard of people killing the stock clutches in the 5.0 cars, but mostly drag racers. There's a couple of track S197 guys that have killed their clutches, too, but I've driven with them and... well... it was how they drove that killed it. I can see the rigors of sustained W2W racing laps killing anything, like Steve's fleet of race cars sees.

But when we had the transmission out to fix a rear main seal (my own fault for it failing) the stock clutch looked nearly new in our car after about 18,000 miles of abuse, half of which was likely on track or during an autocross run. I don't shift violently and don't seem to wear clutches in any car I've owned, but I know a lot of folks who do. Did we replace the clutch on this car anyway, since we had the transmission out? Of course.

There are several nationally-competitive SCCA guys who rebuild their TracLocks after every event.

I guess they just prefer the way the TracLock performs. That sounds like too much work to me.

That sounds like one of two things:

1. They are limited to the OEM diff from SCCA class rules (likely).
2. They are crazy.

Cheers!

 

[Sky Render]

There are a LOT of guys over on Corner-Carvers running Eaton units.

I chose the Eaton because I also occasionally drag race my car. The Torsens like to grenade when launched hard at the strip.