Toasted Brakes?

My previous car, a FIAT Croma once had sticking brakes. At first I thought the car was sluggish and the engine needed servicing, but the lack of power varied. One evening it was very slow, so I stopped the car to have a look. To my surprise, the rear discs were glowing red in the early evening twilight.

A little OT but analogous... Towards the end of a TV documentary series (Channel 4?) about the development of IIRC the Boeing 777, we were shown one of the approval tests, of the plane's brakes.

A 777 was loaded then driven as for normal takeoff. At the point where flight would have begun, they cut the engines and jammed on the brakes. To pass, the plane had to come to a halt unaided and safely, then not catch fire for some quite long period, to allow for when emergency support could not reach it before passengers had disembarked.

The brakes were visibly a _bright_ yellow, even in daylight.

-- Andrew Stephenson

If your handbrake is over adjusted you'll have the handbrake shoes in contact with the disc/drum which will overheat. This can also be caused by driving with the handbrake still engaged by even one notch. If this overheating is constant you need to loosen off the handbrake cable, strip down the rear brakes and inspect for damage. Serious overheating will cause metal to take on a blue tinge. Replace any suspect parts, rebuild the brakes, change your brake fluid and set the handbrake to 5 clicks for full lock.

The handbrake wasn't really the problem with my previous car. You can usually spot when the handbrake isn't released when rolling the car in neutral (manual box), the car should continue for quite a while under its own momentum. The sticking problem I had was very intermittent, hence it mimicked a temporary reduction of engine power.

Transport category aircraft play in a league of their own. They can't try another takeoff either until the brakes cool enough to do the above again.

Does anyone know if there is any kind of performance standard for automotive brakes?