Dear Erich, I have a Rabbit with the Scirocco 10.1" brakes on the front. I take my car to the BMW ACA lapping days so they get a very hard workout. The first few times out the pads did fade a little bit but they were no-name brand ones from the re-builder. I have no idea what kind of fluid was in there. Then I purchased some Mintex 1144 pads. They are very expensive at $110/pr from New Dimensions. I also replaced the fluid with ATE super blue which is pretty inexpensive. NO break in and they were much, much better... You don't really need to break in pads at the track because they are fully broken in at about turn three! I have been around the track and the pads have faded in BMW 325is, 911 Carerras, and two different VW's. Amazingly enough the car with the brakes that most matched the car was the GTi VR6 I used to have. They didn't fade until about 45 minutes into the session in 90+ weather and the engine had reached 268F. The Porsches benefit greatly from Ate Super Blue fluid. I think that they have so much power that no brake could keep up with that engine! I guess the Red Lobsters are supposed to work pretty well. Anyways, before blaming it on the pads, I would recommend having your system completely flushed using a vaccuum type flusher and I would also recommend using the ATE Super Blue fluid. If you live in Bellingham, I can give you some. I wouldn't bleed the brakes yourself with the pump the pedal method because there is usually buildup on the master cylinder seal where the normal stroke ends... when you pump past that area you subject the seal to an unpolished shaft and a lot of dirt, grit, and grime. That often leads to a master cylinder seal failure, something you don't want. Later, Clayton
Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2000 22:00:26 EST From: Subject: Decreasing Braking Efficiency Over the Holiday's I finally got around to changing the brake pads and rotors on my Golf. I replaced the easily faded solid rotors with vented rotors and a set of Mintex red box pads. I broke the pads in as per the instructions on the New Dimensions Web page. Once the pads were bedded in the stopping performance was considerably better than before. I did notice that even though the braking performance was better they did need time to warm up they also seemed to have a very narrow band of working then fading even with the vented rotors. Now after putting about +500 miles on the rotors and pads the braking performance has dropped off quite noticeably. The pads don't seem to have the same feel they did and seem to fade quite easily after only an about 10 nonaggressive 50-0 stops in between red lights on a highway. One thing I must add is that the temperatures while I have had the brake pads in has never risen above the freezing mark. Heck in the last week I don't think it has gone much above 25 F here in NJ. I have already faded the pads tonight so much so that they give off that nasty hot brakes smell tonight in 15 F weather Has anyone had a similar problem? Have the pads been damaged or has the temperature not been high enough to work properly? Any and all comments would be greatly appreciated. Oh anybody know how much a set of front 9.4" calipers would be since I have rounded of the hex on the bleeder screws attempting to bleed the brake fluid? TIA Erich Regber _____________ List Sponsor: http://www.netsville.com To remove yourself from this list, send mail to [email protected] with 'unsubscribe a2_16v' in the body of your message See us on the web at http://www.a2-16v.com Visit the 16V Homepage at http://www.gti16v.org
