S3 brakes are crap

Brodster

Brodster

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Hi all. Well it's happened again. After nearly 2 months of having a nice new set of discs and pads they are badly warped again. Now I dont use my brakes all that often as I prefer to use the gearbox for braking if I can.

Popped it into the garage to snag it and their reply was that the 19" wheels were causing them to warp due to the extra weight. Now being kinda technical and hate people trying to bull**** their way out of a problem can anyone list the weight of standard S3 wheels. I have the data on my BBS CK's to hand to present to the garage if needs be.

The other question is this.....IF the garage dont play ball and replace them again Im going to upgrade the discs and pads myself.....what is the best set up for the S3 without breaking the bank......Brembo/AP/Mintex/Tarox. I dont want a race set up just something thats not going to warp when you touch the brake pedal.

Cheers
 
Brodster, get a refund from the garage after you successfully dispute their ******** and then use that to upgrade?
I don't know about stuff for an S3 but I had two different VR6s running Black Diamond discs with Mintex 1144 pads, always worked a treat.
 
Speak to N8 or DaveB1970,for good brakes at a good price.

I would personally recommend AP or Alcon,although Alcon are very expensive.

I don't like Tarox,but that's a personal opinion only,and some like them.

Aside from the calipers,mine is basically an AP system now,and Mintex 1144 pads will give a lot of feel,and progression compared to DS2500's.....I use 1155 pads on mine,but you probably won't want those.
 
There must an underlying problem which I cannot fathom out but normal driving and braking will not warp discs like it has with mine. So in 1 year both sets of front discs have warped.....something going on me thinks.

Any brake gurus wanna have a stab at it.

Cheers for the recommendations
 
Brodster said:
There must an underlying problem which I cannot fathom out but normal driving and braking will not warp discs like it has with mine. So in 1 year both sets of front discs have warped.....something going on me thinks.

Any brake gurus wanna have a stab at it.

Cheers for the recommendations
Click to expand...

Mine never warped,but I never found them very reassuring,and they are amazingly heavy(weight-wise) for something that has such piddly braking power.
 
I've had S3 brakes on our SB for few years now & I've done some fair hard braking in mine at times carrying a fair bit of weight too & not had one issue, also the 3dr has the same brakes & that also hasn't suffered.

I'm no brake specialist, but trying to understand how 19's would affect the discs at all unless they're lead bricks as such, as there would be more space to dissipate heat better, which would be better for them than 18's, so wtf are they talking about, happy to learn something here but not seeing there logic atm as I cant imagine the bbs's are vastly weighty to make such a huge difference???
 
audi upgrades
I've found my S3 brakes to be very good. I've destroyed the brakes on many performance cars but never had any probs with fading or warp on the S3 so far.
 
Is this active on your car? I could imagine it possibly causing a few heat issues if it is...

brakewipe_zpsefbc1b92.jpg
 
Never heard of that one before. Where did you pull that from? I will check tomorrow with VCDS and deactivate it. Can see the theory behind it but would this cause continual warping of my discs.

Im also led to believe that the weight of a BBS CK is in fact slightly lighter than the original S3 alloys that were factory fitted so the garage are talking a lot of ol' bull.
 
Mate - i am running 19" CH's which are all but identical to yours. It sounds like you drive the same as me in style and i have the same pads and discs for 41k miles (from new) and no issues what so ever. I do hound mine sometimes and have done 30-130 runs and coming down from 175mph + they are still totally sound.

When you get out the car after a normal drive (no heroics), are the dics glowing hot? If so, it could be you have a caliper sticking that is obviously meaning they are gonna melt your discs really quick.
 
I have warped a standard set of s3 disks before, it was in fact just the nearside one. This led me to believe that driving trough puddles at speed had caused it.
I also came to the conclusion that high speed driving and heavy breaking on very rainy days where surface water had collected on motorways had played some part.
Now i have upgraded to r8 rear/AP BBK so i always ensure they have been warmed up nicely and it is a dry day before any hard braking.
 
Never had the discs glowing. Spirited driving....Yes but I use the gearbox alot to brake so I dont use the brakes all that often. James, the 1st set of discs were changed after 8k miles under warranty......the car has now done nearly 12k miles and they're awful again....just touch the brake pedal and the shuddering is amazing from 70mph down to about 40mph then stops. Ive checked the security of everything and all is normal. Its definately warped discs again. I snagged it at just under 11k when the car went in for its 1st service and the garage said it was the wheels causing it so swapped the rears to the front. I said how come as BBS were infact lighter and they said it was due to the fact that the car wasn't set up for those wheels etc etc. So that annoyed me. Drove straight up the Edinburgh by-pass and braked lightly to come off the slip road and bingo....same symptom as before. Im gonna take it back in as I have intentionally tried to not brake hard at times when I could of just to preserve the discs.......they must be made of plastic or something.
 
The garage should replace your discs and pads under warranty.

When you wash your car are your discs hot and do you dry them off?
 
Sounds like an underlying issue somewhere. Make sure the brake wiper function and hill hold assist is de-selected to aid fault finding.
 
I can only summise it's a bad batch of discs/pads you've had fitted. Perhaps the pads are the issue? Anyways it should be under warranty.
Using the gearbox for engine braking is putting a lot of stain on it.. Modern train of thought is use brakes as they are cheaper and easier to change.. But in your case ..perhaps not.

To me, being told it's due to the weight of 19" wheel is mega poo poo..
 
I did activate HHA a while back and will deselect BWF tomorrow and then book it back into the garage to see if they will replace the discs and pads again. As you say veeeight there has to be an underlying problem somewhere.
 
The sh!te you hear from garages is unreal. They'll use any excuse to try and fob you off and not pay out/replace.

Do you by any chance happen to sit at traffic lights with your foot on the brake as this can cause the discs to warp? A lot of people I see on the road these days seem to do this.

I would agree the std brakes aren't the best - why on earth didn't Audi fit the 4 pots that the LCR gets? Because they're tight barstewards that's why!

I had to change my fronts recently as the ones that came with the car were warped after only owning the car a couple of months. They looked brand new.

I now have a set of pagid discs and pads fitted and have done more miles on them already than the previous ones so I would hazard a guess and say the oem audi stuff is rubbish (and overpriced).
 
I've done 20k of very hard driving in my S3.(340bhp) Brakes are dandy.....really sharp and ****** good if I'm honest and they're the standard set up.


confused.com.....
 
Do you run spacers? Are the hub faces straight/true? Have you had the alignment checked?

Complain about the garage mate, there's nothing worse than hearing ****e from so-called 'experts'. Don't let them get away with it. They sound like the sort of people that will change a gearbox instead of adjusting a clutch, taking thousands instead of hundreds from innocent drivers.
 
You should make sure they have checked the hub run out with a dial gauge, excessive hub run out can cause this problem! but they should have checked this before they fitted the new discs.
 
As mentioned in the last post check your hubs for run out. A lad a work had the exact same problem on a Honda. His new setup only lasted 900 miles and they had gone again.
If you Google it you should find a few company's that can machine your hubs. I think its actually done on the car.
 
It's most less 100% your pads depositing on the disc giving judder. It's definitely not your wheels lol. Do you now what pads (make) they are?

I can't see the disc wiping function being a problem, sometimes thermal shock can cause the vibration (ie braking coming off a motorway when the discs are cold).

Sometimes it's just a bad combination of pads and discs, sometimes I believe it's down to luck if you brakes remain smooth or not! My A3 has been really good, have changed the pads recently just standard Pagids from eurocarparts and they too seems fine in all everyday driving.
 
Hmm my brakes are fine and I get some some horrific abuse on country roads. No problems other than occasional squeal at slow speed
 
Hi guys. I don't sit at traffic lights with my foot on the brake. The car hasn't got any spacers fitted as the ET is 44 and spacers would make em stick further past the arch. The brake pads that are fitted are whatever the garage fitted the last time they replaced the discs and pads.

With refrence to the hub run-out......If this is the case then should I not feel vibration without braking just with the rotational forces of the wheel. I only get vibration when braking and the higher the speed the worse it is.

I might just bite the bullet and go and buy another brand of pads....If it decides to continue after that then I will book it back into the garage with guns blazing.

Thanks for all the input fellas.....much appreciated.
 
I wouldn't think it is hub runout, but if it is you wouldn't feel it under normal driving as the runout will only have to be tiny to eventually affect the discs as they wear. I very much doubt it's runout though.

re changing the pads, I wouldsay that the deposits are on the discs already and would need an aggressive pad, a skim, or some very heavy breaking in bed-in procedure to attempt to clean them up.

Can you post a photo of the discs?
 
max69vk said:
Is this active on your car? I could imagine it possibly causing a few heat issues if it is...

brakewipe_zpsefbc1b92.jpg
Click to expand...

Is this available on all S3's? May have to get this activated as not sure if I have it. Can see it's advertised for the new S3 but didn't know was available on 8P
 
With regards to the brake run out I doubt you would feel it under general driving and only under braking....
The lad at work only had very minimal run out but what made me think yours could be same issue is the fact that after putting in a new set of discs and pads his went again in no time.......
 
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