Break Judder On New Brembo GT

[Russ S3]

Last month i upgraded my front S3 breaks to the GT Brembos and at first i was very happy with them but a month on i'm not so happy. At 70MPH and above if i apply my breaks i seem to got a lot of feed back coming through the break pedal. And the faster i'm going (80-90 etc) and apply the breaks the worse it is. I spoke to the company who fitted them and they said my rear brakes where old and needed changing. I changed the pads to EBC Red Stuff but i havn't changed the discs which are about 9 months old and are Grooved Black diamond. I'm not a mechanic a need a bit of advice on this.Is it break Judder? Do they need to replace the discs? I've not raced the car i use it for work every day 50 to 250 miles in a day so i do take care. Many thanks for reading this.

 

[Aky]

sounds like the front discs have warped. I bought my kit 2nd hand and eded up getting some warped discs so complained to Brembo who eventually sent me some new discs for free. I basically bought some new discs off them and sent the old ones back for analysis. I don't think they did anything with them so I complained and got the new ones for free and they returned my original discs so I can get them skimmed

 

[1animal1]

what were you doing to warp them??????

 

[Russ S3]

what were you doing to warp them??????

Braking thats what there designed to do. I'm not track racing just motorway and around town use nothing hardcore.

 

[Russ S3]

sounds like the front discs have warped. I bought my kit 2nd hand and eded up getting some warped discs so complained to Brembo who eventually sent me some new discs for free. I basically bought some new discs off them and sent the old ones back for analysis. I don't think they did anything with them so I complained and got the new ones for free and they returned my original discs so I can get them skimmed

There brand new just over 1 month old. I'll have another word with AMD who supplied and installed them if no luck then i'll contact Brembo direct cheers for that.

 

[S90GAV]

are they not a bit over kill for just normal motorway and town use? surely the standard one would of coped well enough?

 

[Russ S3]

are they not a bit over kill for just normal motorway and town use? surely the standard one would of coped well enough?

they did work well. I did have Black diamond discs and tried several types of pads but they couldn't handle it. So in the end i thought F*** it and splashed out on these and like i say they did work well.

 

[S90GAV]

hope you get it sorted bud.

is it the GT's that are on the Leon Cupra R?

 

[Russ S3]

hope you get it sorted bud.

is it the GT's that are on the Leon Cupra R?

Yeah but i went for the silver 4pot caliper with Brembo in red. Cheers i hope it gets sorted out.

 

[Aky]

The 2nd hand kit that I got had only done 500 miles and I was surprised. Think my new discs are starting to go after about 10,000 miles......not good!

 

[1animal1]

im honestly quite disappointed with what you have said..... road use has done this? and these are supposed to be track day toys.... quite suprising

 

[jojo]

I warped a pair after a session at Rockingham, it's a heavy braking circuit which didn't help, and I think it was more to do with my brother inlaw not doing a cool inlap that warped the things. Not had any problems with the LCR solid items though, even a few sessions at CastleCoombe Circuit, and they seemed good.
Also bear in mind knackered track arm bushes, these will give the feeling of warped brakes.... infact, re-reading your post, warped disks would be felt at any speed during braking, the knackered track arm bushes was only felt when the car was in motion at 40mph+ on my car...

 

[jesters3]

Do you have the grooved or drilled discs?

I often here that you get more of a rumbling from a grooved pair

 

[simch]

It is very common for the brembo supplied duscs to fail by warping, mine went after 4k miles, got skimmed, went again after another 3k. Waste of time, crap material, how else can they do massive discs and 4pots for £800 fitted!?

I am trying the EBC ultramax discs at the mo with ferrodo pads and this set up has an excellent feel and bite, the pads are not anhaialating the discs yet , either.

If you want "warp free" (as far as you can get warp free), get Stock Seat Leon cupra undrilled discs and run them. They are expensive though, but high quality material.

One thing you can try with your existing discs is to heat cycle them and see if they true up. Go out when its is quiet and do several accelerations and heavy stops one after other until you pretty much have ****** the brakes and have very much reduced braking or brake fade (be careful dont crash or get nicked!) Once they are really ****** up, drive the car, do it on a bypass or dual carriageway roads where you dont need to brake and drive the car steadily for about 30 mins, not using the brakes at all. This is important as it allows the brake discs to cool while rotating and does not allow heat spots to occur. For eg, if you got them very hot and then parked up, the material of the disc would cool more rapidly on the bit of the disc you can see and less so "under" the caliper and brake pads. This is often why they warp and compunded if it is raining or very cold.

Put a serious heat cycle through them and they may true up, they may not. But remember to drive for at least 30 mins without using them then very gentle braking only until you get home, next morning, see what they are like.

If you do go for new discs, do your self a favour and heat cycle them after and initial very gentle bedding in process (a few miles only) as I decribed, but it is real important to do it where safe and quiet, to get best results. I do mine at 3am on the dual carirageway then, hit the motorway and cruise for an hour.

Good luck, oh, btw it's "brakes!" not "breaks!" !!!lol

There is a lot of nonsense talked about brake bedding in, see how racers do it! They ragg them up to temp, driver a slow cool down lap and are ready to go!

 

[Dave_Bayern]

Ferodo bedding in on a little piece of paper in the box with the pads says to do several 80mph-30mph stops without the brakes locking up then let them cool down.
Apparently its to heat stablise some of the materials used in pad manfacture.

Basically, I wait until I can see and smell smoke comeing off the pads then let them cool, works great

 

[jonS3]

my GT kit has been fine, no problems at all, maybe a bit of squeel sometimes but thats rare. my standard ones were on there last legs before i swapped them, but i think they do make a big difference especially on a remapped S3!

 

[Russ S3]

There drilled and grovved

 

[Russ S3]

It is very common for the brembo supplied duscs to fail by warping, mine went after 4k miles, got skimmed, went again after another 3k. Waste of time, crap material, how else can they do massive discs and 4pots for £800 fitted!?

I am trying the EBC ultramax discs at the mo with ferrodo pads and this set up has an excellent feel and bite, the pads are not anhaialating the discs yet , either.

If you want "warp free" (as far as you can get warp free), get Stock Seat Leon cupra undrilled discs and run them. They are expensive though, but high quality material.

One thing you can try with your existing discs is to heat cycle them and see if they true up. Go out when its is quiet and do several accelerations and heavy stops one after other until you pretty much have ****** the brakes and have very much reduced braking or brake fade (be careful dont crash or get nicked!) Once they are really ****** up, drive the car, do it on a bypass or dual carriageway roads where you dont need to brake and drive the car steadily for about 30 mins, not using the brakes at all. This is important as it allows the brake discs to cool while rotating and does not allow heat spots to occur. For eg, if you got them very hot and then parked up, the material of the disc would cool more rapidly on the bit of the disc you can see and less so "under" the caliper and brake pads. This is often why they warp and compunded if it is raining or very cold.

Put a serious heat cycle through them and they may true up, they may not. But remember to drive for at least 30 mins without using them then very gentle braking only until you get home, next morning, see what they are like.

If you do go for new discs, do your self a favour and heat cycle them after and initial very gentle bedding in process (a few miles only) as I decribed, but it is real important to do it where safe and quiet, to get best results. I do mine at 3am on the dual carirageway then, hit the motorway and cruise for an hour.

Good luck, oh, btw it's "brakes!" not "breaks!" !!!lol

There is a lot of nonsense talked about brake bedding in, see how racers do it! They ragg them up to temp, driver a slow cool down lap and are ready to go!

Cheers for that I'll give that a go and see what happens.

 

[Aky]

There drilled and grovved

Didn't know brembo did such a disc. Cheap copies?

 

[glen_jai]

I have Brembo GT kit fitted to my car and have driven just under 3000 miles in them.

However, I recently took my car on a track and found that the I get a lot of judder through the steering wheel and varied braking forces at slow speed braking.

I've just had both the front wheels balanced, as advised by Mark (at Backdraft), but it's not made any difference.

So I had a quick search on the forum, and to my dismay have seen comments from others with warped discs on the Brembo GT kits.
This seems like a common problem. Anyone with suggestions as to what else it could be, other than warped discs?

It's quite disappointing given that these are meant to be an upgrade brake system for my car.