Well... Its happened again ! My brakes are toast !

[S3 Paul]

After a "fun" driver last night ( only about 5 miles )
My brakes are well and truely done. They are... Brembo callipers with ebc yellow stuff pads on CRN groved discs with ebc red stuff pads at the rear with matching CRN groved discs, The fluid is fresh ATE super racing blue ( all fluid was changed after a hose split)
Towards the end of said drive the pedal went a little but not much but there is very little stopping power.
When we got back and parked up i noticed a bad fishy smell. Is that the pads????
Ive about had it with these things. Im considering sacking them off and fitting boxster callipers on r32 discs and the s4/rs4 rear disc set up ( basicaly a re drilled 300mm disc and a bracket )

Has anybody any ideas? Im sure i drive no harder than most.
The master cylinder and servo were checked by my local vag gargae and they reported no problems,

 

[<tuffty/>]

Have you tried DS2500 or DS3000's? 3000's maybe worth a punt if you are hard on brakes... matt20vt went to these on his GT2871 A3 TQS and liked them a lot...

The S3 is a heavy old girl and while a 323mm brembo setup is better than std they can be ****** if you are a hard braker...

A 2-piece setup would be the next stage up too... less sprung weight and better heat dissipation too plus you can go to 330mm on the Brembo Jnrs (Bill does a spacer to pack up the bracket for the extra diameter of the larger discs)

I use Motul RBF660 fluid which has yet to let me down (although I am coming up for a fluid change now) and my brakes seem to work ok from high speeds.. (ask Prawn :thumbsup

<tuffty/>

 

[Syvo]

grooved discs are cheese graters to pads.
also ebc pads are not the best.

the fishy smell does sound like pads, try some fedro pads and some normal discs not grooved or drilled.

 

[Prawn]

well you've got gash blocks of cheese where most of us run brake pads Paul.....

EBC pads are tat, and I mean utter tat. I don't care what anyone says, you shouldn't be using them!

I don't know about CRN discs, so can't comment on those, but I use EBC discs, which are eplitically grooved by Badger5.

I've got DS3000 pads from Bill, and the brakes are simply incredible. they stop the car time and time again from 130-140mph. I can do back to back laps of the Ring all day long, at a good pace (sub 9 minute laps), and they never fade at all, the pedal never goes, and the stopping power is always there.

I don't know what you're doing wrong Paul, but I can only assume it's the rubbish pads.

 

[badger5]

pads pads

decent ds3000's

 

[jojo]

After a "fun" driver last night ( only about 5 miles )

This truly is shocking! My S3 can do 4-5 laps at Castle Coombe wearing heavy 19" rims, and that's way longer than 5 minutes of hard driving with 2 heavy braking zones. There has to be something wrong with your setup.

 

[Syvo]

This truly is shocking! My S3 can do 4-5 laps at Castle Coombe wearing heavy 19" rims, and that's way longer than 5 minutes of hard driving with 2 heavy braking zones. There has to be something wrong with your setup.

the yellow stuff pads say it all.

as bill and prawn say pads pads pads

 

[badger5]

I tried yellows when ebc tried to convince me they were track use spec on my ibiza.. they were abysmal.. no feel and terrible disk wear after one race.

DS3000's for me rock!
I used to use PF01 and PF05 pads which although awesome bite pads, also generated more heat than I could dissipate and had less "feel" vs the DS3000's which for me have been disk friendly pads (when bedded in properly)

Worth a punt, trying ds3000s before you bin what may well be a perfectly ok brake setup.

one piece disks however will struggle to dissipate the heat from sustained ragging on a heavy S3...

 

[AARON77]

Ditch the yellow stuff

 

[S3 Paul]

I have tried the ds2500 pads. On both Brembo drilled discs and ones from bill.
To be honest. The only pads that lasted a full "rag" was some stock mintex items.
The wor down fast but never lost the feel.
The list of pads ive tried are...

Brembo suplied items ( come with the kit )
DS2500 on Bill supplied discs
Mintex stock LCR replacement pads
EBC red stuff
DS2500 again but on crn discs
and now the yellow stuff

Before trying the Ds pads again i flushed the fluid and replaced it with the ATE super racing blue

I know the car is very heavy but i would hope i could make it stop,
I plan on going to the ring next year and brakes like these will kill me long before i even get there.

 

[Dani_B19]

Nothing todo with faulty lines? Doesnt the amk/bams use the pcv vac lines for the brakes or something?

 

[Prawn]

I really think you need to try ds3000's Paul, they're in a TOTALLY different league to the 2500's.

I don't see how you're killing brakes so bad though, unless you're seriously heavy on brakes.....

 

[S3 Paul]

I would love to see how good somebodys are.
I know in my Mk2 i can make a set of G60 brakes with zimmerman drilled discs and pagid fast road pads last ages.
Probably alot less weight but... its a faster car ( mk2 )
i think i need to show somebody just how bad they are.

 

[Dani_B19]

If you want paul you can compare my standard s3 brakes see what they are like?

 

[S3 Paul]

Stopping from cold ( before last nights games ) was always good. It was once i built uo alittle heat
I only managed to get the abs to kick in once even after a full on stamp.

 

[liquids3]

Get a ecs setup,they get better the hotter they are!,not cheep though but wel worth it!,and yea ebc are quite ****e even if i am running them on the rear!,plus braided lines keep the pressure there when you need it!

 

[liquids3]

Just bought discs and pads for mine £768 lol

 

[liquids3]

And thats just for the front i must be mad!

 

[s3dave]

Im pretty pist off how the ds2500s are eating my discs, ive only done 3k and there is a distinctive lip on the ultimax discs all bought new..

 

[liquids3]

Thats the thing ive dne 50 thousand miles on my discs and pads never just changed pads so not to bad,even the rear ecs discs are on 55 thousand with new ebc pads there nt to bad but dose'nt do alot of the braking anyway!

 

[S3 Paul]

In my opinion the ECS stuff is well over priced,
They are costly to buy in the first place then the discs are mega money,

 

[badger5]

Something has to wear guys - Its friction which stops you.
Pads which work yet wont wear I dont believe exist.

If you are getting thru these things at the rate you are Paul, you must be one hell of a hard user of brakes period..

I use DS3000's for race, and they serve me very well, being disk friendly compared to other "race" pads I have used..
Heat will be the next issue once pads are used which are rated to the temps you are subjecting them to.

Performance Friction Carbon Metallic I have used previously on brembos when I ran them.. Very good bite in al conditions, quite dusty (burn into wheel laquer dust) but they had tremendous bite no matter the temps.. HOWEVER, the otherside of that coin was the temps were very very high and fluids boiled when pushed too hard. You had to drive accordingly, not beyond the hardware. Cooler running setups being 2-piece ones..

 

[S3Lol]

Bill, delete some PM's. Need a price on something

 

[badger5]

Bill, delete some PM's. Need a price on something

done, email me is best tho.. bill@badger5.co.uk

pm's flood in and I cant keep track (or up at times)

 

[liquids3]

In my opinion the ECS stuff is well over priced,
They are costly to buy in the first place then the discs are mega money,

True in one way!,but like i said ive got my moneys worth out of them 50 60 thousand out of discs is good!,prob due to they are design'd for a more powerfull heavey car!,and have about an inch gap between disc ventalation!,these brakes meen you can brake so late and have saved my car many a time!,but not cheep yea!