A7 Pads (& discs?)

AUDI_ADDICT

AUDI_ADDICT

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Morning,

Just had the pad warning light come up this morning, so looking for a decent replacement that doesn't squeal and has some decent stopping power. I read a couple of posts about EBC Red Stuff pads being a good choice?

The previous MOT records have the front discs as 'worn, pitted and scored'

Any advice or recommendations for new discs (not even sure if these are needed tbh)

Thanks

Matt
 
Just had a quote from an independent,

£140 per disc (less 10%)
£130 set of pads (less 10%)
Fitting - £75

Wondering if I should look at a BBK?
 
Can’t go wrong with Red Stuff, I used to work for EBC as a engineer and my car was one of the test vehicles.

I personally rate Red over the other colours, plus they are the lowest dust compound


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millsy4002 said:
Can’t go wrong with Red Stuff, I used to work for EBC as a engineer and my car was one of the test vehicles.

I personally rate Red over the other colours, plus they are the lowest dust compound


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Click to expand...
That’s good to know! ...mine will be due soon. Would you recommend the disc and pad sets they do for the best compatibility or is the choice of disc not so important?
 
3 cars of different makes and three full sets of EBC Redstuff .

An alternative is Ferodo Eco-Fiction as recommended by 45bvtc .
 
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far2tall said:
That’s good to know! ...mine will be due soon. Would you recommend the disc and pad sets they do for the best compatibility or is the choice of disc not so important?
Click to expand...

Any grooved disc will be a decent upgrade.


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You don't get silent braking with those , plus a bit more dust .

Nothing improves brakes like the real physics of the leverage of larger discs with the appropriate spacing of the caliper.
 
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My car is the BiTdi so has reasonable sized discs already. Is grooved preferable over drilled? ...excuse my ignorance!
 
There are arguments for both, In my experience, drilled after like a cheese grater and cut the life of the pad, not by tons though, like I said we used to test them in a factory. Everyday drivers would hardly notice the difference


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For me, as an every day ‘spirited’ driver what would you recommend. I don’t want to tear through the pads faster than necessary but would like a bit of extra stopping power over what I get from the standard discs and pads which I feel aren’t very impressive for their size. I’m also about to get a map on the car so will need something a little extra. Red stuff pads sound great, not found a bad review, just looking for some guidance on discs.
 
Mine is a 245hp Black Edition, so (I believe) the fronts are 345mm (1LA) while the rears are 330mm (2EA).

Its not the best time of year to run into this problem, and as all four corners will need new everything I have had to opt for Pagid discs and Brembo pads from ECP.
 
Shame you had to decide quickly.

64c1b501-b951-41ea-9cd0-1b4764125e71-jpg.63192
 
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Gazwould said:
Shame you had to decide quickly.

64c1b501-b951-41ea-9cd0-1b4764125e71-jpg.63192
Click to expand...

That's a handy chart. Where's that from?

It was budget too. I can see Pagid on the rear pads on the car, through the calipers so no worse off than what I have now (which is more than sufficient). Would have liked to go all brembo, but this close to Christmas I can't justify it unfortunately
 
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AUDI_ADDICT said:
Mine is a 245hp Black Edition, so (I believe) the fronts are 345mm (1LA) while the rears are 330mm (2EA).

Its not the best time of year to run into this problem, and as all four corners will need new everything I have had to opt for Pagid discs and Brembo pads from ECP.
Click to expand...

My 2016 SQ5 brake discs are 380mm diameter fronts and similar to yours 330mm diameter rears.

At purchase and with 1900 miles I chose to get both front and rears Pro-Cut (maybe 0.5mm wear on both inside and outside faces plus inside diameter crud 'build up') and then fitted Ferodo Eco-Friction brake pads front and rear: £200 for the Pro-Cut and £127 for the Eco-Friction brake pads - bet you can't get a set of EBC Redstuff front and rears for that, lol.... :readit:

And the Ferodo Eco-Friction brake pads are low-dust and seemingly brake disc friendly: SQ5 with 2K miles on 'em now and very happy... :racer:

Eco-Friction brake pads now on my SQ5, RS3 and TT and MEGA happy; just superb braking on a 2000kg Audi SQ5, superb low speed 'bite' and instant feel from high "legal" road speeds: cannot recommend Ferodo Eco-Friction enough for slow/fast/normal road work in an SQ5!

EBC Redstuff: I've used many sets on both my own and other 8P RS3 cars and while finding the initial 'bite' way better than OEM pads soon found this initial/cold 'bite' went away, say after 1K miles. And I could never get Redstuff to 'work' on our TT.

Ferodo Eco-Friction: these now are now an Audi line fit - for sure EBC Redstuff or anything else EBC are not!

https://www.ferodo.co.uk/products/light-vehicles/eco-friction-brake-pads.html


​





 
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AUDI_ADDICT said:
That's a handy chart. Where's that from?

It was budget too. I can see Pagid on the rear pads on the car, through the calipers so no worse off than what I have now (which is more than sufficient). Would have liked to go all brembo, but this close to Christmas I can't justify it unfortunately
Click to expand...

See: https://skimmydiscs.co.uk/your-nearest-service-centre

Before and after Pro_Cut (note the 'crud' on the inside diameter and 'lip' on the outside diameter in image #1 - small I know but best get 'em sorted and happy I did):

P1070322 Pro cut SQ5 brake disc

 
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"EBC Redstuff: I've used many sets on both my own and other 8P RS3 cars and while finding the initial 'bite' way better than OEM pads soon found this initial/cold 'bite' went away, say after 1K miles."


That's the intial 'brake-in coating' , old fruit .
 
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AUDI_ADDICT said:
That's a handy chart. Where's that from?

It was budget too. I can see Pagid on the rear pads on the car, through the calipers so no worse off than what I have now (which is more than sufficient). Would have liked to go all brembo, but this close to Christmas I can't justify it unfortunately
Click to expand...


ECP themselves .

Brembo for me .

2EC58B70 D681 4FDE 84B4 D5614648FBC0
 
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Lots of useful info above to digest and luckily I’m not in a hurry. I’ve got the BiTdi (313) . I think they are 356 front and 330 rear.
 
Gazwould said:
"EBC Redstuff: I've used many sets on both my own and other 8P RS3 cars and while finding the initial 'bite' way better than OEM pads soon found this initial/cold 'bite' went away, say after 1K miles."


That's the intial 'brake-in coating' , old fruit .
Click to expand...

If only to 'explain' this "intial 'brake-in coating'" applied to EBC brake pads:

Redstuff Bedding In

​
Ferodo Eco-Friction - and most others - don't have such a "Brake-In Coating" coating. Whatever, for sure I'll not be fitting another set of EBC Redstuff brake pads to mine or anyone else's car; game over EBC. Ferodo for me and Audi GmbH, obviously, provide a much better product for road use.

I accept the "old fruit" Gazwould, lol; thank you kindly :hi:

​
 
Funny the VW squealed and the Merc didn't whilst bedding in.

But the purchase gap is 6 years .

Can't see how a brake in coating that conditions the rotor could ever be a bad thing .

The only thing I don't understand is how you chop and change your dancing advocating .

Having said that I'm more than happy to try the cheaper Ferodo Eco-Fiction at some point , on my satisfaction against Redstuff price I wouldn't continue buying them either , just they weren't on the radar at the time , so glad to get away from those dusty Pagid pads , had 9mm left on them too.

And there are many yet to experience low dust pads that brake well .

Poor buggers don't know what they're missing.
 
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The brake in coating is pretty good, and does what it says on the tin. Absolute ****** in the manufacturing stage though, that stuff got everywhere and cured rock hard. To clean it off rollers we had to put each roller back into a lathe and turn it back to original diameter.


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millsy4002 said:
The brake in coating is pretty good, and does what it says on the tin. Absolute ****** in the manufacturing stage though, that stuff got everywhere and cured rock hard. To clean it off rollers we had to put each roller back into a lathe and turn it back to original diameter.
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Click to expand...

Fitted my first set of EBC brake pads - Green Stuff - in August 1999 to my own Lotus Élan Sprint (a Lotus Type 45bvtc no less, lol) and just brilliant they were! Then EBC became the 'only' supplier of Lotus Élan rear brake pads but these were EBC's Black Stuff. The problem with these was the inconsistency with some being 'soft' and others 'rock-hard'! Quality control; was not so good back then but full credit to EBC as they'd exchange 'em, eventually, lol.

At the time I was maintaining a fair number of Lotus Élan cars, for others, so had 'regular' hands-on experience of the product 'in application' plus feedback from then owners/users.

In 2014 I fitted EBC Redstuff to my own 8P RS3: that I had to keep replacing 'em to satisfy my own (and others) Audi RS3 'needs' was not a problem as for sure they resolved the low-speed brake squeal issue that Audi GmbH ignored, and still do.

FULL credit to EBC, but for me Ferodo with their Eco-Friction do it better, ... :racer:
 
Me again, with the brake pad light again.

I thought I'd gone Brembo all round before burlt reading this I'm not so sure now. Discs have a lip (or rather a dip where the pad has worn away the disc) on them so am I right in assuming they should be changed? Pads look to have 5mm at least left on them, but the sensor doesn't tell me which corner is throwing up the message??

Any further experience with discs & pads from you guys in the last few years??
 
AUDI_ADDICT said:
Me again, with the brake pad light again.

I thought I'd gone Brembo all round before burlt reading this I'm not so sure now. Discs have a lip (or rather a dip where the pad has worn away the disc) on them so am I right in assuming they should be changed? Pads look to have 5mm at least left on them, but the sensor doesn't tell me which corner is throwing up the message??

Any further experience with discs & pads from you guys in the last few years??
Click to expand...
Ferodo Eco-Friction for me still: TT, RS3 and SQ5. No reason to change, period. Just superb brakes - and brake disc friendly! :thumbs up:
 
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Had the tyres done yesterday and the guy said the discs are too far gone and need changing (tried looking for stamp on the edge but coundnt see it). There is quite a lip though, and if I did just pads, I would probably need new discs before the pads need changing again, which means a full set, discarding part worn pads.

So I've ordered EBC OE replacement discs and redstuff pads. Need to get them sorted before we go on a trip.
 
Discs & pads delivered today. Damn they're heavy!

IMG 20230413 151151

Redstuff pads also

IMG 20230413 151418

Looking forward to getting them fitted now
 
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Would've gone for upgraded discs but the tyres cost a small fortune when we have little spare cash. Hoping the redstuff are kinder to the discs too. Will look into getting them skimmed before they get too bad again
 
IMG 2061

Done Sq5 brakes upgrade on my A7 Bitdi so from 356 to 380mm
EBay special discs and Red stuff pads !
Happy so far !
Red stuff was using in the past and I’m happy with it so stick with it !


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