brake upgrade to S3

[amb276s3]

Have Brembo GT Jnr kit with drilled discs on my S3 with greenstuff pads, ok so they dont fade as much as standard setup on highspeed braking but normal town driving i actually wonder when the brakes are going to work, seem to remember standards having almost instant bite, also feels like a slight judder when first braking from high speed. Anybody else got these probs? AB

 

[DavidR]

Nope.

I have Brembo GT kit and have found the standard Brembo (Galfer) pads and now Hawk HPS pads to work really well...

I can't stand Green Stuff. They are too agressive, inconsistent and fall uncomfortably between being a road pad and a track pad (and are IMO compromised in both settings)

The reality seems to be that you need to run a fast road pad (OEM Brembo served me fine) for the roads and a dedicated track pad for very fast road driving or track work.

I haven't found a pad that does both without a degree of compromise.

(BTW I get slight high speed judder after using the Brembos VERY hard with a f.road pad in. It seems to be uneven pad deposits and are short lived)

 

[amb276s3]

hmmm, I was thinking of changing pads,( ferodo ds2500), thought the green may have been the cause, really noisy as well spoil the drive.

 

[Austineer]

[ QUOTE ]
Have Brembo GT Jnr kit with drilled discs on my S3 with greenstuff pads, ok so they dont fade as much as standard setup on highspeed braking but normal town driving i actually wonder when the brakes are going to work, seem to remember standards having almost instant bite, also feels like a slight judder when first braking from high speed. Anybody else got these probs? AB

[/ QUOTE ]

Andy,

I get the same thing from my grooved ECS discs & greenstuff pads. I am glad to hear that it looks like I am not going mad lol as my mrs & mates thought I was just making it up as they couldnt notice any difference, though they dont actually drive it. When around town (slow driving) sometimes they just dont seem to want to bite and sometimes they do.

They are so inconsistant, I end up tapping my brakes prior to on comming corners to make sure that they bite. Whe they do bite they are ok but other time they just seem like the discs are glazed over and its a little worrying.

My guess is that it is the dust from the pads that cause the problem. I guess that the small particals of dust make some kind of ball bearing effect on the disc/pad contact surface area thus not allowing the brakes to bite. I have noticed particularily when I clean my wheels my breaking & consistancy of bite does actually improve. So if my theory is right this suggests that the cleaning of the wheels removes some of this dust in the disc/pad contact area hence improving bite.

 

[Danielson]

i have green stuff pads, and i agree they are pretty cack, allthough they produce less brake dust then my standard pads, also i have noticed after washing the wheels they do seem to bite a bit better.

 

[Gambba]

[ QUOTE ]
Gambba, (SPELLING PLEASE!!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif)

I dont know if its just me but my greenstuff pads produce much more brake dust than my stock pads. I find myself having to clean my wheels much more often. I had read previously about the greenstuff pads producing less brake dust, but I can safey say from my experience thats a load of rubbish.

I am definately thinking of trying other pads when I get over to changing them, but still not sure what to get though.

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This tells me that you are a hard driver (well of course you are you live in the land of the rally track) and that's when the greenstuffs really show that they aren't good for hard use, the amount of dust is because the compound is relatively soft and wears quickly when at the higher operating temps. When we talk about keeping the wheels clean all that we are actually referring to is the fact that the compound of the greenstuffs contains no metallic elements such as other pads, and these metallic particles are what make cleaning wheels such a pig most of the time, as they are extremely hot when departing from the pad and have a tendency to embed themselves in your nice alloy.

If you are making lots of dust with the greenstuffs, way above what you had with the standards then I would recommend replacing them before you possibly kill the discs, with either some ceramic pads such as the Redstuffs (As I have found these to be good, and would be very suitable for cars heavier than the A3 IMO), or some performance pads from the likes of Ferrodo, ATE, AP, etc...

 

[JamS3]

Iv'e got the redstuff ceramics on my front end with ebc turbo groove discs (grooved and part drilled) and they work quite well over standard but haven't run them fully in yet as I only got them fitted yesterday.

I think EBC have revised the formula for the greenstuff pads as they had lots of complaints about them failing..

 

[Gambba]

[ QUOTE ]
Iv'e got the redstuff ceramics on my front end with ebc turbo groove discs (grooved and part drilled) and they work quite well over standard but haven't run them fully in yet as I only got them fitted yesterday.

I think EBC have revised the formula for the greenstuff pads as they had lots of complaints about them failing..

[/ QUOTE ]

I've had supposedly both variations (If there were infact any difference) of the greenstuff, and they both caused me problems, then was basically told me the greenstuffs are the wrongs ones for me and my car.

The worst one was a few months back when one of the greenstuff pads had basically worn/fallen away and then left a single pad out of four completely bare and then this destroyed my turbo groove disc at high speed braking! The failure could not be attributed to a seize caliper as it was on the wrong side of the setup, and everything else was perfect, so the only reasonable assumption I can come to is that the pad was sub standard (again part of it coming away from the backing plate). The Dutch importer could not argue with my findings and gave me a big discount on the cost price of the discs and pads, as I'd had them on a year.

The redstuffs are still good and I have no fears with them as they are very different in construction and braking characteristics to the greenstuffs.

 

[amb276s3]

Thanks Mat, will be changing back to the supplied pad (Galfer), for a while looks like Ferrodo or Hawk all round next. AB