Brake pad warning?!

Spinstorm

Spinstorm

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I just had a brake pad warning come up saying it’s reached it’s limit and I can continue driving but should visit a workshop.

I assume this is just an electronic warning that previously we wouldn’t know if the pads were low.

But how do I know which pad it is? How safe is it to drive until replaced?

It’s not exactly a convenient time of the year to book into a garage! And what about the cost of the pads? Thanks.
 
Without stating the obvious mate you will need to check all four pad sets visually. New pads are about 10mm in thickness so pads that look about 3mm thick I would say would have triggered the wear sensor contacts.
As for knowing what one is low or as triggered the ecu I think vcds tool may provide this information for you.

As for costs I changed all my pads over to red stuff ebc for about £260 and an hour of my time.
Audi could charge anything from £2-500 for this service using there pads.
 
No, it is a mechanical warning.
It is one or more pads. It is designed so that you look at them all.
Unlikely you will replace just one corner. You replace an axle at least, better replace both.
Why is it not convenient to book the car into a workshop?
Cost of pads is your problem - a bit like a tank of fuel does not last forever.
 
Spinstorm said:
I just had a brake pad warning come up saying it’s reached it’s limit and I can continue driving but should visit a workshop.

I assume this is just an electronic warning that previously we wouldn’t know if the pads were low.

But how do I know which pad it is? How safe is it to drive until replaced?

It’s not exactly a convenient time of the year to book into a garage! And what about the cost of the pads? Thanks.
Click to expand...
How many miles have you done on this set of pads?
 
22k roughly. Audi quoted me £591 with fitting for replacement front pads.

I assume that’s a high price?

Also been told my front tyres are getting bald on the outsides and need replacing. What cost are we looking at for those? (I’m not staggered, standard setup).
 
Also they told me the discs are getting low.

I’m going to assume everyone will recommend doing it through an independent who will charge far less.

But some rough prices would be helpful. Thanks.
 
At a guess an independent may charge 1-1.5 hours labour this could be anything from £50 and upwards per hour for this plus parts.
Like I said earlier if your handy with basic spanner’s and sockets buy the parts and do it yourself mate.

Tyres if running the pzero’s the R01 model (PFL rs3) is anything from £115-£180 if you buy on line

R02 again if sticking with oem pzero’s again similar price to the R01’s
 
Aren’t the pads the cause of the annoying squeak?

If I need to change then maybe I should go for a different non OEM pad?

To clarify @DW81 this is a 2018 facelift RS3 that I’ve done plenty of miles in over the last 11 months.
 
Spinstorm said:
Also they told me the discs are getting low.

I’m going to assume everyone will recommend doing it through an independent who will charge far less.

But some rough prices would be helpful. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Audi dealers...never fail to make you smile. Recommending you change the discs, too! Assume these are your original pads? In which case I can't believe your discs will be shot.
 
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Audi will charge a fortune for pads. You can get some Brembo HP2000 sport pads from Euro car parts for £176+VAT so significantly cheaper than a standard Audi pad and should offer a slightly better feel than a standard pad. Part number is 07.B314.01 and they are a special order item.
 
Spinstorm said:
Aren’t the pads the cause of the annoying squeak?

If I need to change then maybe I should go for a different non OEM pad?

To clarify @DW81 this is a 2018 facelift RS3 that I’ve done plenty of miles in over the last 11 months.
Click to expand...

There is quite a lot of options for pads on the rs so you have a big choice to choose from.

Like you I do a lot of miles this year alone (19000) put I have the PFL model and stick with the pzero’s R01 tyres as I find them great 3/4 of the year then switch over to sotto zeros which I run now on my rotor alloys.
The FL model has the newer R02 tyre but there is a big problem with this tyre with a lot of members on here in FL models that are having premature inside side wall damage. Not all cars are suffering from this so if your happy with the pzero’s then get them cheaper online and take them to your local tyre centre for fitment, that’s what I do.

Hope this helps
 
Spinstorm said:
So which pads will sort out the squealing?

I am sceptical of the discs being low - they are original factory discs still.

The tyres I can see the outside edges are bald so I am going to take them to a tyre place. I don’t feel a huge rush to change them as long as they are legal..

Is this the current tyre:?
https://www.blackcircles.com/catalogue/pirelli/pzero/235/35/R19/Y/91/m?tyre=13363577
Click to expand...

Nope they are RO1, these are RO2 and I can pretty much guarantee the cheapest you will find!

https://www.camskill.co.uk/m55b0s78...Eff_:_E_Wet_Grip:_A_NoiseClass:_1_Noise:_68dB

RO1 has less kerb protection, but they are pretty much the same... I’d stick to RO2’s it’s the newer tyre.

With all the bad weather we have at this time of year, reduced tread will not displace water let alone a bald tyre so I’d get them changed... not worth it for an extra 1000 miles use, when it comes to the difference between aqua planing into a crash barrier and not.
 
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DW81 said:
Without stating the obvious mate you will need to check all four pad sets visually. New pads are about 10mm in thickness so pads that look about 3mm thick I would say would have triggered the wear sensor contacts.
As for knowing what one is low or as triggered the ecu I think vcds tool may provide this information for you.

As for costs I changed all my pads over to red stuff ebc for about £260 and an hour of my time.
Audi could charge anything from £2-500 for this service using there pads.
Click to expand...

Excuse the dumb question, how do you remove the pads on these? Didn’t I see somewhere the retaining pins wind out and the pads come out of the top of the calliper?

I usually use a rewind tool but before that always used a screwdriver between the disc and the old pad to prise the pistons back on older less expensive cars, I wouldn’t be doing that on discs that stay so how did you do it if the calliper remained in place?

Tbh it’s expensive enough as it is, I’d be tempted to fit the pads myself and save a few quid I’m more than capable but then again only £75 at a specialist for an extra invoice in the folder and peace of mind.
 
Spinstorm said:
22k roughly. Audi quoted me £591 with fitting for replacement front pads.

I assume that’s a high price?

Also been told my front tyres are getting bald on the outsides and need replacing. What cost are we looking at for those? (I’m not staggered, standard setup).
Click to expand...

That’s an absolutely disgusting price!!

Reminds me of the price they quoted for my 255/30/19 tyres, £300 each at Audi or bought online £180 each!! I’ll pay the £10 fitting thanks Audi...

Trying to talk me into them saying I’d have to get them fitted haha.

I was thinking of this today because my pads I’d say are over 50% worn, now the pads will go before the discs but question is.. should I fit pads and then have to do discs say potentially 5000 miles later and lose 2/3 of a set of £300 pads? Or would it be wise to do both at once?.. but a set of discs and pads from Audi are in excess of £1000 so not cheap at all. I think a specialist would get the job done for about £1000 depending on what discs you got, the Revo Alcon discs for these seem to be good and paired with the Ferodo pads.

Have a search of the forum for the many Ferodo pad threads for the RS3, they seem to be the best upgrade to stop squeal and improve brake feel no end... it’s what will be going on mine!

The only way of knowing if you’re discs are low is to measure them, I’ve been told there is a minimum measurement embossed into the hub of the disc and once they are at that level, replace them. A very steep lip on the edges is also a tell tale, mine started to lip a good few thousand miles ago now (on 13k). Again if you have a specialist I’d ask them to measure the discs, or even go to an ATS / Kwik Fit and they should have a Micrometer to be able to measure the thickness and tell you for sure... Audi will likely just look and say yep, 80% worn.
 
Last edited:
audi upgrades
AudiNutta said:
Excuse the dumb question, how do you remove the pads on these? Didn’t I see somewhere the retaining pins wind out and the pads come out of the top of the calliper?

I usually use a rewind tool but before that always used a screwdriver between the disc and the old pad to prise the pistons back on older less expensive cars, I wouldn’t be doing that on discs that stay so how did you do it if the calliper remained in place?

Tbh it’s expensive enough as it is, I’d be tempted to fit the pads myself and save a few quid I’m more than capable but then again only £75 at a specialist for an extra invoice in the folder and peace of mind.
Click to expand...

Front pads I used a centre punch to knock out the retaining pins and a pair of 5 hole grips to press back pistons. Use the grips to pull out old pads fit new and new restraining spring guards and then refit pins only this time I put a smear of copper grease on them.

Backs I used the obdeleven dongle activate the electrical closing motor on callipers then us it’s wind back tool to seat the piston in the full recess point. Screwdriver to prise the spring of and pull the pads out and fit new ones.
I went ebc on the rear to red stuffs so had to cut the electrical lead of the Audi oem pads solder the two wires together and neaten off with some heat shrink toProtect connection.
 
DW81 said:
Front pads I used a centre punch to knock out the retaining pins and a pair of 5 hole grips to press back pistons. Use the grips to pull out old pads fit new and new restraining spring guards and then refit pins only this time I put a smear of copper grease on them.

Backs I used the obdeleven dongle activate the electrical closing motor on callipers then us it’s wind back tool to seat the piston in the full recess point. Screwdriver to prise the spring of and pull the pads out and fit new ones.
I went ebc on the rear to red stuffs so had to cut the electrical lead of the Audi oem pads solder the two wires together and neaten off with some heat shrink toProtect connection.
Click to expand...

This seems quite complicated. Would an independent garage be able to do this?

You make it sound like a dealer job... I mean you did it fine but it’s your car and you did the research first but a local garage might struggle?
 
Spinstorm said:
This seems quite complicated. Would an independent garage be able to do this?

You make it sound like a dealer job... I mean you did it fine but it’s your car and you did the research first but a local garage might struggle?
Click to expand...

If I can do it mate a local garage worth his salt should be able to do it with there eyes closed.
 
audi upgrades
Front pads are easier than most as you dont have to remove/slide the caliper out of the way.

I picked up some Brembo HP2000 front pads today, will do a review of them when I have fitted them. A few pics below.
6d571f3f505e38874c1c7084290a9bb3.jpg
88b321077556a85d70bff09cda764406.jpg
56b1ef2dc4592d138a285225a54607c9.jpg
e96d24b36162235c1479442b44559ffd.jpg
c3218b1b31f073c0f2fe628ac77107be.jpg
b8c61a6c13162d209dcd05bc209a0040.jpg


Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk
 
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DW81 said:
Front pads I used a centre punch to knock out the retaining pins and a pair of 5 hole grips to press back pistons. Use the grips to pull out old pads fit new and new restraining spring guards and then refit pins only this time I put a smear of copper grease on them.

Backs I used the obdeleven dongle activate the electrical closing motor on callipers then us it’s wind back tool to seat the piston in the full recess point. Screwdriver to prise the spring of and pull the pads out and fit new ones.
I went ebc on the rear to red stuffs so had to cut the electrical lead of the Audi oem pads solder the two wires together and neaten off with some heat shrink toProtect connection.
Click to expand...

Superb write up thanks very much! :D
 
Dan_DJT said:
Front pads are easier than most as you dont have to remove/slide the caliper out of the way.

I picked up some Brembo HP2000 front pads today, will do a review of them when I have fitted them. A few pics below.
6d571f3f505e38874c1c7084290a9bb3.jpg
88b321077556a85d70bff09cda764406.jpg
56b1ef2dc4592d138a285225a54607c9.jpg
e96d24b36162235c1479442b44559ffd.jpg
c3218b1b31f073c0f2fe628ac77107be.jpg
b8c61a6c13162d209dcd05bc209a0040.jpg


Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Staying tuned, very interested to hear the difference.

Does anybody know what pads Audi use as standard though? Because my belief was it is a Brembo brake setup so surely has Brembo pads already?

I had it set in mind that I was going to go for Ferodo, but will see how you get on with these regards to squeal and see how they compare overall taking into consideration the saving between Brembo and Ferodo.
 
AudiNutta said:
Superb write up thanks very much! :D
Click to expand...

Your most welcome Matt, if you decide to do this and have any trouble I’ll do my best to help out mate.

I’m not a mechanic, far from it just try and do most jobs on the car myself, any big technical ones I seek help from other owners
 
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AudiNutta said:
Staying tuned, very interested to hear the difference.

Does anybody know what pads Audi use as standard though? Because my belief was it is a Brembo brake setup so surely has Brembo pads already?

I had it set in mind that I was going to go for Ferodo, but will see how you get on with these regards to squeal and see how they compare overall taking into consideration the saving between Brembo and Ferodo.
Click to expand...
Standard are Brembo as far as I can find out. The standard front pad is a 8V0698151F part number and when Googling that number it gives a Brembo pad with dual branding of Brembo and Audi.

I went for the Brembo Sport pads as they match OE being Brembo, they were a little cheaper than Ferrodo and I could get then locally via Eurocarparts. The Brembo Sport seems to get good reviews on other applications so will see how they perform on the RS3. I have not had any squeal from the original pads and at 12k miles now.
 
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There appears to be a huge number of RS3 brake pads on eBay - just search on there. Literally everything is there; Ferrodo, EBC, Brembo - My concern is do they all fit - I don’t really know enough about brakes to be sure.

I think the local garage would obviously be able to get the same brakes as @Dan_DJT from Eurocarparts easily enough.

Will it squeak though?
 
Mintex will be bringing out a new compound in the new year too and will be doing RS3 front and rear pads, so you can add them to the list. I don't think you need worry about pads fitting, over the years I have changed 100's of brake pads on all sorts of cars and only once had some that didn't fit, and that turned out the be the wrong part in the box.

The pads I got from Eurocarparts were a special order so took a week or so to come in, the advantage for me is that I could go and collect them rather than have them delivered etc.
 
Just remember whatever pads you choose you need 8 brake pads for the front.
This usually means you need to buy 2 sets as normally a set comes with 4 pads so only enough for 1 side
 
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P 85 152 are available on the link below, they come in sets of 4, so 2x needed. It says 8 pads on the pics but says 4 under the price (when viewing on desktop browser). I queried it with autodoc and they confirmed they come in sets of 4. So the HP2000 pads from Eurocarparts were cheaper at £211

https://www.autodoc.co.uk/brembo/11804420
 
Dan_DJT said:
P 85 152 are available on the link below, they come in sets of 4, so 2x needed. It says 8 pads on the pics but says 4 under the price (when viewing on desktop browser). I queried it with autodoc and they confirmed they come in sets of 4. So the HP2000 pads from Eurocarparts were cheaper at £211

https://www.autodoc.co.uk/brembo/11804420
Click to expand...

I was unable to find them on Eurocarparts?
 
Do ECP have the stock pads in stock? As I am imagining that I may take the car to my local garage and even if they want to put the OEM pads on that they won’t be available the same day...?
 
audi upgrades
Going by the picture it shows 8 pads which is enough to do both fronts.
Maybe worth asking the seller the question to save hassle.
 
The Brembo HP2000 pads are excellent, improvement on the stock pad in feel and I’ve had no problem with fade when driving hard (road) not tracked though.
You will need to cut off the old sensor cable and join it.

I did some km’s on the red stuff pads (with freshly cut discs) and as others have said, got lumpy pad transfer and vibration, faced the disk again and it was back quickly.
Placed those pads in bin.

I’ve got 50000 + km in the RS3 and have had a few sets of discs and pads, can’t fault the stock disc HP2000 pad combo for my use.
 
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@Spinstorm, was just wondering if you're planning on using the current rotors or are you going to replace them with new ones before installing new pads and also how many k's is the car sitting on at the moment?
 
I had my local garage change the pads today £210 with labour. I left the discs. They told me that the discs are showing wear but the local garage reckons they could be done on the next pad change which would probably be around this time next year.

23k mileage currently - I am not keen on spending anything extra that doesn’t need doing!
 
@Spinstorm ahh fair enough, did they machine the face of the disk or was there no need to before the pad change? Currently im on 22,000k's and my pad warning light came on too and I have a set of ebc reds sitting in my room so I was not sure if i should get new rotors or just leave them.
 
Pewu33 said:
@Spinstorm ahh fair enough, did they machine the face of the disk or was there no need to before the pad change? Currently im on 22,000k's and my pad warning light came on too and I have a set of ebc reds sitting in my room so I was not sure if i should get new rotors or just leave them.
Click to expand...

I am not aware of them doing anything to the discs. I guess the question is how worried are you about the brakes. They didn’t say the discs were gone and the pads are new so its not a worry. I image there is a warning for discs as well so if that happens then its time to change.

What I am most interested to know is if these will squeak...
 
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