Brembo's Fitted - brakes worse

[Gonzokew]

hi guys,

Replaced my s3 brakes with a set of lcr brembos today along with brake fluid flush with Motul 600. I used gunsons eezibleed and started from the furthest point and worked my way along the calipers. Fluid is coming out clear, everything is tight with no leaks.

Took for a drive and they're quite bad. The fluid level never went low, used a pipette to get the level bang on so don't know what's happened. Any ideas?

 

[superkarl]

Pads?
Discs?
Used?
Bedded in properly?

 

[Gops]

Did you bleed the MC?

 

[Gonzokew]

Pads and discs both used but lots of life left in them.

Negative I did not bleed the MC, if I do that now would I need to re-do the calipers again?

 

[desertstorm]

The discs look quite well used. Have you fitted new pads ?, If so it will take quite a while for the pads to bed in to those discs.
Have you just replaced the front calipers , discs and pads ?.

 

[Gonzokew]

Yes replaced the fronts only and flushed the whole system. Discs have had some use agreed however came with 2 sets of pads (epc green stuff which looked like they've been used a lot and a set of apec ones which were are lot better condition so used them

 

[desertstorm]

Ok if you try and reuse pads and discs they need to be matched up to where they came from, so are the pads and discs as they were on the original car, If not you will only be getting the pad partially contacting the disc. It will take a while to bed back in.

 

[Gonzokew]

I would imagine what you say is true in this case. I cannot say they're the same place as before

 

[<tuffty/>]

Bled the master cylinder? bled the calipers correctly? (inboard bleed nipple then outboard)

<tuffty/>

Pads and discs both used but lots of life left in them.

Negative I did not bleed the MC, if I do that now would I need to re-do the calipers again?

Bleed the MC (I am assuming the pedal feels a little long and spongy)

Calipers need to be bled inboard nipple first, outboard nipple after

Assuming you have done that then the calipers won't need to be re-bled

<tuffty/>

 

[Gonzokew]

I did the calipers as you say, (inner then outer) so will try the master cylinder to see if that helps. Brake travel doesn't seem excessive just not much braking occurs.

Will be worth doing it as the system had been flushed with new fluid anyway

 

[desertstorm]

If the pedal is not moving a long way and isn't soft then bleeding isn't the problem. You will have to wait till the pads bed in a bit and start to match up to the disc face.

 

[VAG-Slag]

How does the pedal feel?... If it's nice and firm bleeding the MC will do next to nothing

 

[Gonzokew]

Update: driving home there was a scraping that was occurring every rotation on the osf wheel so decided to take it apart and have a look. The caliper brackets weren't square to the disc for some reason - the bolts were tight so didn't know why.



I decided to take everything off for further inspection off and then it became obvious...



The bottom hole has obviously been heli-coiled one apon a time and it had come out!! So the caliper brackets weren't parallel. I just pulled it out re tapped and inserted the new heli-coil. Needed cutting slightly as they are slightly too long.



New one in and now put back together



No gap so all good. Went out for a drive and no strange noises and pedal is firm so not going to bother bleeding the mc. They do feel like new pads and may need wearing in as mentioned above as they're still not great. Will suck it and see in a few weeks.

Thanks for the help everyone and I'll see how it goes in a couple weeks.

 

[IPG]

genius!!!

one thing i've not touched yet are the brakes.... still a mystery to me! haha

 

[Gonzokew]

the good thing about this brake change is that the standard 312's are a straight upgrade on my Fabia vRS!! 288 to 312 so decent size increase

 

[desertstorm]

Personally I think I would replace the hub, I wouldn't trust my brakes with a helicoil. It's potentially a weak spot, All the braking force torque is acting on those 2 bolts to try and rip the caliper off. You could probably get a good second hand hub for not a lot of money.

 

[VAG-Slag]

Heli-coils are surprisingly strong... So long as you can torque up the carrier bolt properly I can't see it causing you any issues. Certainly not going anywhere anyway!

Just be mindful of it any time the brakes come off.