Brakes

[TW]Fox

[TW]Fox

[TW]Fox

Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
160,229
How do you bed your brakes in?

The internet tells me that you should either drive moderately for 400-500 miles, avoiding heavy breaking, or that you should specifically go out and brake hard from 60 to 10mph about 6-7 times.

Nicely contradicting information there.

How do you do it and why?

Interesting this article from EBC advocates BOTH methods - waiting 500 or so miles before doing the hard stops from 60 to 10..

http://www.ebcbrakes.com/troubleshooting.shtml
 
I do pretty much what it states in the EBC article (and have done since I fitted my first set of EBC yellows to my Leon Cupra R all those years ago).

Not done me wrong yet.

Also be sure to check, check, double check then check again, your wheel bolt torque after driving a few times after fitting (same goes for fitting new tyres on this too though).
 
Personally I don't go particularly fast and brake early and lightly for a week or so. But I drive like that most of the time anyway :p
 
Just brake as you normally would and don't think twice about it is my opinion. If you need to stamp on the brake then you don't have any choice, no reason you would though in day to day driving.
You will be able to see the wear pattern on the disc, once there is no unswept area it's fully ready.

FWIW, at Donington park we destroyed a set of front pads in shoes e36 so fitted a new set. Went straight out and gave them absolutely everything with no mercy, never caused any problems.
 
Last edited:
Here's a question,

When my brakes are half worn, how can how I was braking right at the start of their life possibly influance the wear rate for the second half of their lives?
 
Just had mine done too, the brakes were useless for 100miles so I just braked early and lightly, then after 100miles used them as normal avoiding harsh braking, 300miles on I just whack 'em on
 
( |-| |2 ][ $;22508572 said:
Here's a question,

When my brakes are half worn, how can how I was braking right at the start of their life possibly influance the wear rate for the second half of their lives?
Click to expand...

If the pad isn't perfectly parallel to the disc then you'll end up with a wedge shaped pad. Not really ever seen this in a car mind you, loads of times on pushbikes though.
 
Clarkey said:
If the pad isn't perfectly parallel to the disc then you'll end up with a wedge shaped pad. Not really ever seen this in a car mind you, loads of times on pushbikes though.
Click to expand...

My last set of pads ended up thicker in the centre than the edge. I thought that was by design to provide "progressive" braking.

Are you suggesting that could be because of bad bedding in?

(I don't really have a clue btw)
 
I take the car out and brake progressively but hard (never completely stopping) - once or twice from 30 /40 then again a couple of times from 60ish.

Certainly gets rid of all the initial coatings etc and provides reasonable pedal feel even with the new discs/pads

Cant say whether its better or worse than any method as its all I've ever done!
 
Last edited:
Might have been gentle for the first tank of fuel, back to normal after that though.

Bedded in nicely. I didn't really follow any particular procedure, OEM pads and discs.
 
I get bored as soon as they stop feeling spongy probably 1/2 a mile, never really changed my driving to suit or cope however I'm not a heavy braker (sp?) I try to drive without using brakes at all.
 
I used the stoptech article's method when I put new discs and pads on the M5. Worked fine, no issues.

The idea obviously is to put an even coating of friction material across the surface of the disc. As long as you don't break hard from speed and come to a stop with the brake still pressed, you should be fine.
 
Just use normal braking, I cant imagine you are hard on them anyway. When the cars are new most people wont bother with hard stops to bed them in. Just don't cook them and sit on the pedal stationary and they will be fine.
 
I was just careful on them for a bit when they were first fitted. Never heard of the harsh method though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom