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Hi Folks,
Just swapped out all four corners for the Brakemotive rotor/pad package. I haven't bedded in the brakes yet, I just took them up and down the block and then parked the car.
The brakes groan loudly under slow braking and coming to a complete stop (~3mph to 0), and only then. It will not groan when braking slowly (~10mph) but remaining in motion, and not during any speeds higher. When braking from speed, the pedal feels smooth, the car slows predictably and nothing funny happens.
Here are a few things from the install that I suppose may or may not be causing this:
1. I did not re-grease anything, and did not use any anti-squeal.
2. The front driver's inside pad was stuck pretty hard in the caliper. A combination of rust and what seemed to be build-up of residue/debris underneath the bottom metal "flap" seem to be the cause. I cleared out what residue I could, but it was still a very tight fit. I ended up having to gently hammer the new pad into place. There was a lot of clearance between the back of the pad and the pistons during the process.
3. I did not bleed the brakes during the install, but I did crack open the bleed valve to let out pressure when I was compressing the pistons, but some brake fluid did overflow from the reservoir, which I opened and then closed. As a very rough estimate, I'd say I lost (and have not replaced) half a cup of brake fluid.
4. I pumped the pedal a few times when I started the car up again to build up brake pressure.
What did I screw up? For reference, the front passenger side:
i don't think you screwed up any thing.
I would go back and lube things up tho, especially the hardware, the pins and metal sleeves.(think moving parts!) Don't get any on the rotor tho!
And when you took it out for a test drive, that would have been your opportunity to bed the pads. As, when you're braking your putting friction on rotors and pads ...the pad material could stick or imprint on the rotor from heat
Last edited by justnspace; 05-15-2016 at 08:52 PM.
The bedding process is only to prevent pad material transferring to rotor . Not necessary, but sometimes pad does imprint onto rotor in one spot, then you'll get a warped rotor feeling, as one side of rotor is thicker
No, that is the worst time. Bed the brakes per the manufacturers recommendation ASAP. After that, avoid hard braking for at least 300 miles. If something is wrong, you want to be as close to home as possible.
Edit: and I totally agree with justn. Not all pad manufactures recommend bedding.
Good news: groan is gone and the brakes handled the Detroit trip without a hitch. I followed what I assumed was a pretty standard bedding process (bring the brakes up to temp, then hard from 60 8-10 times), but not to the letter since there was light traffic. I did not notice a color change on the rotors, but the car stops smoothly and quietly now.
I'm going to add my data-point to the Brakemotive thread.
I purchased this set for my 07 as well, and installed them this weekend, bedded them in yesterday.
Customer Service: typically easy eBay transaction, Brakemotive has stellar reviews. I made the mistake of only purchasing the fronts initially, and contacted the seller to see if I could return them to order the full set. They made the process much easier, and charged me the balance for the rear set. The CS rep was very responsive via emails, and this was all handled in the same day.
Packaging: Seems like the front rotors were handled pretty roughly by the UPS guy, given their weight. Must have been dropped on one side, because the cardboard outer was torn clear away, exposing the plastic wrap beneath. But no damage to the rotors or pads inside. Rears arrived no problem. Handy passenger/driver side labels on the rotors, and the pads were nicely wrapped separately from the rotors.
Install: For what it's worth, the pads were stamped "Powerstop" on the backing plate, which leads me to believe that these are similar (if not the same) as the brake packages being sold on Amazon under the name "Brakewerkz", although at a higher price. There wasn't any excessive oil on the rotors but I did wipe them down with warm water and soap just in case.
Performance: I followed a basic bed-in process best I could on public roads. 4 stops from 45 to 5'ish with no full stops. Then 8 from 60 down to around 25 on the highway, then 4 no-brake hours on the interstate to Detroit. There is barely any dusting, the brakes are quiet with no squeal, a feel firm and responsive. I can't say that they feel dramatically better than OEM, but for the price they are good so far.
We'll see how they hold up long term, as cross-drilled wouldn't have been my first choice and I'm concerned with cracking.
Originally Posted by thoiboi
on warm water and soap... That's why they invented a little thing called brake cleaner...
Should have put all this information in this thread too. You didn't give us all the proper info to help troubleshoot..
05-15-2016, 08:22 PM
on warm water and soap... That's why they invented a little thing called brake cleaner...
