Bedding in new Brake discs/pads

[Level 7 Boss]

I'll be changing my break pads on my car, already purchased some Black Diamond Discs, and will supplement this with either EBC Yellowstuff, Ferodo 2500, or Black Diamond pads.

I'm fully aware that you should bed new pads/discs, and probably change your brake fluid in to ensure they do not warp etc. Where and what do the PH community do to bed their breaks in, as the instructions are ludicrous. E.G driving from 70mph, to a complete stop. Where can one do that safely? and is 'sorry officer, I'm just bedding my brakes in, honest' a viable excuse for speeding

[Krikkit]

I just use the manufacturer's instructions, plenty of quiet roads I can do 70-0 a few times without too much bother...

[G600]

I use a bit of duel carriageway after the rush hour, by the time I get to the roundabout (a couple of miles) there's plenty of smoke

[jamieduff1981]

I followed the instructions with Black Diamond discs the one time I bought them and still warped them almost immediately.

Nowadays I just clean the swept area with MEK to remove storage oil and drive on the sensible side of normal until the swept area of the discs looks fairly uniform and haven't warped a set since. I'm able to lock up premium brand performance orientated tyres in the dry if I push hard so performance is fine too. Works for me. May not be good enough for a race car, but I don't race.

[kambites]

Last time I changed them on the Elise, I found an empty country road to do it on... I seem to remember that the bedding-in instructions for those pads only said to hard stop from 40 though.

All I really remember was how much my leg hurt after doing the "push the brake pedal as hard as possible for two minutes" bit of the process. I could barely walk for a couple of days.

[mrmr96]

geeks said:

You dont have to change the fluid just because you have changed Discs and Pads. As for bedding them in your suggestion is wrong!

Personaly its 50 miles of very gentle breaking so as not to create a shine on the pads and not warp the discs. If you take them out and straight off load them up with heat and pressure they will shine the pad material up which makes them useless (although this cant be recitified with some emery paper) and warp the discs which is bad!

WRONG!

The bedding in procedure depends on the manufacturer and the specific compound concerened.

Some performance pads DO require a full heat cycle to get the best from them. Some standard/OEM/motorfactor pads will be better off with a gentle drive over a number of days possibly to get the best from them.

You're right to say that using the wrong technique will be bad for the braking system, but you're wrong to say that "gently does it" is right in all circumstances.

For high performance brakes, if the instructions are to heat cycle them, then that's what you should do. As others have said, find a nice quiet safe place to do this. Late evening is probably best whilst it's still light-ish but not busy and on out of town roads. Be sure to check there's nothing behind you, so do it on a straight bit with plenty of space. You don't want to be hit from behind.

[northwest monkey]

Level 7 Boss said:

E.G driving from 70mph, to a complete stop. Where can one do that safely?

A lad I know does brakes for a lot of race cars & has told me this is what you need to do with performance pads. They only become effective after a few big stops from speed - normally once they are stinking, there is smoke coming off them and you can light a fag off the disk they are good to go. He explained the science behind it, but I drifted off at this point.

Ask them if you like - www.questmead.co.uk

As for where you can do this - do you not have any quick but quiet roads near you? If you don't, what was the point in buying them?!

Still, don't let the manufacturers tell you what to do with what you've just bought & how to get them working properly. Why not start a thread now moaning about how crap your new pads and disks are?

[addz86]

Not like this, oops.