Full Version: Bedding Brakes
What is the best way to bed in new front brake pads on a car or light truck in your opinion?
Get up to about 75 and mash the peddle to the floor...
I normally just make sure everything is clean and go for little spin around the block giving myself plenty of room to stop. Each stop shorten the distance I brake to apply more pressure to the pads and rotor..
Park and go inside...
Nothing like the smell of new pads for the first couple days..
I normally just make sure everything is clean and go for little spin around the block giving myself plenty of room to stop. Each stop shorten the distance I brake to apply more pressure to the pads and rotor..
Park and go inside...
Nothing like the smell of new pads for the first couple days..
put it in reverse make sure area behind is clear get up some speed slam the brakes
in the paperwork in the box with most brake pads it says something to the effect of:
do about 10-15 light to meduim decelerations from ~40mph to 5mph, taking care to leave enough room between them as to not overheat the brakes.
Then, stop meduim to hard 4-5 times from 50mph to 5-mph
The brakes are now bedded in...
As a note: do remember that a lot of what you're doing when you bed brakes in is getting them hot enough to transfer the "friction film" or whatever it is in the pads to the rotors... This is what causes brakes to have a very high friction... You're basically turning this stuff imbedded in the brake pad material to liquify and go onto the rotor. If you have the brakes hot, and this stuff liquid, and stop (like at a light) with the brakes still applied, it can cause a VERY high friction spot on the rotor, which will feel like a warped rotor, but is not... If you do have to stop hard, or while you are doing the break-in on new pads, roll along VERY slowly as to not let the pads sit at one part of the rotor for very long... You want to slowly creep forward, or put it in neutral, so you don't have to apply much brake pressure when you're stopped...
Mike
do about 10-15 light to meduim decelerations from ~40mph to 5mph, taking care to leave enough room between them as to not overheat the brakes.
Then, stop meduim to hard 4-5 times from 50mph to 5-mph
The brakes are now bedded in...
As a note: do remember that a lot of what you're doing when you bed brakes in is getting them hot enough to transfer the "friction film" or whatever it is in the pads to the rotors... This is what causes brakes to have a very high friction... You're basically turning this stuff imbedded in the brake pad material to liquify and go onto the rotor. If you have the brakes hot, and this stuff liquid, and stop (like at a light) with the brakes still applied, it can cause a VERY high friction spot on the rotor, which will feel like a warped rotor, but is not... If you do have to stop hard, or while you are doing the break-in on new pads, roll along VERY slowly as to not let the pads sit at one part of the rotor for very long... You want to slowly creep forward, or put it in neutral, so you don't have to apply much brake pressure when you're stopped...
Mike
Thanks. I have read many different ways but I'm not sure which is best.
QUOTE(rossh @ Sep 28 2006, 09:58 AM) 
put it in reverse make sure area behind is clear get up some speed slam the brakes
Used to be necessary with drum brakes to adjust the shoes into the drum but not for bedding the pads. I don't think it is relevant anymore.
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