Well, I'm not in total panic mode yet, but just about....never done brake pads before.

Here's the story:

Prepping for autocross season and I ordered some EBC Greenstuff pads from the Tire Rack. Going over the howtos online, i found this one:

Outmotoring brake hotwo

Followed it last night, and the install seemed to go reasonably well.

I went out to bed-in the pads and followed the procedure:

So far, so good, but when I get in the car this morning, the pedal's still a little spongy until the brakes got warm. Then, once they did get warm, I get this ungodly screeching sound that starts at high frequency and gets progressively lower fequency until I stop. This happens on every brake application.

Stopping power seems to be as good or better than the OEM pads I replaced.

Don't know if I missed something simple during the install or what....

* * *

As a side note, I'm curious about the brakes: The outside brake pad (that is, the one w/o the clips on the back.) seems to just float there in the caliper. I get that the piston creates a pinching motion, but it seems like there's nothing attaching that outside pad to the caliper so that it'll retract when you let off the brake pedal. Seems like it would always be in contact with the rotor....? Does the retaining clip keep it in place?

 

um, the Green Stuff pads are NOT for racing pads - street only

That said, you totally beat-up those pads during your "break-in" cycle. The Green's are supposed to be just driven "normally" out of the box.

When I use Green Stuff on the street, the pedal is firmer than stock, and they have almost zero squealing. I would seriously re-check all your work.

 

I would concider getting some garnett paper and taking your surface glaze off your rotor faces, and brake pad faces. Allow them to re bed in together. This may solve the squeel issue - PM me your order # or billing phone #.

Alex

 

>>I would concider getting some garnett paper and taking your surface glaze off your rotor faces, and brake pad faces. Allow them to re bed in together. This may solve the squeel issue - PM me your order # or billing phone #.
>>
>>Alex

So, recheck everything in the light of day, rough-up the brake pads & rotors, and skip any bed-in procedure, and we should have good pedal feel & stopping power from the first?

 

>>um, the Green Stuff pads are NOT for racing pads - street only
>>

Green stuffs are ok for track, they're grippier than stock and will hold their edge deeper. EBC has two pads (I know of): Greens, and Reds... Reds are not reccomended for street use, greens are street/moderate track.


About your pad issues... I've put upwards 30k on mine, no problems at all. Put some miles on them before you disgard. They'll bed in eventually and be shweet.

 

Mine bedded in during one round trip to work, 50 miles. The first stop caught me off guard but after that everything was ok.

 

Update:

Well, took the whole works apart this afternoon, roughed-up the pads & rotors, applied some Anti-Squeal coating to the backs of the pads and reinstalled.

The pedal feel is better, and the stopping power seems marvelous. Unfortunately, they're still squealing. They're not squealing when I apply the brakes hard, but during the 'gradually-coming-to-a-stop' applications, under ~35mph (ergo, every stoplight, stop sign, and low-speed maneuver).

As everything else feels okay, I think I'll give it a few days.

 

Give them a few hundred miles to really get there. I know with mine it took a little bit to really feel better.

 

mine took a little while as well, i did rotors, pads, fluid and lines at the same time, i thought for a while i possible had some air bubbles, but the spongyness eventually went away, to a much better braking than stock, id say just give a couple of weeks, if it persist the relook at them.....

 

Is the "spongy soft" feel of the brake padel only pertinent to the EBC pads, or is that a common phenomenon after replacing pads/rotors regarless of the brand? :smile:

 

I put greens on last year and while they performed great. I couldn't take the squeel. I tried everything to quiet them but nothing lasted very long. I drove these out and back to Topeka so had several thousand miles on them when I decided to go back to stock. Don't know why some have no squeel?

J

 

I'm thinking about purchasing some. Do I purchase front and rear or just the fronts?

Kalvin

 

Anytime brake pads are changed without turning or replacing the rotors the time needed to break-in the new pads to the rotors increases considerably. Turning the rotors not only makes them perfectly flat and true, but also leaves them with a rough, abrasive finish that helps to 'grind in' the pads for a quick mating finish. New rotors have a similar finish. The 'used' rotors will have microscopic waves running along their circumference which prevent the pads from making full contact with the entire surface until the new pads wear into place. This is felt as a spongy pedal, and oftentimes you will have squealing during this time.

Think of it this way: Since the rotors are glazed to an almost mirror finish, imagine trying to sand down the end grain of a 2 by 4 with a piece of glass. Ultimately you will, but the time needed is considerable. Breaking the glaze on the rotors with sandpaper will mimic the coarse, freshly machined finish of new or turned rotors, and this helps is seating the pads quicker. Since there is inevitably going to be some non-parallelism (waves, rings, etc) in 'used' unmachined rotors, it will take a while before the entire surface becomes filled in by the pad as it wears down.

 

From what I recall, they squealed a lot in the beginning. Now they squeal just a bit with intial bite (cold). Quite frankly, I wouldn't trust any pad if it didn't squeal at least a little. I think its a misconception to think brakes shouldn't squeal, and to think squealing is a sign of a problem. Now screaching... as in no more pad left, thats a different story. But grippier pad compounds are going to squeak more than softer (as in stock) compounds.

Hope it works out for ya.

 

>>I'm thinking about purchasing some. Do I purchase front and rear or just the fronts?
>>
>>Kalvin


I think most just do the fronts, the stock pad isn't that bad and since the rears don't do that much anyway, you'd just be spending more money. Having different pads front and rear won't hurt things either.....

Fronts only is the norm...

Jeff

 

Final Update:

Well, guys, almost 1 week later and I'm very pleased: No brake dust, great stopping power, and no squeal. Looks like the pads + rotors finally decided to get along.

Can't wait for Autocross season to start!

-Harold

 

Glad you worked it out.

I installed EBC Greens also. They took several days to bed in but now work great. No squeel.

It's important (as mentioned earlier) to break the glaze on the pads and angle the edges of the shoe surface to avoid vibration. I do this with a wire brush on my grinder. 60 grit sandpaper will work as well.



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