Our warranty just ended and the previous brake job was done by the dealer. No issues at all.

We went to a local well know Mini Service shop for a full brake job - pads/rotors front/rear brake fluid flush.

We've been back 3 times now. Its mainly my wife's car and she loves that the car hops to a stop. Every time I drive it the brakes amaze me.

Not anymore. Now the driver has to put much more pressure on the brake pedal. Before a person could tap the brakes and the car was ready to stop. We even had to be careful. Now it fades in.

The second trip I had him put OEM pads in. Car had some more bite for stopping but the pedal problem persisted.

Today we went back and I asked him to bleed the system and that didn't help. He threw up his hands and gave us our money back. I can't understand what in the world he didn't do right. Its pretty basic but now it feels like they went from Cooper S racing style brakes to commuter car brakes.

Any ideas? This ever happened to anyone. Now I'm paranoid there's some special process. I hate to have to pay the dealer every time we need brake service.

All advice and experience appreciated.

 

The shop probably put some cheap pads in (ie: NAPA organics) .. and that cheap pad material has probably transferred to the rotors. What you need to do is clean the rotors and bed in your OEM pads properly.

Remove the wheels and use some 220 grit sandpaper to rough up the rotors (just the inside and outside of each disc where the pads make contact). Basically just knock the shine off of them using either a criss/cross pattern (going around the surface at 45° to the radius and then going back again 45° in the other direction) or overlapping circular motion (ie: small circles all around the perimeter).

They should look somewhat like this when you're done:



Then go bed the pads in properly. To do that simply find a deserted bit of road where you can get up to speed... accelerate up to about 60 and slow (smoothly, but quickly) to about 10 or 20mph (keeping an eye on your rear-view mirror).. and repeat that a few times until you're just getting a hint that the brakes are getting hot (ie: pedal gets slightly softer.. more effort is needed to slow down.. etc) and then drive around gently for a while to let the rotors cool. Try not to stop the car with your foot on the brake while the rotors are still hot.

Okay.. so what does all of that accomplish? Well, the sanding knocks the crappy pad material off the rotors. You could take your car back to the shop and have your rotors turned.. but sandpaper is cheap and easy and you aren't going to loose any measurable rotor thickness like turning them will. The bedding-in transfers the good brake pad material to your rotors so that you get the strong grippy brakes that you're accustomed to. The cooling down portion makes sure that the deposits of pad material are evenly distributed so you don't get any pulsing.

Good luck.

 

That sounds like perfect advice. I just came back from another shop and they said there is a coating on the rotors that has to wear off. Then they should work right. Its been 200 miles. I thought about what you just suggested last night. Its good to see confirmation.

I do that and bet it fixes the problem.

Thanks!

 

Usually a 200 mile break in. And quality does matter here.

 

What brand of rotors? I put on Napa rotors and the pedal feel sucked for the entire 15000 miles I had them on, they also warped in that short time. I replaced the rotors with Zimmerman rotors and the firm feel was back. Both rotors were with carbotech bobcat pads.

 

I agree with the cheap pad material, but you don't have to go sanding the rotors...lol

Go bed the brake pads in.

See http://www.zeckhausen.com/bedding_in_brakes.htm The heat generated by doing this will make any previous pad material a thing of the past.

 

I'm about to do a rotor/pads install myself. I have a set of Beck/Arnley rotors and a set of the EBC green pads (doing fronts and backs).
I have been looking at bed in guides for this (as well as the actually DIY replacements guides), but the question I can't seem to find a definite answer for is: how soon after putting on the rotors pads do you do the bed in? Is it the *first* thing I do, as in within the first few miles? Or do I scrub off a little bit of the "break in" coating that the EBCs come with before doing the rotor break in?
If anyone has advice about this, I'd appreciate it.

 

Bed them in right away. By the time you get some heat into the components, any coating, whether perceived or real, is gone.