necessary to do any special bed in procedure for stock pads?

[Guest bastaad525]

Just wondering... I had never heard of any special 'break in' for new brake pads before... only thing I'd always heard was not to be too hard on them for the first few drives or so, so as not to overheat them and glaze them. But then today someone mentioned to me that I should 'bed in' the pads whenever I replace them... he gave me a brief explanation, and I later googled it and came up with all kinds of different recommended procedures for proper break in of new brake pads.

 

Most involve doing the one thing I thought we were NOT supposed to do... hard stopping. A lot of websites are recommending hard stops (just short of locking the tires) from 60 or even 85mph down to about 10mph, and repeating that sequence like 10 times. Others say to drive a moderate speed with the brakes applied constantly and veyr lightly, to heat them up.

 

It seems most of these websites are aiming their suggestions at people who race though, but not all of them are that specific.

 

So I was wondering, for just regular stock pads (semi metallic, stock Nissan pads in my case), only ever driven on the street (but sometimes driven, and brought to a stop, very quickly... so the more stopping power the better), do I need to do any of these bed in procedures? I've NEVER done this on any of the car's I've owned before... would I benefit from it? If I can get better stopping power from a simple procedure such as these I'm all for it.....

[skipzoomie]

I've never used any break in procedure and never had any problems. Just drive your car like you do normally.

[Guest bastaad525]

I've never used any break in procedure and never had any problems. Just drive your car like you do normally.

 

yeah same here, never had a problem from not bedding in new pads, but I'm thinking more.... do I stand to benefit if I DO bed them in? Is there better performance to be had?

[2003z]

yes, performance is to be had by bedding them in. Check this out:

http://www.zeckhausen.com/bedding_in_brakes.htm

[80LS1T]

Now I know this doesnt really apply to your Z but when I ever I replace the front brakes on caravans at work I have to take the van out an do a few hard stops because otherwise the brakes feel like mooshy poo! Only after the brakes have heated up and cooled down a few times will they feel like normal. Now this is not true with all the brakes we do though. Just seems like its the Caravan front brakes?

 

I say if the brakes feel normal on the first test drive, dont worry about it. If they feel a little soft then, do a few hard stops and then let them cool down and repeat again. This will probably seat the pads and your normal brake pedal will return.

 

 

Guy

[Pop N Wood]

My wife's toyota minivan has a real problem with rotor "warping". The stock pads would heat up and adhear to the rotors unevenly, causing the brakes to not grab smoothly.

 

Bedding in the brakes seemed to help get an even layer of pad material from the start.

[Drax240z]

yes' date=' performance is to be had by bedding them in. Check this out:

http://www.zeckhausen.com/bedding_in_brakes.htm

 

That's how I've always done mine. It DOES make a large difference in braking performance. If you don't do this, you are cheating yourself out of performance!

[Tim240z]

That's how I've always done mine. It DOES make a large difference in braking performance. If you don't do this, you are cheating yourself out of performance!

 

Amen!

[Guest bastaad525]

Well maybe this has been my problem then... my brakes have not felt the same from the day I swapped out the calipers and pads, and I've been chasing my tail trying to 'get them back'.

 

Unfortunately, the prescribed method for bedding them in (several hard stops from 60mph down to 10mph back to back) is not really gonna be easy for me to do... not a lot of places (or any, really) I can think of where i could do this w/o drawing attention to myself and risking a run in with the police, let alone being able to do it where there is no traffic.

 

I'm pretty eager to try to do this though as it's gonna bug me to no end to have them not grabbing as hard as they could or used to do.

 

 

Question - does the bedding in procedure have to be done immediately on new brakes, or can it be done after they've already been used for a while? I've already put a couple hundred miles on the new pads... is that a problem? Does the procedure ever need to be done again on the same set of pads? Also, isn't this procedure possibly going to cause the pads to overheat and glaze? Seems to be REALLY abusive.... "A strong smell from the brakes, and even smoke, is normal."

[2003z]

you can do it any time. It won't glaze them.

[wigenOut-S30]

yes' date=' performance is to be had by bedding them in. Check this out:

http://www.zeckhausen.com/bedding_in_brakes.htm

 

Wow, that is a great read. Thanks for the link 2003Z. I will do this this friday when I get my new upgraded brakes in.