Quote:
Originally Posted by fcman
Try bedding them in. Generally hard stops from 60mph are a good way to do that. BMW has a youtube video on it but they dont get very specific
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No! Do not stop the car during a braking event while bedding in the brakes.
Over the years my brake bedding in procedure -- for new car new brakes and for just new brakes -- has been seek out a suitable road and accelerate up to speed. Legal highway speed is sufficient.
Apply the brakes hard but not hard enough to trigger ABS. Slow the car from speed to ~45mph.
Release the brakes and quickly accelerate up to speed again and then perform another braking event.
Accelerate up to speed one more time and brake one more time.
I have found that the brakes bite better after the 1st event and to a lesser extent after the 2nd event and to an even lesser extent after the 3rd event. I have tried a 4th and 5th event but noticed no change in braking.
After the last braking event be sure you drive the car enough to allow the brakes to cool.
I have to stress do not bring the car to a halt from hard braking during the bedding in process. This can result in uneven pad material deposition and if this occurs the brakes can manifest a pulsing feel that almost certainly will require rotor surfacing or even new rotors to eliminate.
Another caution is to be sure the brakes are dried after a car wash. If you put the car away with wet brakes the rotors will rust. Normal brake use will remove the rust but there is a risk if you have to use the brakes hard and bring the car to a stop -- in say an emergency stop -- uneven pad material (or rust dust) deposition will happen. This happened to one of my cars.
To dry the brakes after a car wash I do a less aggressive brake bedding in operation. Lower speed but 2 or 3 braking events to get the brakes hot. And not only the disc brakes want to get hot to dry the hardware but the parking brake hardware wants to get hot too. One can't (or shouldn't) apply the parking brake while the car is moving so the only way the parking brake hardware can get hot in order to dry the hardware is from heat generated from using the regular brakes.