13,000 miles warped disks - yes another one....

[bye bye]

Took it into dealer today with vibration and got the call to say that the fronts were "badly" warped. They weren't as the vibration was no way as bad as I've experienced before with warped disks.

The vibration only started a couple of weeks/500 miles ago....how can/why do they go off so quick?

"they aren't covered by your Extended All Componant Warranty, Sir...."
No sympathy/help from dealer then so I am left to sort it out with Audi.

Not tracked or driven overly hard as it is my daily driver.....is 13,000 miles on disks acceptable? Not in my book.

I'll post the outcome. P***ed off and probably £1200 poorer (have been onto PW M'Sport too)

Mark

[lengster1]

Why pay 1200 if audi dont honour any kind of warranty on them as you have just found out? I would buy from another source to minimize the sting,genuine discs and pads are 7-800 from other good sources.All this talk of" All component warranty" is laughable when you have had first hand experience,if you have only done 13k they make take a skim?

[P_G]

Skim them and change the pads. Most will know on here I was going througha time where my fronts and rears were needing replacing every 10k miles. Took the plunge to use EBC yellowstuff pads front and rear and the vibration / warping I was getting has disappeared. And they were warping because the guy who skimmed my discs does it as retirement pocket money, doesn't need the work but said they were in a bad shape. I have no reason to doubt him.

The long and the short of it are the discs are poorly designed, too small on the crossdrilled holes and pinned rather than vaned for poor airflow through them. Poor show by Brembo. The holes get clogged up with OEM Pagid dust and contribute to hot spots on the disc. EBC's with less dust don't do this and are slightly more agressive with the disc. Result.

Like Lengster said don't pay Audi since they are not prepared to help you. OEM fronts are £500 or skimming £50-75; likewise for the rears (if anything rears are easier to skim because they are fixed bells)

[Revolution]

Skimming discs is fine if done correctly - sadly our ProCut on-car disc skimmer doesnt do floating discs

Brakelines, fluid and a decent set of pads should help you use the brakes with less effeort when pushing on and should keep this problem at bay next time round.

[P_G]

Skimming discs is fine if done correctly - sadly our ProCut on-car disc skimmer doesnt do floating discs

It also doesn't reface them and with crossdrilled discs leaves surface ghosting where the cutting edge jumps on the holes. Bit if a bugger to ger a smooth face on them again, at least a good few K miles and they grind until they do.

Need to invest Glenn, you'd clean up.

[mark758]

Is there a known/cheapest source for EBC pads ?

[P_G]

Camskill.

[ArthurPE]

13k sounds way too soon unless you've been really thrashing it and have fairly stiff pads...

sometimes the rotors get a pad depsot on them, and shudder a bit...happens to me...
I clean them as follows:
right after washing the car, the rotors will rust
I take it out and do 5 stops, 80% of full force, from 70 to 10 mph, one after another...only 10-15 seconds between
then I drive 5 minutes with no braking to cool them down, then park it
clears it right up

[Revolution]

Is there a known/cheapest source for EBC pads ?

erm - that Revolution place are much cheaper than Camskill i hear, i would give them a call. Keith Tyler or Glen Copeland are the managers their and have been told to look after RS246 members.
0191 4619200

[Revolution]

It also doesn't reface them and with crossdrilled discs leaves surface ghosting where the cutting edge jumps on the holes. Bit if a bugger to ger a smooth face on them again, at least a good few K miles and they grind until they do.
Need to invest Glenn, you'd clean up.

We can do x-drilled and grooved, just not floating/2-piece......love to invest but I dont know of a machine that can do floating apart from a lathe or cnc machine.
Do you know of another bit of trick machinery that I dont as i would love to clean up too

[adsgreen]

One thing to remember with brakes is that you can damage them from being too light on them more easily than too heavy. If you drive daily and only feather the brake pedal (esp on big performance brakes) then what tends to happen is the pad only makes contact with the microscopic "hills" on the disc. These heat up quickly and you start to get pad transfer but only to the raised parts of the disc. Then a vicious circle is formed as the extra pad material make the hills even more pronounced and more likely to make contact with the pad accelerating the effect.

Another common cause is sitting at traffic lights resting on the foot brake to hold the car. If the brake pads have any temperature in them at all then you'll get a degree of pad transfer whilst they are in contact with the disc and if you are not moving this happens only in a very small part of the disc. Again, this creates an uneven surface for more pad transfer later on.

After a few thousand miles this can lead to big wobbles under braking as the disc appears to be warped. To be honest, unless the disc is made out of swiss cheese it's generally quite hard to warp modern discs. The only way I've seen it done is bad fitting and tighening the disc screws in the wrong order and to wildly different torque settings.

It's much better to use the brakes firmly than to feather and if you stop at lights then use the hand brake to hold the car - the force the hand brake exerts is way less than the foot brake and the rears are generally much cooler, smaller and less used that the fronts making it much harder to corrupt the surface.

One thing that you might want to try is to see if you can re-bed the pads and discs in. Simply find a nice quiet (and safe!) bit of road and perform some firm but not hard braking stops from about 50mph to 10mph. You don't want the abs kicking in or either have the car come to a stop. The aim is to try to get some decent heat into the brake system so that they are in their peak operating zone. Do this about 5-7 times in a row and you should be able to feel the brakes reach temp as the'll be working alot better than cold. Once you're happy the brakes are working well try some very hard threshold braking from 70 (faster if on private airfield) to 10mph. Again, you don't want the ABS kicking in or come to a standstill but at the same time slow the car down as hard as you can. Do this about 3 times then go for a leisurly drive for about 10-20 minutes to cool the brakes. Try to avoid stopping or use the hand brake if you have to. I've used this one other cars that have been diagnosed with warped discs and this has removed the built up uneven pad transfer and as a nice bonus can stop squeling brakes if you have high ceramic compound pads.

[P_G]

It also doesn't reface them and with crossdrilled discs leaves surface ghosting where the cutting edge jumps on the holes. Bit if a bugger to ger a smooth face on them again, at least a good few K miles and they grind until they do.
Need to invest Glenn, you'd clean up.

We can do x-drilled and grooved, just not floating/2-piece......love to invest but I dont know of a machine that can do floating apart from a lathe or cnc machine.
Do you know of another bit of trick machinery that I dont as i would love to clean up too

Glenn, I had my rears skimmed by your Pro Cut and it ghosted the drilled holes on to the disk and left the surface ridged rather than refaced / smooth. Pro cut is fine but ideal would be to reface them after that.

[Revolution]

This needs investigating......

Please give Glen Copeland a ring (my workshop manager) and we will book you back in again to sort them out for you - foc of course......
0191 4619200

Glenn

[bye bye]

Thanks for the responses...good reading.

Mark

[P_G]

This needs investigating......

Please give Glen Copeland a ring (my workshop manager) and we will book you back in again to sort them out for you - foc of course......
0191 4619200

Glenn

Don't worry Glenn, it was last year and I sourced a back up set to put on when I did a complete change (fluid, discs and EBC pads front and rear) and they are now on the car and the ones I had skimmed at your place I have sold on after I had them refaced FOC by the guy who skims my fronts.