Re: Brake Pads

[Iain Mannix <mannix@privateI.com>]

  Can anyone recommend some decent pads or any  necessary upgrades (maybe
steel braided brake lines) for the 16v Scirocco?   Thanks.    
Gerryhttp://www.geocities.com/motorcity/downs/7808/smokinn.html87  VW
Scirocco  16v92 VW Jetta GL  8v

As Shawn already mentioned, the Ferodo is a great street pad - Velocity has
them, I think the "street" pads are $46 or so.  Not bad, and a fantastic
pad to boot.

I am currently using Porterfield R4 pads, their "race" pad.  Seems
excellent - no fade, very good grip/power, does not eat rotors.  Dusty,
smelly and noisy, though.  Squeak like crazy on the street, my front wheels
are grey, and at the last Trials event, they smelled a bit, thought I saw
some smoke - but no fade.  Turned the rotors a nice shade of blue, too.

I've never used the Ferodo "race" pad, although it is supposedly very, very
good.  I had a set of Hawk Blues before the Porterfields, which are
_awesome_ pads from a stopping perspective - absolutely unreal, better than
the Porterfields(which are by no means bad, actually very good....) in
terms of sheer force.  Problem is, I went through 3 sets of rotors in about
3 months.  They annhiliate rotors - apparently, when cold(street driving),
the blues eat rotors, but rotor wear is acceptable under race conditions.
Those pads are just plain wrong - nothing should stop that hard!  Heh, I
liked them.

The Porterfields have almost as much stopping power as the Hawks - not
_quite_ as much, but close, and more than I can use
effectively/consistently.  The Hawks munch rotors, are dusty, noisy and
wear fast.  The Porterfields are dusty, smelly and noisy.  I can live with
that:).

I'd probably go with the Ferodos for a street car, or the Porterfield
R4S(although I see no reason not to use the R4 on the street, aside from
cost, about $100 a set), the R4s is their street/race pad.  Stainless steel
braided lines are not going to cure your problem - they just improve pedal
feel.  Make sure you "bed" the pads well - a new set of pads (unless bedded
at the factory like the Hawks) need bedding in.  I've been told to take
them out, brake gradually to get them warm, then do a series of 75% or so
stops until they fade, then cool them off and park the car overnight - this
gets the gases/adhesive/who knows what out of the pad, prevents glazing or
something, don't know, but it seems important - the one set of pads
(Ferodos) I did not carefully bed in did not last very long at all.
Bedding them is fun, too, smoke pouring off the front wheels, they stink,
heh, I like it.  The Porterfields were the most dramatic to bed in so far -
they smelled _really_ bad, stunk a LOT, heh, it was fun.

I use Castrol GT-LMA fluid also.  Never had any problems with fade unless I
was using the brakes too much - first time on our Trials course backwards I
was gripped, so I was braking a lot and driving like a (stereotypical and
figuratively speaking, for the PC in the house) girl.  They faded, think I
had Ferodos on that day, boiled the fluid.  Those were slow laps, too,
about 10 seconds slower than what I'm doing now without fade - don't know.
Seems to me that GT LMA should work for most autocrossers, and for our time
trials, I have no problems with it.  Trials events are a little over ten
miles at speed, 18 some odd turns, 9 braking zones, 4 _hard_ braking zones,
the rest are firm but short taps for me.  Spent an afternoon on a short
(1.5 mile) roadcourse this fall, did who knows how many laps, 40?, no
appreciable fade with.....uhh, I forget which pads, might have been the
no-name (stock?) pads Kevin gave me.  Melted those, yes, it was those pads,
heh, melted them that afternoon.  It was fun.  Cheap, easy to find, eh,
don't know - works for me.

I'm still using rubber lines.  Had a set of SS lines given to me, but I'm
afraid - they scare me, I've witnessed more SS lines than rubber fail in
the 12 years I've been driving/into cars.  I've torn rubber lines off on
sticks(Jeep), forgotten to put them back in the clip on the strut(duh),
done stuff like that, but I've yet to see a rubber line fail without some
sort of physical influence - seen 3 or so SS lines just up and fail.  Bam,
no apparent(chafing, stick, whatever) reason for it.  Poof, fluid.  Seems
that grit can get into the braids and chafe away at the liner - I will
admit, a leaky SS line is neat if the SS braid is still intact - it sprays
fluid everywhere, looks cool.  I'll probably put my set on someday and
watch them very carefully, but they do sorta scare me for street use, DOT
or not.  I've thought about getting some shrink wrap or something to put
over SS lines, this might quell my fears, don't know.  Basically, my pedal
feel is good enough with rubber that I'm really pretty happy with them -
maybe I don't know what I am missing.  I do know that I don't worry about
my stock lines, though.  This adds confidence, which adds speed, which
lowers times.  Just my paranoid thoughts:).


I.Mannix


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