Brake Pads and Discs

yatz

yatz

Member
Hi

I recently had new front pads put on the car and after I had it done I has a soft brake pedal (have to push it further to get a braking response) I thought to myself that I'll wait for the brakes to bed in and that should solve the soft pedal but its been a couple of thousand miles and still got a soft brake pedal. I took it to Lions Garage in Loughborough, who pride themselves as VW/Audi specialists. The mechanic said that my discs are worn out and that he would want to replace them and also bleed the brakes. he quoted £151 parts and labour + £40 for new pads if needed.

I was wondering that if I supplied the parts and get decent brakes, something that I dont mind paying a bit more for, and just get the mechanic to fit them. Reading some posts EBC and Brembo discs have been discussed. I went on the EBC website, discs and pads with free delivery total £103, is that reasonable or shall I go to GSF and order Brembo discs and pads. Any advice?

Hopefully this should solve the soft brake pedal, if anyone could suggest anything I can ask the mechanic to try before changing pads and discs, that will be very useful

Cheers

Yatin
 
Personally i'm not sure that the problem is being addressed

Soft brakes = Air in brake fluid/boiled fluid/ or leak.

Soft brakes = possible poor adjustment of handbrake cable or if shoes fitted it could be poor shoe adjustment/adjuster fault.

Soft Brakes = Brake fade under heavy repeated use.

I don't think changing the discs and pads will cure the problem, especially if the brakes are soft without heavy reapeated use, but the fluid may do if you don't have a leak.

Try the cheap option of fluid change before you change everything else, you could save a few hundred quid.
 
Hi Yatin,

I am no mechanic so I can only offer some 'laypersons' thoughts.

From your post it sounds like the spongy feel only started after you replaced the pads, which I wouldn't have thought would necessarily indicate disc replacement. You can inspect the discs fairly easily and if there is no 'lip' or gauging present, then I doubt that you will need to incur the expense of replacing these parts.

If the brake fluid hasn't been changed for a while, this may have deteriorated over a period of time, you may also have some trapped air in the pipes or you may even have a leak, which may simulate the spongy feel that you are encountering. I would suggest you inspect the fluid level at the very least, though I would have thought that the mechanic would have done so already.

If you do need new discs and pads there are several people on here that have uprated brakes that will be only too happy to advise you on the best combination.

Good luck with whichever outcome is required.

Cheers,

Darren
 
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A few weeks ago I changed the front pads on my son' s Vw Sharan and afterwards found it had a spongy pedal.I asked him to take it to his local garage to get them to bleed the system. this they did and it was alright after that. How air gets in the system I don't know even though I have changed a lot of brakes in my life.
 
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