Brake job woes

First time posting here, long time lurker. Had hoped my first post wouldn't be embarrassing, but...

At 110,000 miles my 2010 JSW needed new rear brakes. I've never done my own maintenance before, but I decided, "Why not? A brake job is supposed to be easy!" I ordered pads, rotors, the piston compression tool, a set of triple squares, and borrowed a friend's floor jack and stands.

Small probably relevant detail: I got the "racing pads" from IDparts. Because why not? Seemed like a fun option considering my driving style. Shorter life and more brake dust warning noted, I figured I could deal with that. Friend told me later that racing pads are also noisy, which I noted as true and I chalked up to experience.

Now here's the problem: About 9 weeks, maybe 4,000 miles, and those pads are GONE and the rotors are worn down by several mm. This became apparent a couple days ago when they the pads started scraping on the lip on the rotors.

So here's the question: Is it just that racing pads really do go that quick, or did I do something else wrong? I'm guessing it's the latter because "shorter life" in my mind would indicate 1/3 or so the life of regular pads, not 1/20.

Any suggestions before I run out and buy new rotors and pads and make the same mistake(s) all over again? The wife says I should take it to the shop but I refuse to accept defeat (yet).

Some race pads do wear very quick. Rotors you want to get good quality so they last longer.

I would look into hawk or brembo rotors. Hawk pads are also very good quality if you don't get the race line. Personally if I could go back I would have put the wagner thermoquiet pads front and rear. My basic auto parts pads leave a lot to be desired that were put on but it was budget based as it was at the same time as clutch and timing belt.


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unless you noted awful mpg, you probably are ok.

having climbed up the learning curve, it should be easier the second time.

I went with Zimmerman rotors and idparts house ceramic pads.

seems to stop the car well, little dust, and smooth for the last year.

If you have not done so yet, go ahead and flush/change the brake fluid while you are at it.

send a note to the folks at idparts, and ask if they think the life you got from the race pads is out of line.

For the DIY type I would recommend the "Textar" pads married to a set of "Brembo" rotors.
For the daily driver, regardless of your driving style for the average driver, this is a proven combination providing durability, safety, and value.

Brakes are easy, they're also mission critical. I recommend a bit of informal education on the brake system as a whole.
That amount of wear seems crazy, but I've never used those products.

Thanks all. I watched a ton of Youtube howto videos including one by IDparts before I started. Read a bunch of threads here. Talked to a couple coworkers about it, so I did my homework. I think the racing pads were the mistake. I do remember seeing someone online fussing about them being inappropriate for a daily driver...

Since I'm heading out on a road trip tonight, I had to go with local parts to get this fixed today. BrakeBest Select rotors and Wagner ceramic pads from Oreilly. Nothing fancy and I think this will work fine. A not-terribly expensive lesson learned. No more racing pads for me

How did the rear calipers seem when pushing the piston back? and binding? that'd be my only guess as to short life?

I also second, what has been your MPGs since swap?

135K still rolling on original OEM gear.

Racing stuff... You aren't racing are you?

I would skip the racing stuff and just get high quality ceramics and some decent rotors.

Racing stuff is not designed for long life, and from my limited expertise, it's designed to run at much higher temperatures than stock stuff. If you were able to get the stuff hot (like in a race) it may very well last a while.

It's cool to say "I have racing this or that", but really it just costs more and as you have found out, doesn't really work any better. In this case I would say it's much worse since you only got 4k out of pads and rotors.

The PO of my wife's Passat must have put on cheap brakes, they stop well, but holy-cow they are the dirtiest brakes I ever seen. I have ceramics on my car and get a bit of black stuff off when I wash the cars, but hers make so much black junk it's scary. I have been thinking about replacing them, just to keep from having to clean up after them. Even though they are still pretty meaty.

MPG didn't change so far as I could tell. The calipers seemed to be OK when retracting the piston - resistance but didn't seem bound up. The rr pads were not as worn as the lr, but they were still further worn that I would have expected. I'm going to watch the new pads and rotors closely for a few months.

No, I'm not racing, although sometimes passengers accuse me of it.
The stopping power was definitely noticeably better, but I can live without that. Happily abandoning any intentions to use race equipment. Aside from short life, the huge amount of brake and metal dust really uglied up my nice wheels. It's on there like concrete.

are your parking brake cables sticking.....or did any one drive with the parking brake engaged?

maxmoo said:

are your parking brake cables sticking.....or did any one drive with the parking brake engaged?

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The parking brake return spring seemed to be working correctly. I did check that. And it wasn't driven with the brake engaged - I'm the only driver so I'm sure.


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jmsparks said:

The parking brake return spring seemed to be working correctly. I did check that. And it wasn't driven with the brake engaged - I'm the only driver so I'm sure.


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Click to expand...

One of mine even with the cables not engaged had a slight drag. Previous ******* had his friend replace the pads and he compressed instead of screwing in the caliper. Don't know how the internals work but it must have bent something and caused a forever light drag. I replaced the caliper.


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