The OEM pads in the Octavia Vrs are pretty efficient, but they've a tendency to glaze and reduce their efficiency by a fair bit.
It's a catch 22. If you use them hard, they stay sharp, but there's never any need for that kind of braking so they glaze over.
Anyone come across this before? I've never been conscious of it and i always buy good quality pads. Maybe that's the problem, maybe VAG's OEM supplier saved a few pence per pad and they're missing some component in the compound that prevents this behaviour?
What causes it? Best idea i can come up with is my pads are always cold. I drive ~1.5 miles to get to the motorway, any heat is then lost in the next 25 mins by 75mph wind, then the last ~1.5 miles in town the brakes are needed again, they get some heat then are left in the car park all day. Vice versa for the return journey.
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I've always given the brakes a good work out of several high speed stops (but not actually coming to rest for obvious reasons) once in a while, they are much better afterwards for weeks.
I believe it cleans all the carp that accumulates off the disc and pad.
Last edited by: gordonbennet on Thu 23 Sep 10 at 18:42
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If they are a particularly expensive item, you may find they have been cloned by a comedian in a tin hut somewhere.
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Its common on Xantias that are not driven (well, stopped....) hard - the brakes are just too powerful. A good hard stop from reasonable speed soon sharpens the brakes up - and helps to prevent rust building up on the discs anc causing them to pit. I find that well worked brakes perform much better than ones treated gently. Well, that's my excuse for standing it on its nose regularly....:-)
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I remember the brakes on my old Xantia.
Many a time I've had to peel my face of the windscreen after slowing down for a cat.
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I think all of us had a shock when we first drove a Citroen with hydraulic suspension and had to brake unexpectedly.
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I had a shock when I first used the mushroom brake on my old mans DS.
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They though the brakes were a bit too fierce on the Xantia so they fitted a spring behind the pedal to put some movement in it - still sharp enough the catch the unwary out though - and proper Chevron heads take the spring out and fit a piece of solid bar in place for that bang-your-head-on-the-windscreen-by-caressing-the-brakes-with-a-feathe
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effect! Spoilsports put conventional brakes on the C5 to make it more mainstream attractive....
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Pads Glazing Too Quickly - -
