How to bed in brake pads & rotors: Article and Video

jrotax101

Avada Kedavra
VIP Member
2,347
2,290
Hogwarts
Vehicle Model
BMW
Body Style
M3
This is an article i came across a couple of years ago and it really explains how to do everything well.
A lot of people have posted in threads on other sites about how to bed the pads in correctly, or that they are getting deposits at the track. This explains all of that and hopefully can help some people out with their new 2012+ Civics

This applies to street pads, as well as track oriented pads.

Essex - Learning Center - How to Bed-in Brake Pads and Rotors

Enjoy!

Robert
 
interesting read- I will watch the video later this evening. Thanks Jro
 
watched the vid - so I'll ask jro.. how big of a difference have you seen at the track? I don't know if this is something measurable on track times you've had?
 
It's not really measurable in times, it's whether the brakes work or not. If you don't bed the pads in properly ( get the transfer layer onto the rotor) then the pads simply don't work. This can cause huge vibrations amongst other symptoms. Nothing like heading into a corner approaching 140 and the middle pedal not doing much..

Brakes operate on two levels, they have the mechanical and molecular levels. When you have the same material on both contact surfaces, you're grabbing and breaking bonds between the molecules. This only happens when the pad and rotor get up to temperature..
Then you have the coefficient of friction between the pad and the rotor. When the pads are cold, you can actually remove the existing pad material from the rotor (leaving you with an unbedded setup). This sometimes happens on the hi temp race pads in the wet.. if they don't get into their operating window in terms of temperature ( say 400-1600) then it can cause quite a few problems.

For the street, when people say they've warped rotors, it's usually inconsistent pad deposits on the rotor.. it's nigh impossible to warp a rotor on the street.
 
I will say, the pads I use don't need to be bedded in like the ones in the video. The way they are constructed means that you can throw them on and race from the first lap. Obviously there's still a transfer layer occuring, but the process in which it happens is different than the stereotypical pad.

I use Performance Friction pads 01 and 06 compound. www.performancefriction.com if you want some extra reading material.

Personally, this document is extremely insightful. http://www.performancefriction.com/...20DLM_DemystifyingFriction_PFCLetterhead2.pdf
 
Back
Top