jeff1941

Just recently installed new oem front and rear brembo's rotors and hawk hps pads front and rear and brake flush dot4. I driven car about 150 miles so far. The pads was burnished by the hawk instructions and it has a nice Grey color on rotor from the pads not blue. I been driving and pressing on the brakes gently and once in a while moderate pressure. I was wondering how much longer would it take to get it to perform at optimal performance? The brembo's instruction said it would take about 150-200 miles and the web site said 200km(about 125miles) and not to step on brakes hard. The brakes still perform sucky so far. Oh yea, is it possible for the pads to unburnish the stuff off the rotors if i dont step on the brakes hard, so should i step on brakes hard once in a while just in case? Think i read that on some article from google.

mitsuguy

iTrader: (2)

when you say sucky, what do you mean?

the pedal travels farther than you like? the pedal feels soft? the brakes don't feel like they grab as hard as they should?

almost all brakes, even lacking a proper break in, still work 90% of their full potential on the first application, right out of the box... pad transfer and burn in account for the other 10%, but this should really be negligible...

jeff1941

Usually i just have to barely press on the brakes to slow the car down. It feels like it doesn't grab the rotors when you go reverse and when you brake hard.

jspecdan

pads don't 'unburnish.'

i don't know Hawk's particular manufacturing processes but most likely you wore through their break-in surface. but as mitsuguy stated, pads are still very effective even if you don't "break them in."

additionally, GS OEM pads are semi-metallic. i'm thinking that Hawk's pads are NAO (non-asbestos organic). that would explain the lack of bite compared to your older pads. also, did you clean off your rotors before installing them?

mitsuguy

iTrader: (2)

just went to hawks website... there are certain pads (maybe those, never had first hand experience) that might require a little more pedal travel to get that initial bite...

heat has something to do with it, coefficient of friction does as well...

light braking is not a way to tell a pads performance abilities - get it hot, start really stopping, then see what happens...

jeff1941

Rotors were sprayed to get the oil off. I'll try stepping on the brakes harder tomorrow and see how it goes...