UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

Hi,
Last week I had my car in a local VW specialist to have its rear calipers, discs and brakes replaced (I went for standard VW parts). And on Saturday just gone I upgraded the front discs to 280mm (grooved and drilled) fitted new carriers and Ferodo DS Performance pads.

I cant believe just how much of an improvement this has made to the cars stopping power. What I wanted to ask was...

How many miles will I have to do until the brakes are properly bedded in? As the info that came with the pads said they were ready to go and didnt require bedding in. (This seemed unusual to me, as I thought that bedding in was the procecss where the pads and discs mate, and if so how can these pads not require time to mate to the discs).

Clicky to a vid of my 1st proper (at speed) emergency stop test. (The car had stopped before the speedo reached 0, it was still showing 20mph at a standstill, for a second or 2 at least).

Did you have the rear calipers replaced due to them sticking?

Are they DS2500 pads? I thought they were intended as more of a track day pad.

I am glad you are pleased with the performance. I had not heard of new brakes not needing to be bedded in. In the very least it takes a good few miles to remove the initial sheen from new discs and don't new pads need de-glazing?

I fitted new disks and pads to the fronts a couple of weeks back. Having now done 300 miles on them I feel they are as good as they are going to get performance wise. They did gradually improve, but I would say it was after about 200 miles that I really felt they were up to scratch.

Yeah you're spot on My rear calipers were replaced due to the passenger side one sticking (and squeaking, and reducing my mpg to the low 20's ). I decided I couldnt live with one shiny new caliper and one dirty old one with its paint flaking off, So I replaced both.

I didnt get the DS2500 pads as like you say they are intended as a track day pad, although my mate took his Volvo T5 for a brake upgrade and it came back with DS3000 pads on it (Touring car pads, that according to the website are not legal for road use, lol). On a test drive in his car he emergency stopped from 100mph and it felt like my retinas were going to detatch.

I opted for the DS High Performance Pads (FDS1312) and was well chuffed when they arrived becuase they are red and look cool behind the calipers. I was also quite suprised as the surface of the pad was red too and really rough to touch. I've only done about 30 miles or so on them so far, which im guessing is probably not enough to take the sheen of the discs yet. (The discs were smoking after my 1st test drive with them, that was without any really hard braking, is this normal?)

Heres the manufacturers blurb on the pads Click then click High Performance from the menu (couldn't direct link)