Do I really need to "bed in" new pads ?

New front pads arrived today, need to get them in the red machine pretty pronto so I can start stopping again

As per the title - do I really need to bed them in or is that just urban myth ?

Bearing in mind that I'd describe my driving style as pretty normal with the occassional burst of high spirits and not red lining it everywhere or trying to break the sound barrier. Dont know if that makes a colosal difference, but thought it might be relevant.

when i put my new pads in they were fine from the off

you can shine them by breaking hard when there new, but your driving style sound fine

Absolutelty yes, you do need to bed them in. The finishing process for a set of pads is to 'cook' them, which can only be done when they are fitted to the car. This hardens the pad surface to give optimum braking power.

Different pad manufacturers recomend different bedding in procedures, but all involve increasing the temperature of the pad gradualy until it reaches a medium to hot temperature, then letting it cool completely to harden.

If you dont do this the pad remains soft, and wears out rather quickly, then the first time you give it some abuse it heats up too quickly & goes off. When it then cools it leaves a glazed surface on the pad which offers very poor friction with the disc. The pad is now nackered.

The procedure I use is to drive the car slowly, braking regularly & lightly for around 20 - 30 seconds, then speed up a bit and increase the pressure, braking then release, speed up again, brake then release, then increase the pressure again etc... Do this for around 3 minutes, gradually increasing braking force to around 70% of full braking, then come to a complete stop and let the brakes cool completely down. Your pads will now work very well!

[I used to work for a rally team that used to pay me to bed in all the sets of brake pads we were taking to a rally in the days leading up to the event, so the driver didnt have to worry about doing it on the day!!]

phils scooby wrote:

you can shine them by breaking hard when there new, but your driving style sound fine

Which can usually put too much heat into them and risk warping the disc or glazing the pads.

Chris is correct in in the majority of cases although it does depend on the pad/disc combination used. EBC Red Stuff pads for example have a seperate compound layer to the pad which is for the bedding in stage which they state to be approx 1000miles. Youre best off reading the pad manufacturers leaflet for the bedding in procedure or if there isnt one, follow chris' guideline

I like the performance friction guidelines to bed in their discs and pads

Interesting that Chris, think I might be more gentle in the future. I asked Alyn when he fitted my Ferodos and he said they was no need so I went out from the off stamping on them, was smoke poring from the wheel arched after the first country road blast but they were all right after that, do wear down quick mind.

Rooter wrote:

I like the performance friction guidelines to bed in their discs and pads

i have PF pads in the front of mine, cant remember the full wording on the A4 sheet of paper but one was brake hard from 100mph ha ha

Cheers chaps. I will bear all of the above advice in mind......maybe with the exception of brake hard from 100mph