Hard to come up with a title. But I just did all kind of work on my 97 R, struts, shocks, timing belt, water pump, pulleys and tensioner. It's my wife's daily driver and she is visiting her Mom right now. Well I talked to her Sunday after finishing all this work on her car and she says "Did you do the brakes?".

I looked at the brakes and they looked fine, but I have to admit they did have a feel that was not perfect. When I bought all the parts from fcpgroton, I got the Akebono Ceramic pads for all around, but didn't think I needed them yet.

Well I went ahead and put them on last night and sure enough the braking feels perfect again. But the pads that came off looked almost perfect even though they have to have over 50K on them. I just can't understand why then new ones feel so much better? I did just the pads and not rotors this time. I did rotors all the way around last time.

Put pads on all the way around in less than two hours. Did the shocks and struts in about four hours. Not sure how long it took to do the timing belt and water pump. I worked from about 8:00 am to 12:00 pm two days, but it was hot so I went inside quite a few times. So less than eight hours, but more than six.

Car feels great! First I've done much of anything to it in about four years. Not bad less than $800 for parts and 12-14 hours work every four years. Now I will wash and wax it tonight so it looks good when she gets home tomorrow. Not bad for a car with 215K on the clock.

 

Just a guess out of the whole of knowlage, but the pads could have been glazed a little bit. that will make them feel a little less then alright.

Or maybe just the repeditive heating from use over 50k miles was starting to break down the bonds in the friction material.

Overall though... 50k on break pads... cant complain too much about that....

 

I have a feeling I need to change mine for the same reason. My brake pads are only a few months old but they just don't feel like they are braking as well as they should. At first I thought it might be a master cylinder issue but after reading this, the pads make more sense.

 

What were your braking symptoms? The previous owner of my car had pads and rotors put on all around last year but they suck badly. The car stops but it feels like the pads aren't biting very hard. I flushed the fluid and that helped a little bit. I still have more peddle travel than i think is right so i might still have a bubble in there somewhere.

I have never been able to lock up the brakes except on mud/grass. I think I'm going to do the front pads after I rebleed the calipers.

 

I honestly didn't really notice any problem with them other than that bass vibrating sound coming from the rear. The one the half shims fix, but it already had the half shims and I reused them.

It has Brembo rotors and had OEM pads on it prior to this change. I also read where you can reverse the inside and outside pad on the rear to get rid of that vibrating, but I figured with that kind of miles why not just change them if I'm taking them out anyway, plus I had the brand new ones sitting there.

 

I put the Akebono Ceramic pads and new Brembo rotors on my S60 awhile back and have been very happy with them. I did notice that it was a bit smoother. The big plus to me was NO MORE DUST! We put the same pad on the front of my sons 850 before he heads off to college (today by the way) and he likes them. I haven't driven his car since so I can't speak to whether it's better or not, but again, not having to deal with the DUST made him happy.