New pads and discs all round - will they have to bed in

[samhain1]

Hi,

As title says, brakes don't feels great after fitting new parts I am assuming that they will need to bed in?

If so how long before you get really good brakes - golf gti brakes

[Komenda]

They will definitely need bedding in. They will be very poor for the first few uses, and gradually improve. It's best to apply light pressure and build up temperature in them until you feel them start to bite. Don't use them hard as it will cause thermal shock and reduce the ongoing effectiveness.

[samhain1]

Cheers for that

[Egbutt Wash]

If you have an automatic for the first time then learn to not keep the brakes on after a hard stop.  Just keep it in N with the hand brake on.  Hard stop = heat.  Brakes on = no place for heat to go around pads = warped disks.  As autos used to be just for posh cars and not VW Golfs many of us are just first time learners.

But I'm not.  I've owned posh autos for donkey's years and warped many a disk.
Be warned new auto owners.

[samhain1]

Not an auto, funny thing is, not been hard braking but they don't seem to be getting any better, also the pedal seems incredibly hard, there is no binding of the brakes but when I push really hard on the pedal there is not much more braking going on that a light push

[MaXXeH]

well i all ways do the following.

get to 30mph hard stop to 10mph,  1 mile to cool,  do that 5x.      70mph to 40mph hard stop,  let cool for 1 mile,  do that a few times. ( few 70 to 0)   drive around for awhile applying lite braking.

they are bedded,  that is how i have all ways done mine, no problems here.

[S4twiggy]

well i all ways do the following.

get to 30mph hard stop to 10mph,  1 mile to cool,  do that 5x.      70mph to 40mph hard stop,  let cool for 1 mile,  do that a few times. ( few 70 to 0)   drive around for awhile applying lite braking.

they are bedded,  that is how i have all ways done mine, no problems here.

this is what i do when i bed the brakes in.

if the pedal is feeling hard all the time then you might have seized pistons, the amount of seized pistons ive had and others makes them a common fault in my eyes.

but try and do what maxxeh has said and see how you get on

[samhain1]

Okay cheers will do this weekend

[samhain1]

Update:

Went to vw garage and they agreed that something not right, pedal too firm and not enough travel, servo ok, fluid ok, servo piping not split so they think it must be air in the system,

Will get it checked out, can someone confirm when looking at the front discs and pads from the toP it doesnt look like the whole pad is touching the disc, the pad looks fatter and touches the disc at the hub end but at the caliper end it looks narrower, is this just an optical illusion or is this the way the pads are designed or could this be the problem ?