So I have alluded to this in a few other threads, talked with two different service departments, two different aftermarket vendors..and there still seems to be no solution.
Lots of backstory, but in a nutshell I was having consistent pulsing issues with my brakes. The pads were fusing to the rotors after a wash, and it was just a snowball effect as every time I washed it it got worse, and the lip just slowly built up more pad material causing it to get worse and worse. My purchasing dealership was unable to solve the problem. When I got out here to FL, I attempted to address it by swapping pads for new Ferodo DS2500s from OEM, and having the rotors resurfaced JUST enough on a ProCut lathe (on car) to remove the ridge. This solved the problem temporarily, but after the next wash, and every heavy rain storm where my car was in the parking lot, it would happen again.
To make things worse, the humidity out here seemed to exacerbate the problem. The dealer out here was sort of baffled too, and we went about sanding the pads flat (just a bit of material) and again resurfacing the rotors JUST enough to get the bump out. Problem came right back.
Well I had gotten tired of it all and was about to make a massive round of improvements to the car, so in the process decided to install BOE's full floating front rotors and switch Pads again to see if that would help. I decided to go with Hawk High Performance ceramics to see if they would avoid fusing being non-metallic, and keep the Ferodos for high-perf needs to swap out.
This seemed to work but the Hawks were terrible-not only did they overheat WAY too fast and lose stopping power, the stopping power wasn't much good and they made a terrible squeaking noise on the slots of the new rotors. It wasn't your typical pad squeal, but this pulsing wail. And this was with a proper bed-in procedure. They glazed over every few days with street driving too, and would require a heat cycle to take the glaze off, only to glaze over again and make the racket and suck at stopping. It was horrible. Maybe for a light duty street pad, as the car is still quite a potent braking car, but for anything performance wise they are not the answer. Plus they have less pad material (chamfered front and rear edges)
So I got fed up with them and the other day swapped back to the DS2500s after sanding enough of the dirty surface off again, and bedding them in properly. I used ceramic high temp anti-seize/squeal crud on the backing plates, and the install went smooth. Bedded them in and they didn't fade an ounce and stopped really well. My ABS seems to be pretty aggressive, it alway shas, and these pads grip so well it seems more noticeable, but the car STOPS as expected.
Washed my car today...and the rotors rusted over from the pad material and the pads LIGHTLY fused to the rotors. Just an easy pop and no extra gas required backing out of my garage. Having been through this before, after the wash was done I took the car on a low speed drive aroun dmy complex (15-20 mph) with the brakes lightly applied to get off the rust, and to slowly warm them up and remove the material...then 4 30 mph-5 mph firm stops, and there didn't seem to be any pulsing or odd noises.
I park in the lot for work tonight, look at the rotor surface, and the pad marks are visible, and if I use my fingernail, i can feel a veeeery slight bump at the edge. I know this problem is going to come back all over again.
SOoooooo now that you have read my novel..any tips? :shrug:
I am going to buy a hair drier to see if that helps, and it will help with the washes..but it doesn't solve my big problem. I live in FL. Rain is inevitable.
I may try swapping pads again, but spending 500 bucks on the HPS+ only to have the metallic pads do the same thing isn't very appetizing.
