How did you bed in your brakes?

BED-IN BRAKE SYSTEM
IMPORTANT: lt is recommended that bedding be done off-street. StopTech does not endorse speeding on public roads. lf going above the legal speed limit, do so at your own risk. Always choose an area that is safe and clear of traffic.

Bed-in of rotors and pads is critical to the optimum performance of your new brakes. When bedding-in new parts, you are not only heat-cycling the pads, you are also depositing a layer of pad material onto the rotor face. lf not bedded-in properly at the start, an uneven layer of pad material may be deposited onto the rotor, later causing vibration. Most instances of what
people believe to be a "warped" rotor is actually caused by this uneven pad deposition.

A moderate braking effort is needed to properly bed-in rotors and pads. lf ABS intervention or lockup were represented as 100% brake effort, a stopping force of approximately 70-80%, short of ABS intervention or lockup, is a general estimate of the pedal effort you are trying to achieve.

To properly observe brake system bed-in, it is recommended a second person is engaged to use a contact or non-contact pyrometer to monitor rotor surface temperatures.

Note: Bedding-in of pads should not be done in poor weather conditions, nor on wet roads.

Bed-in Procedure for Standard Vehicles - 1 Cvcle: (series of 10 stops)
1.) For Standard Vehicles, accelerate to 60 mph (97 km/h)
(Below 6000 lbs (2722 kg) GVWR)
For Heavy Vehicles, accelerate to 45 mph (72 km/h)
(Above 6000 lbs (2722 kg) GVWR)
- The exact speed is not critical
2.) Apply brakes until approximately 5 mph (8 km/h) is reached
- Apply brakes at70-80o/o, as described on previous page.
- Exact speed is not critical and it is not necessary to watch the speedometer. Keep
your eyes on the road!
- DO NOT COME TO A COMPLETE STOP WITH THE BRAKE PEDAL APPLIED
WHILE THE SYSTEM IS HOT!

3.) Measure rotor temperature
- Coast to a stop or gently apply the parking brake to slow the vehicle to a stop.
4.) Repeat steps 1-3 until 10 stops are completed
- lf the rotor surface temperature approaches 1000'F (538"C), end the cycle and proceed to cool down; do not exceed 1000"F (538'C) during bed-in.
5.) Cool down brake system until rotor surface reaches ambient temperature
- Cool the rotor to 200"F (93"C) or below.
6.) lnspect the rotor for pad deposit
- There will be a blue tint on the rotor, with a light gray film on the rotor face. The blue tint indicates that the rotor has reached the proper bed-in temperature, and the gray film is pad material starting to transfer onto the rotor face.

Additional Notes:
- As soon as on the 6th stop, there should be a distinct smell from the brakes. Smoke may also be evident after several stops.
- Near the 8th or 9th stop, some friction material may experience "green fade." This is a slight fading of the brakes, which will stabilize, but not completely go away until the brakes have cooled.
- After the final stop of each cycle, drive as much as possible without using the brakes to cool off the system. Ideally, the brakes should be allowed to cool to ambient temperature before using them again.
- After the first bed-in cycle, the brakes may still not be operating at their best capacity. A second or third bed-in cycle is typically necessary before the brakes really start to "come in." A "cycle" is a series of stops, followed by a cool-down to ambient temperature as described above.

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Excelsior said:

That's what I did on my '07 GTI StopTech BBK kit.

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Sandman GTI said:

The best thing to do is normal driving.
Try not to do 100% braking effort stops.
Avoid high speed heavy braking.
Avoid long braking, like going down a long hill and riding the brakes all the way.
I think for about 500 miles is good but 1000 miles like your engine break in is also good.

Just drive normal and try to avoid performance driving until after this time.

Others will say drive it like you stole it , but as you asked the question I take it you want to do the cautious thing and break it in some. This is what I will do.

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doc said:

I haven't picked up the R yet, but when I put a StopTech BBK on my GTI, I followed their rec's more or less. (It may be overkill for our purposes on a street car, but then again, the R is kinda agro....)

Per StopTech:
"For a typical performance brake system using race pads, the bed-in procedure must be somewhat more aggressive, as higher temperatures need to be reached, in order to bring certain brands of pad material up to their full race potential.
We typically recommend a set of ten partial braking events, from 60mph down to 10mph, followed immediately by three or four partial braking events, from 80mph down to 10mph. Alternately, a set of eleven stops, from 80mph to 40mph, or a set of seven stops, from 100mph to 50mph, would be approximately the same. As with street pads, each of the partial braking events should achieve moderate-to-high deceleration (about 80% of the deceleration required to lock up the brakes and/or to engage the ABS), and they should be made one after the other, without allowing the brakes to cool in between.
Again, depending on the make-up of the pad material, the brake friction will seem to gain slightly in performance, and will then lose or fade somewhat about halfway through the first set of stops. This does not indicate that the brakes are bedded-in, except where race-ready pads are being used. This phenomenon is the same as that which occurs with high-performance or street pads (except that, when race-ready pads are used, they do not exhibit green fade, and they will be bedded-in after just one complete set of stops).
As when bedding-in any set of brakes, care should be taken regarding the longer stopping distance necessary with incompletely bedded pads. This first set of stops in the bed-in process is only complete when the recommended number of stops has been performed - not before. As a general rule, it would be better to perform additional stops, than not enough. The system should then be allowed to cool, by driving the vehicle at the highest safe speed for the circumstances, without bringing it to a complete stop with the brakes still applied.
After cooling the vehicle, a second set of the recommended number of stops should be performed, followed by another cooling exercise. In some situations, a third set is beneficial, but two are normally sufficient.
Racers will note that, when a pad is bedded-in properly, there will be approximately 2mm (0.1 inch) of the pad edge near the rotor, on which the paint will have turned to ash, or the color of the pad will have changed to look as though it has been overheated.
In summary, the key to successfully bedding-in performance brakes is to bring the pads up to their operating temperature range, in a controlled manner, and to keep them there long enough to start the pad material transfer process. Different brake system designs, pad types, and driving conditions require different procedures to achieve a successful bed-in. The procedures recommended above should provide a useful starting point for developing bed-in procedures appropriate to individual applications."

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