Moe

Changed my front brake pads for the first time on my 98 Audi. I put on aftermarket pads. First the sensor wires were short and I had to add 1.5" of wire to get it to work. Now that I have put the pads on, the brakes feel too soft and it takes longer to get the car to stop.
1. Is there a special technique to push the brake cylinder in? I just used the c-clamp to push it in like I have done 50 times before on other cars.
2. As the pad wears will the brakes do better? I never had this issue when I put on new pads befoe.
After all the hasseles, I do not suggest the aftermarket stuff, eve tough it was bought from one of the people that we buy stuff from all the time.

ryoung

1. No special technique is needed to push in the pistons of the front calipers, but the rears really do require the Harbor Freight tool described in the audipages <A HREF="http://www.audipages.com/Tech_Articles/susp_whls_brake_steer/rearbrakes.html">Rear Brake Pads</a> procedure. For the rear, the piston has to be simultaneously pushed in and screwed clockwise.

2. I've seen other posts reporting that the pedal firms up a bit after the pads are thoroughly bedded and/or a few days of use. I've never had the problem, but I always bleed the brakes before installing new pads. This avoids pushing cruddy old brake fluid up into the master cylinder, but I always seem to get another bubble or two of air out of the system which firms up the pedal a bit.

What aftermarket pads did you use? Did you do both front and rear?

PaulW

I too do not like deviating from OEM parts....it seems that I always have to do it more than once.

I've learned that lesson soooo many times.

Anytime I did the brakes when I had the single piston calipers, I found they were soft for the first couple of days, then they will firm up as the pads seat.

And with the Porterfield pads, the pedal feel changed.

Give it a few days, they'll get better.

Moe

Some Italian made brand in a blue box. Did not make anote of the brand. The rear pads sent were incorrect so I have left the originals in there. They proabaly have another 20K miles left on them (unless the diffrence between the front/rear braking makes them wear fast.

Jkay

You can't change brands/compounds and hope for the best. You should bed the brakes properly, unless you've done that already.

Basically, the rotors are coated in your OLD brake pad compound and who knows WHAT compatability issues that's causing with your new compound.

Also, Randy mentions brake bleeding .. did you do that?