dhoover

I know this has been discussed on many other threads, but wanted to share my experience in trying to fix this...and get some advice from the forum.

I bought a 2.7T Tip as a CPO last spring. Immediately I was dissatisfied with lack of initial feel, too much travel, sponginess, (call it what you want) in the brakes. So during the past year, I had the brakes checked and bled once by a dealer, and once by an independent performance shop that specializes on Audis and Porsches. The car has stock, pads, rotors and lines, everything "checked out" according to the techs. The final bleed seemed to help some.

However, recently I purchased an '05 4.2 to replace my 2.7T car -- I wanted the V8. The 4.2 was inspected by 2 dealers before and after the purchase, but the feel of the brake pedal on this car is exponentially worse (!) than on the 2.7T. Pads and rotors are within factory specs. Frustrated, I had the same performance shop replace the lines on the 4.2 with SS, thinking rubber lines were the culprit. The fluid was replaced at this time with Motul.

The pedal travel issue and overall pedal fee was unchanged. How could this be?

I wanted to confirm I wasn't loosing my marbles. So, since I still have the 2.7T, I compared the two. I measured the pedal travel of both cars with the engine running and 10 lbs pressure placed on the pedal. Results? 1 5/8" travel measured on the 2.7T and 2 1/2" of travel measured on the 4.2 with SS lines.

What gives? Is there an adjustment in the master cylinder to "dumb down" the pedal feel on these cars? Like many others have observed, it's not like the car doesn't stop when you finally get to the point where the pads make contact...it's just that it is way down there before I get any action...

Anybody want to weigh in on this? Thanks.

Rally_nutcase_1982

some time ago; the allroad is too heavy for these milk bottle top sized little brakes and the OEM specs are not really up for the challenge to stop the allroad in a rather comfortable time.

Some here moved already to Aftermarket pads and perhaps rotors; the best bang for the buck comes from Carbotech (CTBRAKES.com);

SmallTownTerrorist had these pads installed on his allroad when we met in VA at the track and the result was very impressive; the Bobcat pads are made for daily driving but stop almost like a race car.

If you add some Zimmerman or DBA rotors then your brakes will behave as one should expect, forget about OEM :-)

paulroad

in day to day. They might make a diff on the track.
A complete bleed of the system may be inorder.

The brakes are not rock hard but they are not spongy either.

Stock components: pads and rotors also don't bite aggressively. A 2005 Audi brake job is done by the dealer as part of the mint. program and usually pads only.

You may be riding on worn but within spec rotors and pads that were not original to the rotor. They would not have been resurfaced either.

Judge AR

at first I felt the pedal feel was the same, but after about 3 weeks I started feeling a lot more bite and much improved stopping power. Unfortunately, I'm getting a lot of squeal on them, my thoughts are the shop I had do the instal (was to cold to do myself) didn't properly lube the caliper. Now that it warmed up I'm going to have to take a look myself.

HR-ALL

If all brake components are set to factory specs, then there is jack-all you can do, except to remove the boost. But, you don't want to do that.

DoubleB

Judge, I have had luck with well lubed calipers and liberally applied CRC disc brake quiet on pads.

s4master1

this issue has been more and more apparent specially on twin turbo cars
We have found a large number of master cylinders under performing specially after a long drive
before anything always make sure u have good brake fluid (2 years regardless of mileage not necesarily work the way people actually drives)
tell your mechanic to run a pressure test on the master cylinder before and after renewing the fluid, you'd be surprise on the difference
but still if at full pressure is around 12-18 bar below replace the master
don't waste your money on cheap parts regardless what anyone says, we only recomend original<ul><li><a href="http://euro-techmotors.com">http://euro-techmotors.com</a</li></ul>

Judge AR

Yea thats what I'm trying once I get a warm day where I have time.

ShowMeData

driving. They just squealed tooooo much. The guys at Carbotech said that they would get a little better with age, but probably never stop it.

Now I only put them on for track days. A nuisance, but I couldn't take the noise.

dhoover

This is interesting. Can the master cylinder be tested to see if the excess travel is happening there? Again, two virtually identical systems...each has new fluid, each has pads and rotors "within specs," but one (the one with ss lines) has almost an inch more pedal travel than the other.