I have bedded pads twice before. Once I used the proceedure on the Baer site:
Perform four-repeated light to medium stops, from 65 to 10 mph, to bring the rotors to
temperature.
Perform two heavy stops, back to back, at a point just pending wheel lock, from 65 mph
to about 5 mph.
Drive for five to ten minutes to create cooling airflow, without using the brakes if at all
possible.
Perform three light stops in succession.
Perform eight heavy stops, back to back, at a point just pending wheel lock, from 65 mph
to about 5 mph.
Drive for ten minutes to create cooling airflow, without using the brakes if at all possible.


Last time I used the StopTech site instructions:
For a typical performance brake system using street-performance pads, a series of ten partial braking events, from 60mph down to 10mph, will typically raise the temperature of the brake components sufficiently to be considered one bed-in set. Each of the ten partial braking events should achieve moderate-to-high deceleration (about 80 to 90% 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.

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 by around the fifth stop (also about the time that a friction smell will be detectable in the passenger compartment). This does not indicate that the brakes are bedded-in. This phenomenon is known as a green fade, as it is characteristic of immature or ‘green' pads, in which the resins still need to be driven out of the pad material, at the point where the pads meet the rotors. In this circumstance, the upper temperature limit of the friction material will not yet have been reached.

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 all ten stops have been performed - not before. 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 ten partial braking events should be performed, followed by another cooling exercise. In some situations, a third set is beneficial, but two are normally sufficient.

Here are the Hawk website bedding instructions:

After installing new brake pads, make 6 to 10 stops from approximately 30-35 mph applying moderate pressure.
Make an additional 2 to 3 hard stops from approximately 40 to 45 mph.
DO NOT DRAG BRAKES!
Allow 15 minutes for brake system to cool down.
After step 4 your new pads are ready for use.

These instructions are for the Hawk HP Plus pads. They say the pads come burnished...maybe this is why the bedding process seems much less intensive.

And none of the instructions say to let the car sit over night after the bedding is complete which I thought was reccomended.

So which bedding proceedure to use????........


DH

 

Go with hawk's reccomendation. Ive never had a problem bedding them that way. I don't think you need to let them sit overnight, you are just appling a transfer film from the pads to the rotors. The other directions I believe are just genaric for all pads.

 

Use the procedure that Hawk specifies. They are the same procedure for the HPS pads.

 

TurboC5 & c4crusier:

Why do you think the Hawk bedding proceedure is SO MUCH shorter and at MUCH lower speeds.

Also it says "STOP" not brake down to 5 or 10 mph

What does NOT DRAG THE BRAKES mean ??


DH

 

I don't come to a complete stop when bedding in Hawks.
"Don't drag the brakes" means riding with your foot on the brake pedal and applying brakes while driving around.

Steve

 

If the idea is to transfer pad material to the rotor surface, then you shouldn't really need lots of high speed stops that may otherwise create a glazed surface on the pad and rotor.

When I bed my Hawk pads, my "moderate stops" are usually very firm pedal pressure so the car stops within 50 feet. The "hard" stops are just under where the ABS would kick in.

"Dragging" the brakes is riding the pedal where you are applying enough pedal pressure to feel braking action but not really slowing down very much (sort of like "riding the clutch").

The other benefit of their bedding procedure is that you can pretty much do it on back streets without arousing suspicion. I would think that doing a series of 60+MPH stops could be hard to do if you were in the middle of a residential area. And waiting 15 minutes for a cool-down can be done along the road or simply being near a parking lot.

 

The bedding procedure, and as a result the temperature needed to bed, relies heavily on the pad material, bonding agents and related operating temperature of the pad (which is dictated by the former). In general I would go with what the manufacturer of that pad recommends for that pad, so go with Hawk's recommendation (aside from actually stopping).

I follow stoptech's procedure for my Wilwoods, and adjust the speed and # of stops depending on whether i'm bedding my street pads (Q) or track pads(H).

Most important things are
(1) get the pad warm throughout before really heating it up for bedding. So, if it is 20F outside, drive around a bit and get the entire pad a little warmed up, then bed. If you go straight in to hard stops you run the risk of overheating the surface of the pad and glazing it (I've done this). You want the heat to penetrate into the pad.

(2) Don't come to a stop. Slow to 5mph and let off. What is important here is we do not realize that we are pre-programmed through years of stopping at a stoplight to drag the brakes in this situation, i.e. reduce pressure as we reach 5mph. Don't do this. Get to 5mph with constant pressure and then OFF the brake, speed back up. If you pay attention you'll catch yourself riding, I did. We're so used to making the last part of a stop on the street smooth we all drag, which you don't want to do here.

Other than that, go with Hawks recommendations.

 

Thanks Steve

I'm surprized that they don't specify NOT coming to a complete stop !!!

I tried calling Hawk for clarification but all I got was a voicemail....


DH

 

So where did you end up getting the pads?

 

Great tips!!!!!

It makes sense that the proceedure would be different depending on the pad material.....BUT.....

If you look on Hawks site you will see that they have the same bedding proceedure for ALL their pads including ceramic

What do you make of THAT.....


DH

 

Joe:

Actually I don't know.....

Big Head Frank ordered them from one of the sugested places from the thread I started asking where to get them.....$200 for the set


DH