Does this look normal? Brake pads with crumbling edges and cracks...

[AdamR]

Hi gents,

After a second opinion on these pads please... They have done one track day and a few (maybe 100) road miles. Box specified no bed in required but I did the usual 60-15mph medium stops a few times to get them warm and scrub them in to the disc. They work perfectly well but the edges seem to be crumbling (can pull bits off by hand) and there are some cracks running through the material.

http://www.tartybikes.co.uk/media/car/clio/pad1.jpg

http://www.tartybikes.co.uk/media/car/clio/pad2.jpg

Retailer says it's nothing to worry about:

"this is perfectly normal, the material is prone to chipping, hence the foam in the box when they are new. Micro channels in the material is also common owing to the material make up and the graphite element to it."

I was always under the impression graphite had one of the lowest coefficients of thermal expansion of any material (http://physics.info/expansion/), so I can't really understand the cracks. The last set of these I had came off the backings, so maybe I'm being over cautios?

Cheers in advance!
Adam

 

[marinemackay2003]

what make are they?

 

[James105]

CL RC5+ by any chance?

Always do it on the lotus's at work. Pretty normal

 

[AdamR]

That's the one James - cheers for that!

 

[marinemackay2003]

worth keeping an eye on them though

fair few dodgy batches about that have completly failed

http://www.cliosport.net/forum/show...bone-Lorraine-Fail&highlight=carbone+lorraine

thread about my pads

 

[AdamR]

Yeah, my RC5s did exactly the same (these are RC5+) - I contacted K-Tec before buying these and they were adamant that the issue had been rectified, so fingers crossed...

 

[Yellow Dave]

I had a clean cracks right through the middle of several set of OE pads, still worked OK but I'd be worried about all the crumbling

 

[James105]

We had a dodgy batch a while ago, was a change in their production method if I remember. Obviously that chipping you see isn't ideal, but with an eye kept on it, it should be ok, and the bonus with the compount is you can run the material right down to near the backplate without any noticable brake fade.
RE the bedding in process, this is CL's recommendation:

"
-No specific process necessary.
-With new discs: progressively warming up the brake system.
-With bedded discs: a couple of middle brakings.
-To be used with High quality brake fluid.
-Bleed the brakes often.
"

James

 

[AdamR]

Cheers dude - yeah that's what's on the side of the box

 

[bmh.01]

Yeah, my RC5s did exactly the same (these are RC5+) - I contacted K-Tec before buying these and they were adamant that the issue had been rectified, so fingers crossed...

K-tec lie a lot too.