Stoptech Major Failure

B8 S4
#1

Wondering if anyone here has had experience with or heard of stoptech brakes failing. A few weekends ago on my way to dubrun I had to pull over because everytime I touched the brakes the car would vibrate violently. So we pulled over and my front pass. wheel was literally smoking hot. Continued smoking for ~10 minutes or so. After 30 minutes we continued as we were just 10 miles away and 80-90 miles from home. Took it easy for obvious reasons and finally got to tear down the brakes this past weekend. The part which holds the brake pad was crumbling, there are not chunks of concrete on my garage floor.

So I contacted stoptech told them what happened and they had a shop in my area contact me to sell me what I needed. Am I wrong to think that something like this should be covered regardless of being second hand? The kit has 40k miles and the car has never seen track duties. What I’m getting from this is that Stoptech’s aren’t even capable of DD duties nevermind serious track use.

PS shop said its likely because the car has seen road salt.

#2

YES!!! ive had this problem for months now. but it happened so randomly its hard to diagnose. do you have any pics of the failed part and what it should look like new? id like to compare it to mine

#3

here’s what the rotor looks like now

http://s17.photobucket.com/user/2004turbo/media/20131013_183257_zps78495ed7.jpg.html

And here’s a bad pic of what the caliper I’ve looked at. you can see on the right one of the worse parts. There’s a spot a few mm deep missing.


http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b54/2004turbo/20131013_183001_zps195508de.jpg

Richi are you using the stock pads that came with your kit?

#4

Which part was crumbling? The caliper bridge?

#5

Part #8 in this diagram

http://www.stoptech.com/products/big-brake-kits/replacement-parts/bbk-pads-and-components/st60-components

This is a shot of the other caliper which didn’t seize up. It looks like the part corroded and expanded to the point where it just wouldnt let go of the pad.

http://s17.photobucket.com/user/2004turbo/media/20131016_212339_zps433c3376.jpg.html?sort=3&o=5

and here’s some more of the caliper which seized


http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b54/2004turbo/20131016_212313_zps8a56a959.jpg

in this shot you can see how much material came off

http://s17.photobucket.com/user/2004turbo/media/20131016_212302_zps19d010c2.jpg.html?sort=3&o=8


http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b54/2004turbo/20131016_212247_zps60583da9.jpg

#6

yes

#7

Try going with a more aggressive pad. I replaced the rotors and pads that came with the kit thinking they were warped. the brand new set also gave me issues until I did a very aggressive bed in procedure. 3rd gear 10-15 90-30 hard braking (roll onto the brake) and after that they were much better. I’m going to get these rebuilt and probable powdercoated and then I’m getting a more aggressive pad to prevent the pad deposits getting to that point again. IMO the pads that stoptech pushes for these are garbage.

#8

I have very similar results with my st40 332 kit for the B5. My front vibrates horribly. Rebedding process did nothing with street pads. I have a set of race pads and was told to swap them in to rebed and issue should be solved. We’ll see. I hope it does help solve the issue and extend the use of the discs rather than replace unnecessarily before they really needed to be.

#9

Looks like my theory is sound. Are they on your DD or a track car? I went with what was reccomended because I didn’t want to sacrafice initial bite too much but if I have to bed my rotors every 10-15k it’s not worth it to me.

#10

I didn’t have deposit problems with Carbotech pads.

#11

I have heard a lot of problems with stoptech through my local tuner, Streamline. They will only run Brembos on their track/race cars now

#12

Mine are all weekend warriors and/or daily driven. Rotated regularly. No dedicated track car(s)…

#13

The Stoptech pads are garbage. Glad to see I’m not the only one who dislikes them. Can’t wait to get rid of them. Planning to replace them with with the Carbotech XP8s up front and AX6s in the rear.

#14

Salt and rust are nasty stuff.

Stoptech does not have the same durability standards as Audi for their caliper housing and internals.

I would never recommend nor buy buy an aftermarket BBK if I lived on the east coast.

#15

Yea I think I’m going to get these rebuilt, repaired, and probably refinshed and ride it out for the enxt few years before I sell the car. TBH though for the money we pay for these they should be able to withstand the conditions. I would think that most BBk buyers don’t get them for track duty.

#16

Wow I’m so happy running across this thread. I have the same exact situation as you guyd explained with my ST60. I thought I was going crazy. I also got it second hand but been getting the same vibration issues others described. Been thinking it was worn/warped rotors and pads. I hear clicking noises from my right caliper after my last bear mt and since then my pedal feels null, usually after spirited drives.

#17

a few things to check:

check for hub assembly runout before rotors are installed

check for rotor runout after installed and bolted to hub assy.

drive car for maybe a mile or three… minimal braking, try to use transmission to slow vehicle, borrow infrared laser temp gun, point at rotor surfaces to see if front rotors are the same temp. drive car and apply brakes and check temps. After both tests, If one rotor temp is higher, then a pad dragging on the rotor. if no pulsation/runout on the rotor, then caliper may be hanging up on the slides, or pistons are failing to retract. If pistons are failing to rectract, it could be piston sticking in the caliper, or a brake hose failing to release the pressure, like a check valve. brake hoses can do this. it’s rare, but they can. hope it helps

#18

I dropped off the calipers a few days ago to get rebuilt. Likely going to rebuild, possible all new hardware as they use bare aluminum on hardware also, and a fresh powdercoat. Not sure if I’ll be selling them right away or throwing them on again. Anyone want to chime in on that rotor? I’m not sure if the heat that it saw weakened it or not.