SeattleiteA6
10-02-2020, 01:27 PM
Hey AZ - we all love our C7's however one thing I have never loved is the amount of dust and noise our OEM brakes produce. I was due for a rear brake change (don't think the rotors had ever been done, certainly not in my 2.5 yrs of ownership) so just decided to do all 4 corners and try and solve the dust/noise issue once and for all. Thought I'd do a little write-up of my experience. Not doing a step by step on the brake job as there are many resources already for that, but just wanted to hit on some things I came across that could help others when they tackle the job.
I wanted to go to a slotted/drilled rotor, mostly for cosmetic reasons as I don't run my S6 very hard, but loved the drilled look on my old B8 RS5's rotors. After searching around I found there really aren't many options out there especially for the front 400mm rotors, but came across the brakeperformance.com set. I posted in another thread about these BP drilled/slotted rotors and a couple of people scoffed and noted that they were probably garbage since they weren't true 2-piece floating and OEM/Zimmerman branded. While that's true, I can say that they look to be of pretty high quality, G3500 steel (not quite top shelf, but very good quality), with an aluminum hat and vanes. Fit was 100% perfect and so far after bedding and a hundred miles or so of driving, I think they'll do just fine. And they look great to boot.
Had a hell of a time with the DIY at the start, being my first time doing the S6 brakes. Getting the caliper carrier bolts off was the first challenge, man they are on there tight. I could reach one with the impact socket, but the other was too tight. Did a few rounds of WD40 and tapping the socket wrench with a hammer to loosen them and finally got them off - makes it really tough when the car is only up on jack stands and you can't get a good angle for some leverage on those bolts. Finally got them off and it was relatively smooth sailing from there getting the pads swapped out and such. Just used a large C-clamp to compress the pistons and I decided to take take the pads off without removing the pins as I saw many others do. However I found it to be a bit of a pain to get the new pad angled just right such that you could slip it under the spring's lip and onto the pins, so when I do it again I will probably just remove the pins as well. Goes without saying that you should always clean and grease the new pins really good prior to sliding the new pads in. I read a lot of conflicting things about the little circular piston dampeners/shims and whether they can be reused, needed to be replaced, or weren't needed at all. I ended up cleaning and reusing them, putting a little brakequiet goop where the shim will strike the pads on the backing plate. So far so good, but we'll see if that causes any negative effects - from what I understand they're cosmetic and supposed to help with vibration or noise?
Onto the rotors now. I found that the shop that put the front rotors on before I bought the car must have used a power driver or something on the set screws that hold the rotors in place; both sides were completely stripped to where I thought it was a hex head! So had to carefully extract that screw and go to the nearby Audi dealer and pick up some replacements before I could move forward. Upon looking at the new screws I picked up, I'll caution others that the torx head is very shallow on these screws making them very susceptible to stripping. And they only need to be a turn or two past hand tightened so definitely don't use a power tool on them. They are really only there so that the rotor doesn't come clattering off when you remove the caliper. Which reminds me - my rotors were STUCK like no other. Had to borrow my buddies puller tool to get them off and man they came off with some force! I'd just plan on needing a puller tool for this job, as you'd really have to bang the hell out of the rotors to get them off, and the dust shield really gets in the way.
Rears were a bit easier, save for the caliper carrier bolts which again were a pain to get off. Really tight back there with the lower control arm getting in the way of putting the wrench in a good spot for some leverage. Couldn't get the impact socket on either of those bolts, so that took some time to get them off. Rear pad swaps are a snap, I just cleaned and re-used the little metal clips since my pads didn't come with any.
For pads I went with the Powerstop Z16's which came recommended by several AZers on some brake pad threads. Some guys go with the Z26 which is the 'sport' version of the pad, I elected for the Z16 'street' version, hoping it would be even better for dust and noise. After bedding and the several miles of normal driving so far, I really like the feel of them. Not as much initial bite as OEM but after 20 miles of driving I was totally used to them. Jury's still out on dust and noise since that can sometimes take a bit to set in, but first impressions are great with this pad.
So overall the brakes were a bit of a pain in spots and the job took longer than it probably should have, but like always if I had to do it again I could probably do it in 3/4's the time or less. Finished product looks great and braking is smooth and silent!
Finally, since I had the car up off all fours I decided to give the OEM BO Rotor wheels a refresh. I like the anthracite color but wanted to get the polished lip knocked out since it doesn't go with the rest of my black/gray color scheme. I have a fair amount of experience with plastidip on other cars and projects, so thought I'd give it a shot! Went with their Anthracite color and pretty happy with the results. I could write a whole DIY thread on the wheels and how to get plastidip to actually look GOOD with a smooth satin finish, instead of orange peeley and matte which many dipped wheels look like. But to sum it up the key is threefold: 1) clean the wheels very very good, kinda obvious but super important for a good finish; 2) keep the dip warm at all times while spraying; 3) lay it down THICK for coats 2-4 after the first tacky thin coat. I use my wife's little electric neck and shoulder warming blanket to keep the cans warm while in between coats and it works way better than using hot water I've found. Anyway, the end result is what looks like a powdercoated satin finish from the naked eye, IMO. I showed them to a few buddies in person and they thought they were painted or powdercoated at first.
Let me know if you have any questions about any of this if anyone is about to undertake brakes or dipping their wheels. Or if you have other tips to add if you've already done this work I'd love to see what else is out there. Who knows, I could end up hating the pads or rotors and be right back to a DIY brake job haha. I'll jump on to Tapatalk now and add some pics.
I wanted to go to a slotted/drilled rotor, mostly for cosmetic reasons as I don't run my S6 very hard, but loved the drilled look on my old B8 RS5's rotors. After searching around I found there really aren't many options out there especially for the front 400mm rotors, but came across the brakeperformance.com set. I posted in another thread about these BP drilled/slotted rotors and a couple of people scoffed and noted that they were probably garbage since they weren't true 2-piece floating and OEM/Zimmerman branded. While that's true, I can say that they look to be of pretty high quality, G3500 steel (not quite top shelf, but very good quality), with an aluminum hat and vanes. Fit was 100% perfect and so far after bedding and a hundred miles or so of driving, I think they'll do just fine. And they look great to boot.
Had a hell of a time with the DIY at the start, being my first time doing the S6 brakes. Getting the caliper carrier bolts off was the first challenge, man they are on there tight. I could reach one with the impact socket, but the other was too tight. Did a few rounds of WD40 and tapping the socket wrench with a hammer to loosen them and finally got them off - makes it really tough when the car is only up on jack stands and you can't get a good angle for some leverage on those bolts. Finally got them off and it was relatively smooth sailing from there getting the pads swapped out and such. Just used a large C-clamp to compress the pistons and I decided to take take the pads off without removing the pins as I saw many others do. However I found it to be a bit of a pain to get the new pad angled just right such that you could slip it under the spring's lip and onto the pins, so when I do it again I will probably just remove the pins as well. Goes without saying that you should always clean and grease the new pins really good prior to sliding the new pads in. I read a lot of conflicting things about the little circular piston dampeners/shims and whether they can be reused, needed to be replaced, or weren't needed at all. I ended up cleaning and reusing them, putting a little brakequiet goop where the shim will strike the pads on the backing plate. So far so good, but we'll see if that causes any negative effects - from what I understand they're cosmetic and supposed to help with vibration or noise?
Onto the rotors now. I found that the shop that put the front rotors on before I bought the car must have used a power driver or something on the set screws that hold the rotors in place; both sides were completely stripped to where I thought it was a hex head! So had to carefully extract that screw and go to the nearby Audi dealer and pick up some replacements before I could move forward. Upon looking at the new screws I picked up, I'll caution others that the torx head is very shallow on these screws making them very susceptible to stripping. And they only need to be a turn or two past hand tightened so definitely don't use a power tool on them. They are really only there so that the rotor doesn't come clattering off when you remove the caliper. Which reminds me - my rotors were STUCK like no other. Had to borrow my buddies puller tool to get them off and man they came off with some force! I'd just plan on needing a puller tool for this job, as you'd really have to bang the hell out of the rotors to get them off, and the dust shield really gets in the way.
Rears were a bit easier, save for the caliper carrier bolts which again were a pain to get off. Really tight back there with the lower control arm getting in the way of putting the wrench in a good spot for some leverage. Couldn't get the impact socket on either of those bolts, so that took some time to get them off. Rear pad swaps are a snap, I just cleaned and re-used the little metal clips since my pads didn't come with any.
For pads I went with the Powerstop Z16's which came recommended by several AZers on some brake pad threads. Some guys go with the Z26 which is the 'sport' version of the pad, I elected for the Z16 'street' version, hoping it would be even better for dust and noise. After bedding and the several miles of normal driving so far, I really like the feel of them. Not as much initial bite as OEM but after 20 miles of driving I was totally used to them. Jury's still out on dust and noise since that can sometimes take a bit to set in, but first impressions are great with this pad.
So overall the brakes were a bit of a pain in spots and the job took longer than it probably should have, but like always if I had to do it again I could probably do it in 3/4's the time or less. Finished product looks great and braking is smooth and silent!
Finally, since I had the car up off all fours I decided to give the OEM BO Rotor wheels a refresh. I like the anthracite color but wanted to get the polished lip knocked out since it doesn't go with the rest of my black/gray color scheme. I have a fair amount of experience with plastidip on other cars and projects, so thought I'd give it a shot! Went with their Anthracite color and pretty happy with the results. I could write a whole DIY thread on the wheels and how to get plastidip to actually look GOOD with a smooth satin finish, instead of orange peeley and matte which many dipped wheels look like. But to sum it up the key is threefold: 1) clean the wheels very very good, kinda obvious but super important for a good finish; 2) keep the dip warm at all times while spraying; 3) lay it down THICK for coats 2-4 after the first tacky thin coat. I use my wife's little electric neck and shoulder warming blanket to keep the cans warm while in between coats and it works way better than using hot water I've found. Anyway, the end result is what looks like a powdercoated satin finish from the naked eye, IMO. I showed them to a few buddies in person and they thought they were painted or powdercoated at first.
Let me know if you have any questions about any of this if anyone is about to undertake brakes or dipping their wheels. Or if you have other tips to add if you've already done this work I'd love to see what else is out there. Who knows, I could end up hating the pads or rotors and be right back to a DIY brake job haha. I'll jump on to Tapatalk now and add some pics.