Mintex OE pads..

[Jonny81191]

My brakes were squealing like mad when driving round town (brakes off), so when i was refurbing my wheels, I stripped the pads off for a look.

Note that I didn't fit them all that long ago. Maybe 5 months?
The discs are shot, they've gone all wavy.
The paint on the back of the pads was bubbling up, so I just removed it and put some copper grease on there.
And then I found this.. :S The friction material is coming off on the inboard pads.


IMG_2178 by Jonny_Moore91, on Flickr

So I rang Mintex, told them about the issue etc..

They rang back today and I was given some very helpful information from two of their technical team.. Basically telling me I drive too hard and I've cooked them But interestingly, they don't recommend any sort of performance disk (drilled/grooved Etc..), just that I upgrade the pads (1144's) and new disks.

Now here's the bit I'm concerned about. I don't brake. Not often anyway. Ask people who've been in the car with me, I'm generally a very smooth driver.

Also, I've only experienced a bit of fade twice, once driving in Wales behind a guy who kept randomly hanging up for corners on the passes, I had 3 people and 3 bikes in the car. And the other time when I was really hooning the A82 in Scotland.

So do I get some new disks, 1144's and give it a go, or do I go for something else?

[Curt]

144's are supposed to be very good, so I don't think you can go far wrong. I've got the same as you have on mine, can't say I've had any issues/squealing, but I haven't had them off since I fitted them in May

[Dum-Dum]

Thats really odd, id say it could be more of a manufacturing defect than you driving too hard cos ive had OE mintex in 6 calipers and worn them from new to f*ck all in not a great space of time, repeatedly got them to fade and had sparks comming off them and the pads were fine.

Id deffo go for the 1144s if theyve given you them as a free upgrade as everyone raves about them.

[Jonny81191]

I'm working on the free upgrade bit..

And If you didn't have issues, then that's something. Cos I know you can abuse brakes!

[Rippthrough]

I've had this on a batch of 1144's, there was a bad batch floating around that hadn't quite bonded right.

I'd be pushing for them to send you some free replacements if you don't push the brakes hard tbh.

[Jonny81191]

I will. I can accept that if they had been used "normally" (read "boring") they'd have been fine, but I think I will be asking for a heavy discount on some 1144's or some free disks.