JNguyen_TTS09

I recently purchased an '09 TTs and the front brakes are making a squealing noise when stopping at low speeds. I also recently noticed a sort of squealing or whining noise when reversing slowly, but only for a moment. My uncle who is a mechanic said the front brake pads are looking a little worn, my question here is what brake pads do you guys recommend? I've been looking at Hawk and Akebono and they're both honestly good prices for performance brake pads. Still, I'd like some input from you guys!

Vegas-roadster

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JNguyen_TTS09

Where do you recommend buying them from? I was looking at them on placeforbrakes.com

Vegas-roadster

Tire Rack, RockAuto, eBay, etc. Buying pads is pretty safe. You need to be more careful choosing a vendor for rotors as some sell cheap Chinese junk.

Jose Santos

When buying these brake pads. Would you recommend buying the rotors as well?

Vegas-roadster

You do not need to do rotors. In fact, Audi does not recommend even turning the rotors after installing new pads. You need to do the math and figure out if the remaining rotor metal will last the life of the new pads.

I've just gone through the search on various forums for pads & rotors for mine. You will get as many opinions as there are posters on pads. I used Mintex reds on my first Mk 1 and liked them. Low dust, no squeal, initial bite was the same as OEM. Based on rave reviews on several TT forums I tried Hawk HPS on my second Mk 1. Low dust & no squeal but the initial bite when the brakes were cold was scary bad - like no brakes. Worked fine after warm up. So every time I came off an expressway after a long drive I had to apply my brakes early to heat them up.

Attributes of pads are low dust, good initial bite, no noise, long life. Usually you can only get 2 or 3 of those 4.

I only ever changed the brakes once on each of my TTs because the OEM last about 65K and I usually sell at 90K miles. When I change the pads I change the rotors too to change the look. I went with cross-drilled Zimmermans on my Mk 1 because I like the look. Folks will say that cross drilled are prone to crack but there are a lot of high performance cars being sold with cross-drilled as OEM. If you track your car and buy cheap rotors I'd worry about cross-drill cracking.

I'm going all EBC this time. Red Stuff pads and slotted and dimpled rotors (again for the look). Whatever rotors you buy, make sure they come with an anti-rust coating of some sort. EBC is coated all black, including the unused rotor areas and not just the hub. Once I decided, I shopped RockAuto, and many other parts suppliers. Amazon always came up the cheapest. For my 2011 the front pads were $90 (make sure the pads you select include the wear sensor) and rears were $80. The front rotors were $190 and a friend gave me the EBC rear rotors. Free shipping from Amazon too.

TT4LEE

I replaced my OEM pads with Hawk Ceramic (good - no dust, plenty of stopping power), I painted my calipers with epoxy paint, but I kept my stock rotors with 85,000km as they had lots of life left (thickness). Some days I regret not replacing the rotors as they look a bit old (10 y old), but they work fine.