Hi everyone. I did a really hard stop a few weeks ago on my 18 B9 S4 which seems to have glazed the front pads. Left some rub marks on the rotors as well.. it’s been about 500 miles since that happened, and while I don’t have any vibration when stopping, I do notice a bit of fade now. I have about 6500 miles on the car.. I was thinking of popping out the pads and sanding the surface, which I’ve done before on other cars with success. First time I’ve had an Audi.. Anything I need to be aware of when doing this, or is it pretty much like any other front brake system? Im not even sure this would be a warranty issue or I’d just bring it in to the dealer and have them take a look — but I suspect it wouldn’t be. Would it be better to just slap a new set of pads on?

Thanks
Rick

One hard stop, no matter how hard or fast should not affect an S4s brakes in any way. When you describe fade, do you mean loss of stopping power after multiple hard stops and increasing pedal travel and softness? Or do you mean the brakes just don’t bite as well as they did? I expect the latter and they probably just need bedding by a few hard stops from 60 mph or so to near stopped to get them seated and hot. Then allow them to cool and they will be better.

When the hard stop occurred, I felt the brakes start to fade about midway through the event.. Ever since then applying brake has a similar feel to it. Also both front rotors were marked after that single braking event. It’s been just over 800 miles since then and the rotors still are marked. Attached a pic

They have been overheated based on the appearance of those rotors. The pad material transferred off on to the rotors. They are probably glazed a bit too. The pads could probably be de glazed by sanding them a bit and would be OK. Or they could just be replaced. Hard to imagine this happening in one stop. It must’ve been a doozy! :-)