targa todd

Hi Guys, I need a little help here with an 08 RS4.

Does anyone have experience with installation of Hawk performance ceramic brake pads (HB609Z.572)? I chose these to balance dust and perfomance. My car is a daily driver and not tracked.

I have my car in the shop for pads and rotors and the tech is telling me the wear sensor on these pads is in the wrong place and it "will get cut off" when going in the caliper.

I called both ECS Tuning and Hawk directly and they tell me that they have sold plenty of these pads and have had no issues - the sensor wire should slide right through the caliper. These pads are specific to the car they tell me. I'm not experienced in changing pads so I'm caught in the middle of this with no personal experience.

See the attached pic from the installer showing the new pad with the OEM pad and the difference in the sensor wire location.

Should this be an issue?

Thanks.

gibsonl

Not an issue, just plug it in. Or do as I do and remove the wire altogether!

targa todd

Thanks. So my preference would be to keep the sensors. When you remove them, do you close the circuit on the plug so the idiot light on the dash isn't perpetually on?

Reggie

If you cut the wires one has to short out the connector that goes to the car to keep the wear light out.
I went with Centric to keep the dust down.

gibsonl

You can also just remove the wear light through vagcom if you have the cord and software

targa todd

Problem solved. I reordered the pads and had them sent overnight. Second set worked fine. Turns out the wrong pads were in the box with the first set - despite the box having the correct part number.

I'm up and running again. New brakes, new tires, refinished wheels - and my wallet is a lot lighter!

Coupon

Did you have ceramic pads on before? I switched from a semi-metallic to a ceramic on my last car and it tore up the rotors beyond repair. I was told you are supposed to turn the rotors before switching compounds as the rotors become 'impregnated' with the the brake pad compound.

....Then the Audi dealer told me the tolerance for the rotors on the RS4 makes it so they cannot be turned. Anyone else come across this?

targa todd

The dealer told me the same thing. I replaced the rotors at the same time as putting on the ceramic pads.

ELEVENS

There's not much "meat" on the rotors to allow turning them on a brake rotor lathe before the minimum thickness is reached. Another approach (for about the same cost) is to have a machine shop use a surface grinder (normally used to reface flywheels). It does a honey of a job and leaves a nice cross-hatched surface just like a brand new rotor comes with. It should take care of any pad build-up.