So I put a set of these on my 2005 STR with 14K miles and now I have 39K miles on it.

The pads are not worn out by any measure.

The rotors have some wear but are well within spec and can be turned.

But I had a vibration stopping hard from speed and so I took a look at my fronts last week while I was doing the oil/change/fuel filter change.

My LF rotor has a couple of ridges on the inside but other than that the other rotor surfaces look fine.

So I think I'm going to dress the pads, surface at least the front rotors, haven't looked at the rears as yet, and see if that clears up the slight vibration and less than smooth stops.

That's one thing, these pads seem to delivery a somewhat gritty feeling and noisy stop.

Anyone else have some issues with these pads on the Brembo equipped STR's?

 

Did you turn or replace the rotors when the pads were first installed?

I have over 60K miles on my Akebono pads on my 2005 STR. I cut the rotors when they were installed and I still have no shudder and everything is smooth. I had a front tire replaced several weeks ago and gave them a good look see.
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No they were almost like new at the time and these issues took quite some time to develop. I figured it was due to some buildup on the rotor surfaces but this was unexpected.

I'm just surprised that they are ridges and not grooves.

 

I've had some noise issues but still would not go back to the standard "dirty" pads. Love having clean wheels!

 

+1 on clean wheels!
Vector

 

Oh absolutely on the clean wheels. The stock pads grip more aggressively which is very annoying but I don't know if that translates into shorter distances.

But the somewhat gritty feel and noise took quite a while to show up.

I'll have them both turned and see how it goes.


The factory procedure is to replace the caliper bolts and NOT resutilize them correct?

 

It's more than likely that your rotors simply have some pad material adhering to the braking surface. Turning them on a lathe is probably unnecessary- every corner garage has a kit consisting of a rotary disk and abrasive pads that fit a drill to take care of it.

 

Yes, you're supposed to replace the bolts. I did when I changed the discs (rotors) and pads but I'd already bought the bolts. I actually don't see a reason to replace if you instead put new locktite (sp?) (er, thread lock compound) on the bolts. The brand new bolts come preloaded with it.

Any chance the vibration is a sticking piston?

 

I also reused the bolts after cleaning the old thread locker off. Installed them with new thread locker and proper torque.

Not sure what you guys use but the stick is beyond easy to use and no mess!!

Loctite Blue Stick Threadlocker - Medium Strength - 1/4" - 3/4" Nuts/Bolts - 0.32-Oz Stick Loctite Tools LT37643
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Er, the factory locker is red.

That said, chances of the bolts backing out looks slim and in any case I check at least annually when I do a service - most time being spent looking, poking & pulling at everything and a small amount on changing oil etc.

 

All the bolts I have pulled have a blue residue on them. I would definitely NOT use red thread locking compound.

If you have every tried to get bolts out it requires a good bit of heat. That's the last thing I would do to my brake calipers is put a torch to them!
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I needed no heat. Despite everything else on the car being rusty (it's normal, here), these were (zinc?) coated bolts without rust. Both old and new bolts had red locking compound.

 

Bear in mind that different markets or brands may use different colors to designate the grade of thread locker compound.

For the Loctite brand most commonly used in North America, blue is the removable fastener type, and red is the permanent type. The red states on the packaging that it is intended for things like permanently installed studs, bearing races, etc. and will require heat application for removal. I have successfully used the red Loctite to repair a stripped out crank thread that I never had the intention of removing again.

 

How silly!

 

+1

Red is over doing it. I use a lot of the various Henkle products on my vintage cars and track car.

So as far as anyone knows there's no other reason to not clean the bolts and threads in the receiving fixture (plenty forget about that!) up then use the bolts again?

The paste form in a tube is sort of nice but the truth is that so much gets wasted either way when you use the stuff. The stuff goes bad in the tube with time so wasting a bit probably isn't worth worrying about.

There are two distinct ridges on the backside of one the rotors so turning is in order here otherwise I would try and see if a bit of buildup is the cause. It may be both ...

The braking system will get flushed again as it did when I put the pads on and then we'll see how it functions. The fluid has not languished in there since 2005.

If there's still a vibration I'll look into the calipers.

 

I'm rather surprised that Jaguar stock and supply different caliper mounting bolts here and in the USA. That would also mean different part numbers and I don't see signs of those. Most odd.

Regardless, use whatever lock compound feels right for your area.