I managed to get my hands on a brand new full set of EBC pads and drilled and grooved disc's for our Multiwagon for £150. I've fitted them and painted the calipers today. Haven't tried them yet as I want to let the caliper paint dry completely over night first.

But, before I do venture out can someone tell me what EBC's "Break-In Coating" does and is there something I should avoid doing or something I should be doing?

Attached a photo of the front pads sittin on one of the rear disc's, "Break-In Coating"?

the break in coat is a special layer that is on the disc side of the pad. it wears off after about 100miles and i am sure its there to give a bit of grip where a normal pad wouldn't. a bit of a gimmick imho.

its so you dont have to avoid heavy braking for first 150 miles like you do when fitting normal brakes, on a road car though you can still avoid heavy braking for a bit

Thanks guys.
I guess I should be alright to drive on the motorway tomorrow night if the coating helps braking after the initial install? Was going to borrow the daughters car if it wasn't.

Lets hope they work as good as they look cuz they look great.

Reconditioned wheels next I think. They need some TLC, my missus loves curbs.

got further away pics? they look like they on the wrong sides

dave said:

got further away pics? they look like they on the wrong sides

Click to expand...

PLEASE dont tell me that. I asked 6 people including the fella I had them off.

"Grooves at the top of the disc point to the front, grooves at the bottom of the disc point to the rear".

Direction of travel(forwards) is shown by the arrows in the pic below.

I would have thought wrong way too. The way they are now, water or dust will be forced along the grooves towards the center of the disc. Outward away from the disc makes more sense to me.

I was told the way I have them aids cooling(tarmac use). Fitting them the other way aids the removal of dirt and debris(off road use).

But the most important thing that governs the direction is the internal vains. They must face the correct way to cool the disc's.

So was I told a load of crap, have I got to change them?

Edit
Just found this(pic below) on another forum, so maybe they were right?

they are back to front

If the discs have angled vents inside between the two friction surfaces, they would act as air scoops whichever way they were mounted.

I'm not saying they should go either way, just looking at it from an engineering point of view and what seems right. I suppose the disc manufacturer's recommendation would be the way to go.

Cant find anything on the manufactures website about direction but have found a few vids and pics via google and they seem to be fitted both ways.

From a looks point of view I have them the wrong way, the other way looks better.

From an engineering point of view(mine. lol) the grooves are there to aid the escape of hot gases and dust. But as the grooves and dimples on some discs dont extend all the way to the outer edge I dont see the direction makes any difference as the dust and gases would be trapped in the groove untill the pad passed over it.

Just checked the the discs there is no direction to the vains inside.
Engineering wise I don't think it make much difference which way they go.
SO its all about the looks.

I'll swop them around in the morning.

they will hold more dust, wear pads quicker and make more noise the way they are. why don't your grooves go to the edge?

edit they do go to the edge, them ones where they don't are made wrong, normally by someone who dont know what they are doing buying £10 disks cutting a few grooves in an selling for £50

Dust and hot gasses are released once the pad passes over the grooves, there is only a small amount so it would never fill up the dimple or groove.

My grooves do, but the other discs he offered me were black in colour and "Dimpled and Grooved". The grooves of those discs did not extend all the way to the outer edge of the disc's so any hot gases or dust would be trapped there untill the pad passed over them.

They were similar to these.

Shadeyman said:

So was I told a load of crap, have I got to change them?

Click to expand...

I wouldn't worry, it's just a normal street car, and you would get different opinions wherever you ask. I flipped a coin...

Here's mine by the way. Notice the rim protector on the tyre? Perfect for wives.

Morty Mort said:

I wouldn't worry, it's just a normal street car, and you would get different opinions wherever you ask. I flipped a coin...

Here's mine by the way. Notice the rim protector on the tyre? Perfect for wives.

Click to expand...

So whats the difference on performance cars?

I'm liking the rim protectors, good idea. But not sure P7's have em, what about GoodYear F1's?

Edit.
Incase anyone is interested. 2 coats of Hammerite Smooth Red is what i used on the calipers and they turned out really nice.
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_categoryId_165495_productId_178347_langId_-1?cm_mmc=Shopping-_-Google%20Product%20Search-_-Body+Repair%2FOther+Paints-_-Hammerite+Smooth+Finish+Red+500ml&source=shopping&istCompanyId=b8708c57-7a02-4cf6-b2c0-dc36b54a327e&istItemId=liixmp&istBid=t

Shadeyman said:

I was told the way I have them aids cooling(tarmac use). Fitting them the other way aids the removal of dirt and debris(off road use).

So was I told a load of crap, have I got to change them?

Edit
Just found this(pic below) on another forum, so maybe they were right?

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, that is indeed "a load of crap" relative to your particular disc design, and they are definitely the wrong way round for your particular groove design/length on a "standard street" vehicle.

If you look closely at the grooves in the "dual alternative fitting" diagram you posted, you'll notice that the grooves run "full length" from outer to inner braking-surface diameter ... in which case the discs COULD be used either way round (ie trailing OR leading outer-edge spiral) depending on your desired goal.


Whereas the actual discs you're using are ONLY "three-quarter length" groove across the braking-surface ... in which case (for a "standard street" vehicle) the normal fitment would be with a trailing outer-edge relative to the direction of travel (ie = the opposite of yours at present).
They are SOMETIMES fitted in a leading-edge-spiral direction of travel, but generally on "street race or semi-race" level vehicles (primarily for DRY conditions) as this way can give better "heavy-dab" faster initial braking for corners/bends ... but at the cost of being less effective in the wet AND needing higher/more-regular groove-cleaning + pad maintenance/replacement.

As your discs are currently fitted, I strongly suspect that you are likely to find your brakes will be quite "snatchy" and potentially considerably less effective than standard discs in wet weather (= or as we in Scotland technically call it ---> "Every Day" ).

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I really would strongly advise that you refit the discs to give a trailing-outer-edge spiral relative to the direction of travel.

Regards
Bob

Shadeyman said:

Attached a photo of the front pads sittin on one of the rear disc's, "Break-In Coating"?

Click to expand...

P.S. ... It's hard to tell from your photo, but going by the colour of the "Brake-In" coating, I just noticed that your pads APPEAR that they MAY be the "EBC Redstuff" version rather than the "EBC Greenstuff" type.

IF so, you may find that the "EBC Redstuff" pad-compund is a mite too hard to be ideal for a typical/normal useage street vehicle, and the "EBC Greenstuff" type might possibly be more suitable for typical useage.

Here's a quick overview of the different EBC types/compounds :-
http://www.buypartsby.co.uk/ebc-brake-pads-final.php?make=Fiat&model=Stilo&sub=&eng=1.9&year=2002

Suicide_Jockey said:

P.S. ... It's hard to tell from your photo, but going by the colour of the "Brake-In" coating, I just noticed that your pads APPEAR that they MAY be the "EBC Redstuff" version rather than the "EBC Greenstuff" type.

IF so, you may find that the "EBC Redstuff" pad-compund is a mite too hard to be ideal for a typical/normal useage street vehicle, and the "EBC Greenstuff" type might possibly be more suitable for typical useage.

Here's a quick overview of the different EBC types/compounds :-
http://www.buypartsby.co.uk/ebc-brake-pads-final.php?make=Fiat&model=Stilo&sub=&eng=1.9&year=2002

Click to expand...

Thanks for your help Bob.
I had planned to swop them around today anyway just because I think they'll look better the other way. I guess I should have asked on here first to confirm their direction before fitting them.

The pads are not Red or Green stuff, they're just the normal replacement ones, top of the list in the link you supplied, black back plate.

bedding in coating is same colour on my greens

i was thinking of fitting grooved dics on mine but some one said that the grooves wear the pad out quicker and create more brake dust around the wheels? is the true? has anyone on here experienced this?