[s-cars] Cold start issue, brake fade

[Mark Rivera]

First thing in the morning when I start my 93 S4, it wants to die.
Sometimes it does, sometimes it just stumbles badly until I blip the
throttle.  After the revs get up to about 1500, it clears up.  The only
other thing I notice when it's cold is a pretty deep bog between shifts just
after letting the clutch back in.  This carries on for the first minute or
so.  This happens when I go out for lunch as well, but the stalling only
happens when it's dead cold in the morning.  Ideas???  FWIW, the car runs
very strong when it's warm.

I flushed and bled the brakes last night, and while it firmed up the pedal a
little, it's still softer than I'd like.  I'll probably invest in some
braided lines soon.  I took the car for a spin after I was done, and tried
some heavy braking from about 80-45mph.  After about 3-4 applications like
that, the brakes were fading really bad.  My foot was almost to the floor, I
was almost out of my seat standing on the pedal, and could not get the ABS
to activate.  Matter of fact I've never had the ABS step in yet, and I
haven't locked a wheel yet either.  I cruised for about 5 minutes to cool
things down, tried again, and most of the braking had returned.  I know the
brakes are sorta weak on these cars, but I didn't know it could be this bad.
I don't wanna pony up for a caliper/rotor upgrade just yet, but would like
some pad suggestions to replace what I think are stock pads with wear
sensors.

Thanks,
Mark