automatic on-car brake rotor skimming... :)

[gerard@dockside.co.za]

Hi!

Apologies for wasting bandwidth with silly crud.

I've decided to perform an experiment with my Audi 200.
Well, it was infact the cars idea (its name is Goddammit,
by the way). It would seem that it has decided to lose
all the pad surface on the front left rotor. This has been
on the cards for many months and especially the last 3-4
weeks (after I managed to overinflate my tyres to 320kPa!).
Had massive groaning and grinding noises which I thought
was either suspension, steering or brakes. Major shake
in the steering (has been for many many months). Then last
week I get a "clonk" from the front of the car (same "clonk"
was heard 6 months ago after shocks were worked on). Now
the 200 has severe metal scraping noises. I just knew the
pad was finished completely. New brakes were shipped
last week from The Parts Connection (2-3 week delivery),
gonna start sourcing new front-end brakes and paints.
Scraping is most wonderful when putting 2mm of pedal
travel on at speeds below 30km/h. :)

Anyway, how long does one think the disc will be there? I
give it a week. Experiment is in progress. Seems pad is
in permanent contact with disc, I get train-going-round-
corner-rail sound when passing alongside a wall without
using the brakes. On inspection the disc has become
severely grooved with black grooves all over the surface.
Nice touch is the flaking and chipping on the edge of
the rotor and the tonnes of shiny lovely metal filings all
over my now-not-coated-in-brake-dust-anymore BBS RZ
rims. :)

On the up side of all of this, I think I've used my
super-duper scientific reasoning to believe that the
groaning was from the brakes and not mostly the suspension
and steering. :) Ain't I just brilliant. :) Also,
steering lightness has come back and responsiveness of
motor has improved a bit. The shaking in the steering is
gone ... follows, I guess ... shaking from brakes, brakes
gone, therefore shaking gone ... sheesh! those 4 years at
university are finally paying off. :)

This car is just too much fun for me. :)

Oh, BTW, as far as I'm concerned, Ferodo brake pads suck.
And listers were right: Gabriel shocks suck as well! Mine
lasted a week and my brother just told me another guy's
also didn't live for longer than a week. Perhaps Monroe
Sens-A-Trac is the next bet, no?

I will most likely not be patenting this on-car rotor
skimming device.

Still busy getting the Merc diesel ready to run. Need
one more bottle of diesel gum and goo eater.

Crud speaking mode off.

G.

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