fast road brake pads on a xantia

citrov6 · Post by **citrov6** » 24 Jan 2010, 19:21

Put these on about a month ago, black diamond predator fast road pads and thought I would just comment on them for anyone considering them.

Firstly I was prompted by a lot of brake fade on track days to think about giving them ago since the xantia is a fairly heavy car and border line enough power to warrant these pads.

At motorway speeds they are very good a tap on them works ok to lower speed slightly. Hitting the brake harder prompting hard mode brings speed down quite linearly right to stopping I guess by the time I had stopped with the old brakes I would still of been doing 20mph or so.

Low speeds not so good, or quite scarey if in soft mode, pressing the brake all the way down gently and remaining in soft mode there is almost no effect on speed, had a fright first time I went out like that. In hard mode they stop the car very well at low speed also.

This is making me look for a solution that will switch the car into hard mode by speed <50mph or on closed throttle might be simpler to get a signal from.

To conclude, when they are working they are great, when in its soft mode not so great. Wish I could be more enthusiastic but it scares me to death too often, probably switch back to normal pads soon.

Sid_the_Squid · Post by **Sid_the_Squid** » 24 Jan 2010, 21:13

Interesting post citrov6, I too am currently using Diamond fast street pads in my V6.
I've noticed when cold i.e. first thing in the morning their not so good, have to warm them up for 1/2 a mile or so before gaining full effectiveness.

Thing is my break system is not 100% correct, the rear pads squeal a lot and I think one front caliper is not pulling at maximum power. Hard to tell during my normal driving really, its only when I get a free weekend for a good blast do I notices such things.

Never noticed a difference between soft and hard mode effecting the breaks, but then 90% of the time I drive relaxed commuting to always soft mode, I'll try different modes see if that makes a difference on my car.

What I have seen with these pads is as you say, under lots of hard breaking when driving with spirit there is a lot less fade than stock pads. Can't say the breaks have ever not worked, apart from being slightly less effective when cold. Are you sure there is not air in your breaks system?

AndersDK · Post by **AndersDK** » 24 Jan 2010, 22:25

IMHO you should never, ever fiddle with the brakes setup.

If you change to performance parts I'd highly recommand you do so with matching parts on both pads and discs.
Never, ever do a mix and then expect business as usual.

citrov6 · Post by **citrov6** » 25 Jan 2010, 06:13

Could be air in the lines I'll have to bleed them. Could be that the alloys I have on them now have a lot of gaps and cool them back down again very fast, not sure, I will check though now that you mention yours are ok

They work well with standard discs because they are used on the road you want atleast one part of the system, the discs or pads to retain some heat because in reality there would never be hard enough braking casually to make them work if they were both racing material. As it is they do make braking more predictable when hot