feb 47 Posted April 18, 2006 had a knocking noise from the front yesterday specially when braking, as if the pad was loose in the caliper. i removed the wheel and i saw the track rod end ball joint split so i took the car to a garage; i got a call from them today that my front pads were broken!! i will post a pic later after i get the car back, how the hell has this happened? pads were M1144 btw. anyone experienced this before? will try ferodo DS2500, hope to have mroe luck. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PUGugly 0 Posted April 18, 2006 Yeah under heavy driving conditions it is possible to 'kill' brake pads quite quickly. As you know you gets what you pay for when it comes to car parts and decent brake pads are no different. Saying that tho even the best pads can let you down, it's very hard to produce perfect parts every time and manufacturer defects can cause this. My guess is you have a combanation of dodgy pads and a very heavy right foot (or left one depending on your driving style!!!!) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jonah 1 Posted April 18, 2006 Depends what you mean by broken. I've had plenty of 1144's with big cracks in the friction material, but it's never come off the backing plate and I think it's very very unlikely that the backing plate itself could break. After a lot of heavy braking I find that the friction surface of the inner pad goes slightly concave, this can only be due to the backing plate flexing under the force of the piston (which only pushes on the middle of the plate), so I suspect it's this flexing that causes them to crack. 1144's also seem to go off badly with age, I haven't noticed this on the car itself but I've had a couple of used sets sat around in the shed for a year or two and they seem to be absorbing moisture and corroding... once this happens the material literally crumbles away. So if yours are getting on a bit and have been left in damp conditions for any length of time then this could be part of it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jonD6B 0 Posted April 18, 2006 I've had a relatively new set of Mintex pads fall apart before also, however, bizzarly they were on the rear. As said they seem to crack through possible strain and as these ones had quite a wide groove through them and the friction material crumbled away from the centre. I've avoided Mintex since then but many people on here swear by them. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tom_m 0 Posted April 18, 2006 I've had a relatively new set of Mintex pads fall apart before also, however, bizzarly they were on the rear. As said they seem to crack through possible strain and as these ones had quite a wide groove through them and the friction material crumbled away from the centre. I've avoided Mintex since then but many people on here swear by them. i've seen friction material crumbling away from the edge of the rear pads before, i took it to be a sign of old age and that the rears don't get so much of a work out as the fronts Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jack biscuit 0 Posted April 18, 2006 only ever destroyed a halford s*ite thing, braking to stop in emergency from over 100mph.. Thankfully it had only exploded in the final couple of moments.. which was exciting. as i had a parked car in front of me..! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rom 0 Posted April 18, 2006 Halfords pads are made by Ferodo iirc Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
smighall 1 Posted April 18, 2006 I've had this on my motorbike, was certainly eye opening. The material went completly missing from the backing plate, meaning i had no front brake! That was on new pads aswell Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
