Unfortunately, I managed to warp a set of brand new Brembo Sport discs (my fault, didn't bed them in properly) so I ordered some replacements.

They arrived today, so I decided to fit them tonight with the aid of my long-suffering son/mechanic, Matthew (he owed me, as we spent all of last night trying [and failing] to get his Mk1 Golf running)

Anyway, we opened the door to the carport at 19:55 and I'm typing this at 20:45 - and that includes the getting the tools and trolley jack out, putting tools away, cleaning up, washing hands and finishing the cup of tea.

I reckon there was actually less than thirty minutes actual work on the car

Chuffed

Excuse my ignorance but, how do they warp so quick?
I know you said not bedding them in properly, but what did you do, just use them too hard?

I used them without bedding them in (difficult in snow and ice)

This caused an uneven deposit of pad material into the disc's surface

When I then got round to bedding them in, there were sections of the disc with more pad material than others - when I put some proper heat into them, the "sticky" bits of the disc will have got hotter than the rest - disc warps

I've just got back from bedding the new discs - 30 stops of around 3 seconds, with cooling time inbetween - should be ready for some hard use now

You have to realise that Nigel only does

(a) warp speed
(b) stopped

Getting from one to the other requires serious braking effort.

Shouldn't (a) be warping speed?

Impressive though, thirty minutes!

But considering how many times your car has had new discs and pads it must be a breeze to have them off and on!

I'll admit to driving fairly quickly when the mood takes me, but a lot of my miles are in commuting traffic or on the motorway

However, I've just had a quick mental calculation and I reckon that across my two Coupes, I've had something in the region of a dozen sets of front discs and 25 pairs of front pads

The longest I've had discs was DBA 4000 - about 24,000 miles

The shortest has been a pair of Tarox discs - <100 miles

The longest-served pads were Pagid Yellows - 12,000 miles

The best pads were Red Dot race pads, but they only lasted 1500 miles

The worst pads were Mintex 1144s, which I boiled (yes, boiled the pad material) while bedding in, just five miles after fitting them

Sadly, I needed to repeat my fast brake disc swap, as the latest pair warped within a few days

this time (again with the help of Matthew) it took just 22 minutes to take off the old discs and fit the new - this was one wheel at a time and having to turn the car round inbetween doing each side

I really need to find some standard-size two-piece discs...

is this a design flaw with the break design? I have had a hole hoast of other cars, none warped disks like my coupes have

is there anything that can be done to just stop it?

What brand of brakes have failed this time Nigel.

Seems a bit strange that you can get through discs so quickly - unless you have been on a track then failures like this should not really happen?

Steve

I think i'll be giving those discs a miss!

Matt, has your car failed "again"?

No it hasn't YET. I've decided to bite the bullet and throw a bit more cash at it, so it's getting some work done on it next week. Hopefully we can sort it.

Back on topic - is this another pair of brembo sport max discs?

Assume they are the Brembo Sport discs he referred to as replacements in the OP?

Can't help but think there must be an underlying problem if brakes are failing in such spectacularly short periods of use.

New sets of discs at c.£200 per go is bad news.

I cant understand why you haven't upgraded - the Alfa GTA calipers being the obvious choice.

Do they fit the coupe matt?

Why would doing that solve a warping problem?

With 17"s and Nigel has 17" wheels

Straight swap if you have 17's. 330mm discs so they'd need to work a bit less hard. Sparco has two-piece discs for them so they'd be available from somewhere.

I need to be able to fit standard wheels occasionally (I have a set that I use for TOTB and trackdays)

besides, if I can source some reliable two-piece discs that are a straight swap for the standard 305mm jobbies, I reckon I'll be able to do a decent group buy

Yes - they were another set of Brembo Sport discs

I was sure I'd bedded the first set in properly, but I accepted that I might have got it wrong. CBP were kind enough to replace the discs at no cost (other than shipping the duff ones back to them). I made double-sure that I bedded the replacement discs in perfectly and I also was stupidly careful about not coming to a stop with warm discs (to the point of cheesing off other road users when coming up to roundabouts and traffic lights, by crawling up to the back of the queue, trying not to stop at all)

However, after just three days use, I could feel the tell-tale on/off/on/off sensation when braking gently. This has got gradually worse over the last week, to the point where I now get serious steering wheel judder when braking from speed.

I've fitted a re-ground set of DBA Wiper Slots for now, but they won't last more than a few thousand miles, so I'm going to have to sort a more durable solution

there is one more solution - we could commission a run of DBA discs - I reckon we would need about fifty buyers for them to tool up a production run.

Personally, I don't see it happening, and I'm not putting up ten grand of my own cash to hold them in stock

Have you checked with Matty that Wallace Performance dont have any sets of DBA discs for the coupe kicking about?

I'll give them a call

They only have the non heat treated versions left.

I'm with Nigel, they want a concrete order of 50 units to produce a batch but cant see it happening. Shame cos they are phenominal discs. I couldn't even get the paint to change colour purposefully caning it down the Alps to see how hot they got!

Nigel, did you regrind the inside edge? Mine have plenty depth of grooves on the outer edge but smooth on the inner side!

Nigel, i have the Brembo sport discs and think mine have warped aswell.

I havent done many miles on them and bedded them in correctly but im still getting brake judder through the peddle and steering.
Maybe there is a design fault with them, i will have to speak to CBP and see what they think.

Perhaps they have had a dodgy batch and refunds are in order.

I have just put these discs on, although don't feel any judder yet, but would be very interested to hear what CBP say....please keep us informed.

Thanks.

By the way, I've had two pairs of these discs, both have ended up with pulsing under slow braking and juddering at higher speeds.

I too would be interested to see what they say.

I'm now trying a different set of discs.

I've spoken with CBP today and bought the last remaining set of DBA 9-groove discs (the non heat treated versions)

he didn't mention that other owners had reported problems with the Brembos - this probably explains why he didn't sound too surprised

I've also asked Steve to find out the costs of commissioning a special run of DBA4000 discs just for us

I have to say though - despite the issues, I still think the service we get from CBP is just brilliant and I'd really like to find a way of continuing the forum's great relationship with them

I spoke to CBP today about the disc warping, they said they would have to send them off for inspection and this would take around two weeks and i would have to pay postage.

I told them i couldnt be without the car for that long and they said the only way round it was to buy another set of discs off them and they would refund me if my current discs were found to be faulty.

I havent got the money to buy another set of discs at the moment and cant be without the car for two weeks, so im stuck!
They did say it could be pad surface transfer onto the disc making it feel like disc warp, but ive tried the bedding in process again but no joy.