After putting over 120K kilometers (70K miles) on my '09 R3, my dealer installed new brake pads, This is at least the second time new front pads have gone on (I track my car a number of times each year), but this latest set of pads is producing brake squeal whenever I'm braking lightly at low speeds.

But brake squeal is not the point of this thread. My R3 is the first car I've owned in over 15 years that I did not convert to aftermarket brake rotors and pads (which says something about how happy I am with the car). Because I've left the car stock, I relied on my Mazda dealership for all the routine maintenance. It was only recently that it dawned on me that there was no mention of having to go through a brake bedding in procedure when my new pads were installed.

Every aftermarket brake pad I've ever bought in the past (Hawk, EBC, MS) included specific instructions about how to bed in the new brakes. However, the dealership service reps never say a word about bedding in new brakes. So, are OEM brakes engineered so they don't need bedding in (catering to the "average" Mazda driver) or are we not properly starting off the service life of our Mazda brakes by not bedding in?

 

Knowing that the dealer put new pads on your car and knowledge you already have about bedding the pads,you should know the routine (just saying)

 

This. Ive installed almost every brand of aftermarket brake components designed for the passenger car/ non performance demographic. From Wagner, Beck Arnley, Centric, Zimmerman... and so on. None of them have a bed in or break in procedure.

Heres an interesting article about the difference between brake pads.

Brake Pad Comparisons - OEM Brake Pads versus Aftermarket Brake Pads

Its a bit of a sales pitch because they are trying to sell a product, but if you look through the mesh, the info is somewhat good.

 

For street pads...bedding in isn't a huge issue......most pad compounds will bed in naturally with normal driving

Track pads also will bed in naturally at the track....usually you heat them up good on a few easy out laps and then let them cooloff...and they are good. Not like the old compounds of yesteryear than had more involved black magic to get the most out of them

 

Have always bedded in pads and will continue to...
I wonder why manufactures say 'avoid hard stops for the first few hundred miles'

 

Another thing to note that I have never seen on any other car.

My car had its brakes replaced last at the dealer using OEM parts, the pads were not tapered on the ends. Every brake job I have ever done pads where always tapered when I got them to help stop brake squek.

My brakes squek at every stop no matter my speed even after several attempt to bed them
Dissapointed

 

the only time you NEED to bed in brakes is if you get the mythical "warped rotors"...pulsating in the braking
or if you get new rotors for some reason...that way you get a good even brake deposit on the new rotors

 

Here's a very informative post about Brake FAQ.

 

Pad Bedding In
Most companies will include proper bedding technique in the instructions, and they more or less follow a similar procedure. As soon as the brake pads are installed, proceed to do some low speed braking, typically from 40mph to a slow roll to bring the brakes up to normal operating temperatures. Find yourself a place where you can do uninterupted sequential hard braking events. Do a set of 4 to 5, 70mph to 20mph, hard braking events followed by a 10-15 minute rolling cool down period. All of this is done Without coming to a complete stop. Braking should be hard but not hard enough to lock the wheels or set off the ABS. The brakes should be brought up to the upper thermal range of the pads. Bedding in the pads correctly does a few things: 1. Gets rid of green fade caused by outgassing of organic binders in the pad; 2. The primary purpose of bedding pads is to lay down an even layer of pad material on the rotor face to facilitate adherent friction. Everybody should find a place where there is a stretch of road with little or no traffic that they can safely get up to at least 60mph and do the above procedures including a 10 minute cooldown period afterwards WITHOUT COMING TO A COMPLETE STOP.


I don't know how many times we had to de-glaze pads from owners who don't bed-in from new.

 

That has been my routine as well. Avoiding full stops that require constant braking and that about it.

I've come to the conclusion that the OEM Mazda pads aren't great. Big surprise.