So a couple of weeks ago I did my brake pads and rotors all around, everything went smoothly, but recently i have noticed that the e-brake will not hold my car from rolling back on a hill like it used to and that the brakes will not jerk you out of your seat like they previously would. I put on hawk hps pads and zimmerman rotors, I don't know if there is a way i could have gotten air in my system or what. Any suggestions on how to fix this would be helpful.

 

I had the same setup on my car ('04 3.0 q). The e-brake holds my car but I noticed the braking power has reduced compare to before. I don't think there are air in the system. It seems just the way it is when having Hawk HPS pads and Zimmerman rotors.

 

That sucks, I read up on brakes before I got them and apparently the Hawks HPS pads were supposed to be pretty good for normal use, and the zimmerman rotors are pretty much the same as the stock ones. It isn't possible that I could have screwed in the cylinders to much in the rear, is it? I figure they will just tighten back up when you hit the brakes after it is all back together.

Something has to be wrong because the e-brake should at least be able to hold my car from rolling back on a hill.

 

After I changed my brakes (2002 1.8T), I definitely had less stopping power. I couldn't even get them to lock up (after sufficient break-in period). I never opened the bleeder valves but decided to have them professionally bled anyway. What a difference! I did the "brake system flush" at one of the chains with 'Brake' in the name and it was less than $50.

 

So you're all saying that it'll take a break in period and everytime you do a brake job you HAVE to bleed the system... Correct?

 

the brake system flush sounds like a good idea, i will try that and let youguys know how it works out for me

 

I finally got that brake flush and it seemed to do the trick. They aren't better (like i was hoping) but they are definatly as good as the old ones were.

 

I can't remember where I saw it (might be the user manual), it recommended to bleed the system every 2 years.

 

I was under the impression that whenever you do your brake jobs, you should bleed the fluid. I think I read this on TireRack.com's installation guide.

 

It depends if you open your system, if you didn't the system should still be pressurized, sometimes when we replace pads fluid needs to come out and that means opeining the system, that's when you bleed your system.