I needed to replace the rear rotors on my 03 MCS, so I figured I would replace the front rotors at the same time along with new brake pads all around. I bought TSW carbon rotors and Pagid red brake pads, both front and rear, from Bavauto. Once the rotors and pads were replaced I took the car out to establish a wear pattern as suggested by the manufacturer(Texas Speed Works) of the rotors. I did a series of brakes from 60-10mph 10 times. They recommended to do that at least twice if not three or four times, with letting the brakes cool between sets of ten. I was on 5 or 6 of my second set of 10 brakes and the brakes started making a horrible grinding noise. When I got home I looked at the front brakes and noticed the pads had worn down to metal!! I have never heard of this happening before. Anyone else ever heard of this?

 

Got Pics? Without seeing the pics, it's hard to say if it was/is a pad failure or not. Sounds like it might be. Was it just one pad of all of them?

 

It was both the front pads. Try this link for pics. Let me know if it doesn't work.

 

Sorry. http://picasaweb.google.com/mrkollar/BrakePads

 

Thanks for the pics. I have sold dozens of TSW Rotors and have never been told, nor have I told, any of my customers to establish a wear pattern. When I sell the CT pads, often with TSW Rotors, the CT pads come with a "Bed-In" drive with only 3, 60-30 stops, then cool down.

The TSW rotors are also very cool/cold running rotors and take much more braking then most to get hot. Pads however do not take much to get hot.

I think you may have over heated the pads, that may have caused them to glaze, which may have caused them to desegregate. Since many companies want to transfer heat from the pad to the rotor, you may find some pads don't work well with the TSW rotors. Could have also just been a bad set of pads. I would email the pics to retailer then call them and hope they can help you.

Just my 3 cents.

Any pics of the rotors?

 

Just found this site, http://www.braketechnology.com/techinfo.html

There I found this,
"PAGID Racing Brake Pad Bedding
See brake pad bedding procedure

If pads do not get bedded properly and / or used to hard right out of the box will likely lead to pad glazing. Pad glazing is a condition where the resins in the pad crystallize on both, the pad friction surface and the brake disc surface, resulting in poor stopping performance, brake judder and vibrations.

Also rapidly escaping volatile elements and moisture from the resin would seek an immediate escape route out of the friction compound, creating small fissures that would lead shortly to cracking and chunking."

 

I uploaded pics of the rotors and a scan of the TSW instructions on "bedding in". Just click the same link as before.

 

Update. I have talked to Matt, aka weezerfan, and TSW.
My Bad, There is a sheet about bedding in the rotors.

After TSW looked at the pics called me and I talked to Matt, I think there were a few factors that caused the pads to melt away.

The TSW rotors can/will be turned ONE MIL and used with a new set of pads that Bavauto is sending to Matt.

Lessons learned, always use anti-sez on all brake parts with metal on metal and yield to the Pads bed-in notes. We think the pads jammed in the caliper and cause the pads to stick and begin the slow burn to metal.

I look forward to Matt's report after the turn and new pads are installed.

 

Don't forget to give the calipers a good inspection. May have melted the piston boot necessitating a rebuild.

I'd flush the fluid as well.

 

The pics look like only IB pads. Were the OB pads burnt out as well?
Looks like thermal shear of the friction material. Also, the insulators shouldn't be peeling up on the sides like that.

 

Yeah, the OB pads were just as bad. I have resolved the situation though. Turns out those brake pads had different bedding instructions. Lesson learned.