Brake pads- A cautionary tale

[phil-m]

As part of the brake system overaul I am doing I decided to clean up the calipers and check the pads. The pads in the car were purchased and fitted around 18 months ago and the car has done probably 5K miles since. I was fairly shocked that the backing pads had disbonded from the pad and even more troubling was that the pads were very brittle and broke up with very little effort when pulling them out. Looking at the pad material it seems fairly loosely compacted together, they came from a well known specialist. I have fitted EBC 'Green stuff' pads, they are the same as those on Jaguars and Astons of the period, the material looks a lot more dense and the backing is rivetted and has two ears to aid removal all in all a lot more confidence inspiring.