2008 T2: Low dust front pad recommendations w/o the lecture?!?!

The type of vehicle or driving style really is irrelevant. Here's a "basic" breakdown of why this type of setup has its advantages...


When you apply the brakes, your two pads are pushed towards the flat surface of the rotor. This friction is what slows the vehicle down, which is what you want. But, the faster you are moving and the harder you press, more friction is created but only to a certain point. There is a point where the heat building up from the friction actually pushes the pads away from the rotor surface from gas pressures and heat. Clearly, this is making your braking efforts less effective.

When you have a drilled/slotted rotor, you have a couple different actions playing into your braking benefit. One, you are eliminating the gas-generated gap between the pad and rotor by allowing the gasses to pass through to the inside of the rotor and vent outwards. You are also getting a cooler surface temperature on the rotor itself, because it is able to expel the excess heat building up.

As far as the lines go, you have to picture your brake line as if it were a balloon. When you blow into the balloon, that extra pressure causes the the balloon to expand into a ball. The idea is to get all that pressure out the other end of the balloon. Now picture trying to blow that same balloon up, but cover it with a steel blanket. The balloon will not expand into a ball.

When you have steel braided lines, the pressure that your brake fluid is generating makes its way fully to the caliper, rather than having residual pressure loss due to the line expanding from a regular rubber line.


Now I've had all kinds of brake setup on my various Audis. I've gone with larger rotors with OEM type pads... I've done expensive pads on OEM rotors... I've done $2000+ "Big Brake" kits... The best bang for the buck really is the combination of a good quality pad with a drilled/slotted rotor AND steel braided lines.

I think the people that make those comments haven't actually tried these types of combinations. I have tried them all, like I listed before. If I had to pick the setup that generated the most brake dust, it was the "Big Brake" setup I had on my B7 A4. It was an 8 piston brake caliper with 356mm rotors. I was running Pagid and Hawk pads with the setup, over the years. It didn't matter if I was at the track, commuting on the freeway, or basic daily driving around town. Once a week, my wheels were covered in dust.

I've never had any issues with drilled/slotted rotors eating pads up. Its an urban myth. The only thing I've seen eat pads up are caliper guide pins that are all dried up. Every time I take a caliper off, I lube the guide pins. If you stay on top of that basic service, you should never have uneven pad wear.

My wife has a Mercedes CLK350. The oem setup left the wheels filthy. Since I switched to the drilled/slotted setup and new pads, they are clean.

My Touareg... I drive like my B5 S4... like an idiot at times. But, even though its this big heavy pig of a vehicle, I have far more confidence in its braking abilities now that I have the setup that I have. Any, to your interest, 0 brake dust issues.