Did your brake pads delaminate? Tell us about it.

We encourage our NRS Shop Talk readers to share with us their stories about brake problems they might have experienced. We are especially interested in complete or partial brake pad delamination where friction separated from the backing plate.

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POSTED BY BikerBill on Do It Yourself forum

For reasons I don’t understand the brake pads delaminate on my Audi A4 after several years use. It happened to the OEM pads and now the replacement Mintex Red Box pads are doing the same thing. The friction material separates from the steel back plate. The friction pad is captive within the caliper cage so the brakes still function, but if you brake going backwards and then brake going forward you can hear a clunk/click as the friction pad moves back and forth and hits against the caliper cage.

I probably have 6 or 7 mm of friction material remaining. So I’m wondering if I can just re-cement the friction material to the metal backer plate again. When I looked at the OEM pads after this happened before it appeared that the original adhesive didn’t fail. Rather, some of the friction material tore out of the body of the friction pad, so I was left with a few divots pulled out of the friction pad (and matching bumps of friction material on the steel back plate).

Does anyone know what kind of structural adhesives are used in brake pads and if it’s available on the open market? Obviously it needs to have high shear strength and good temperature handling capability. I figure if I try this and it fails I’m no worse off than I am right now. The friction pad will still be captive in the caliper cage and I’ll hear the clunk again when braking after changing directions. Then I’ll know my little experiment failed and I’ll have to buy new brake pads. I don’t see much risk in trying this.

Has anyone tried this? How did it work? What adhesive did you use?

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Feel free to post your comments to the above and stories of your own.

Lets eliminate disc brake pad delamination/separation and make brakes safer.