How are brakes bedded in at the factory?

[brages]

I've heard that the reason brakes "warp" is pad deposits and, therefore, you must bed in your brakes after a brake job.

What about new cars? Is there a factory brake bedding going on, or is it just up to the test drivers and/or new owner to drive gently enough to avoid deposits? And do new cars commonly suffer from brake pulsation at low mileages?

I'm skeptical about brake bedding being the cure-all for pedal pulsation...

 

[demarpaint]

Don't believe everything you hear. OE brakes are usually problem free 99.99% of the time when the car rolls off the assembly line, with no bedding. Flame suit on.

 

[Eddie]

My bed-in procedure for all my vehicles. I take the vehicle to ~ 50+ mph and firmly (not aggressive) slow down to 10 mph and repeat 4 to 6 times. Never had a problem doing this way.

 

[Pew]

It's not a cure-all but it does help in a lot of situations. The process behind bedding in new pads and new rotors is for the transfer layer but that's not so critical on a factory street pad as it is on a race pad. The process behind bedding in different pads onto old rotors is to remove the old stuff off the rotor. The old stuff on the rotor could be a different compound and may not be completely and evenly scrubbed off from daily driving. So on brand new factory rotors and pads, they're designed to work without any extra work from you.

 

[TCL]

99 % of them aren't bedded in.
Some performance cars maybe.

 

[Shel_B]

My bed-in procedure for all my vehicles. I take the vehicle to ~ 50+ mph and firmly (not aggressive) slow down to 10 mph and repeat 4 to 6 times. Never had a problem doing this way.

What exactly does that accomplish? How did you arrive at that procedure?

 

[Shel_B]

It's not a cure-all but it does help in a lot of situations. The process behind bedding in new pads and new rotors is for the transfer layer but that's not so critical on a factory street pad as it is on a race pad. The process behind bedding in different pads onto old rotors is to remove the old stuff off the rotor. The old stuff on the rotor could be a different compound and may not be completely and evenly scrubbed off from daily driving. So on brand new factory rotors and pads, they're designed to work without any extra work from you.

Couldn't the rotors just be cleaned in some manner while exchanging the pads? What "old stuff" is on the rotor? Why would bedding in the new brakes do anything more than just driving normally?

 

[Vercingetorix]

You don’t want to know.

 

[Graham Piccinini]

Here is a thread I had on a similar topic.

Bedding in the brakes.

Is this even necessary these days? I have done it for as long as I've been a gearhead. Usually with the following procedure, unless instructed otherwise by the brake pad/rotor manufacturer. - 3-4 hard stops from 45mph to 5mph. - 8-10 hard stops from 60mph to 15mph. - Ride around until brakes...

bobistheoilguy.com

Earlier in life I worked at multiple dealerships, body shops, as well as CarMax. I can't tell you what happens at the factory, but I can tell you that while brand new cars move around the dealership (or between dealerships and/or body shops), with single/double/triple digits on the odometer, these cars definitely get their brakes bedded in. Not my proudest moment, but on evening and night shifts at the dealerships we raced those cars and made the brakes fade and smoke on multiple occasions. Same thing at CarMax, when techs replace the brakes on one of the barely used cars, and then night shift boys & girls had to rearrange the whole parking lot (400-700 cars in a night). Fun days those were. Brakes DEFINITELY got bedded in before the customer gets the vehicle.

P.S. You'd be amazed to know how many brand new cars, with sparkling clean CarFax and ZERO owners, already had a partial or full paint job, often with replacement body panels.

 

[Hall]

How are brakes bedded in at the factory?

They aren't

 

[atikovi]

I remember reading in the owners manual of some 70's car saying to take it easy on braking except in an emergency, for the first 300 miles of the car's life, and whenever the brakes are replaced.

 

[demarpaint]

Here is a thread I had on a similar topic.

Bedding in the brakes.

Is this even necessary these days? I have done it for as long as I've been a gearhead. Usually with the following procedure, unless instructed otherwise by the brake pad/rotor manufacturer. - 3-4 hard stops from 45mph to 5mph. - 8-10 hard stops from 60mph to 15mph. - Ride around until brakes...

bobistheoilguy.com

Earlier in life I worked at multiple dealerships, body shops, as well as CarMax. I can't tell you what happens at the factory, but I can tell you that while brand new cars move around the dealership (or between dealerships and/or body shops), with single digits on the odometer, these cars definitely get their brakes bedded in. Not my proudest moment, but on evening and night shifts at the dealerships we raced those cars and made the brakes fade and smoke on multiple occasions. Same thing at CarMax, when techs replace the brakes on one of the barely used cars, and then night shift boys & girls had to rearrange the whole parking lot. Fun days those were. Brakes DEFINITELY got bedded in before the customer gets the vehicle.

Sounds very familiar. I think it happens at a lot of dealerships.

 

[vavavroom]

At the factory they make sure the pads are properly seated. The maniacs loading and unloading your car do the initial bedding in. Don't worry too much about things outside of your control.

 

[Pew]

Couldn't the rotors just be cleaned in some manner while exchanging the pads? What "old stuff" is on the rotor? Why would bedding in the new brakes do anything more than just driving normally?

Old stuff on the old rotors would be the deposits from the old pad. The compounds could be different if you're not using the same exact pad so if the old pad is harder than the new one, you could end up with uneven deposits left over on the rotor face if reusing rotors and not bedding in. But this is me nitpicking and I wouldn't really think too much of it on a normal car. You could cut the rotors while doing a brake job but then you're at the mercy of the operator.

 

[Nmr1981]

In my 2021 Ascent the manual says to drive easy for the first 1000 miles!! Even then I had to have the rotor’s resurfaced at 9k miles and replaced at 27k due to excessive vibration. The car stops well but they must use marshmallows for brake pads, because the wife drives very easy.

 

[UG_Passat]

What exactly does that accomplish? How did you arrive at that procedure?

1)Finishes curing the resins in the pads
2) for adherent pads, transfers a layer of pad material onto the rotor for optimal performance.

 

[vavavroom]

Why would bedding in the new brakes do anything more than just driving normally?

If you use a bedding-in procedure your brakes will achieve best braking performance much faster than if you bed them in by driving normally. The latter may take hundreds of miles, depending on how often and how hard you brake. I'd rather have my brakes working as well as possible as soon as possible. Bedding-in also prevents glazing which happens easily if people brake very timidly.

 

[Eddie]

Hi ShelB. I used the stated procedure because I had a close friend who serviced disk brakes on airplanes. He suggested it and it has worked on every new vehicle I've owned and every brake job I've done. Mechanics rebuilt brake cylinders etc. instead of just buying new parts. My father and cousin were that type of individuals. I do realize that today getting a rebuilt from wherever is often cheaper than fixing or rebuilding though.

 

[Hall]

In my 2021 Ascent the manual says to drive easy for the first 1000 miles!!

Pretty certain that is for the engine, not the brakes

 

[wag123]

This is "supposed to" be done during PDI at the dealer.