Originally Posted By: Nick1994
Originally Posted By: ShotGun429
172K on original front brakes?...... wow what am i doing wrong.?
And it has a TON of traffic miles! It's a TDI with a strange DSG auto transmission, it downshifts like crazy so you don't need to touch the brakes much.
2004 TDI Beetle with DSG? I do not think so, it is regular ZF automatic.
This is a first time I hear that someone made so many miles with rear pads on VW. Could be a little bit due to the fact that Beetle is lighter then Passat that year (same pads in the rear).
However, in my vocabulary when it comes to pads for regular cars (not Ferrari) it goes like this:
- More dust, more braking power
- Long lasting pad=less braking power.
Akebono pads are pretty popular, if you really do not care about true potential of your braking system. VW uses several suppliers, top notch being Pagid, ATE. However, for some markets they do deliver TRW pads (U.S.) that have less power but also less dust then European versions of the same car (since from what I figured, for most American drivers dust is bigger issue then braking).
So you can go with Akebono Euro. I treid them when I had some issue with some noise, and wanted to see whether it is due to too aggressive pad/rotor combination. Decent pad, however, probably of all pads I have ever tried, the worst braking power.
So, if dust is your imperative, then try Akebono Euro.
If you want to address dust but keep that European brake feeling, I would go with EBC Red stuff.