Sorin, the funny thing here is that we are talking about the exact same
hill, I bet.  I drive right past the turn off to your place when I take
that shortcut from my girlfriend's in Forest Hill to downtown.  Down
Clarendon and on down into the Castro....right.  I'm telling you, the
OEM pads took that hill fine...
steve

Sorin Bejenaru wrote:

Message text written by steve schwenk

> >Subject: Brake Fade & Pads
>
> Several months ago, I put new factory rotors and aftermarket pads on
> my
> '90 syncro westfalia. ....  Theshortcut from my girlfriend's house to
> downtown san francisco takes me down some steep hills with stop signs
> along the way.  By the time I get to the bottom, I can smell the
> brakes and they're fading.  This  did not happen before with the OEM
> pads.
>
> Anyone else have similar experiences.  What are the best performing
> pads
> in terms of not fading and still perfrming well?  OEM?
>
> steve
> <

> Sorin wrote:

> I had the same experience with my van.  After replacing the front
> pads, I
> was comming down the same steep hills in San Francisco and by the
> bottom of
> the hill after stopping at 3-4 stop signs the brakes would be smoking
> and
> and intense smell was comming from them.  The rotors would get so hot
> that
> the grease was comming out of the bearings.  The mechanic kept
> insinsting
> that there was nothing wrong with the brakes.
>
> I don't have an outcome to the story as the van sold the next week and
> I
> don't know if the new owner had to change the pads again or not.
>
> Sorin Bejenaru
>
>                   California Campers
>
>         Specializing in VW Westfalia Camper Rentals
>
>          Offices in San Francisco and Los Angleles
>
>                 (415)665-7030  (phone)
>
>                   (818)548-4484 (fax)
>
>             E-mail: CaliforniaCampers@compuserve.com
>
>           Web page: http://www.vanagon.com/rental
>
>                       _===========
>                     //[_]|[__][__] |
>                     || _  vw  _    |
>                     ==(O)------(O)=