Discussion: Bed Your Brakes After Delivery!?

[tbolts10]

This is a good call. I’ve done this 30+ times with racing pads and the process and philosophy is essentially the same.

You want the pads to mate to the rotors and this takes SIGNIFICANT pressure and heat to actually apply a layer of pad to the rotor.

Find a completely empty road:

Do about a hard (and I mean f-ing hard, but not locking up) brake application from about 60mph to 20mph, then speed back up to 60 and repeat this about 8more times.

Do NOT come to a complete stop again until you drive for several minutes to cool the rotors. Then bobs your uncle.

This is my preferred method as well. 60-20 until I get that wonderful waft of burning pad. Then good to go for forever.

The 6 pot Brembo's are super solid brakes after broken in properly. I hope Rivian takes care of this in the future.

And for those wondering if this is the norm - no - i've bought 20+ new cars and never had to bed pads in myself. I've only had to do this when upgrading brakes myself.

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[madgrey]

The last Wilwood swap I did recommended a progressive bedding (start with less pressure and work your way up to high). Also, let things cool a bit in between.

I was a bit surprised to have to do this with the Rivian. I've only had to do this when swapping rotors, pads or both, never with a new car.

 

[Dark-Fx]

This is my preferred method as well. 60-20 until I get that wonderful waft of burning pad. Then good to go for forever.

The 6 pot Brembo's are super solid brakes after broken in properly. I hope Rivian takes care of this in the future.

And for those wondering if this is the norm - no - i've bought 20+ new cars and never had to bed pads in myself. I've only had to do this when upgrading brakes myself.

How many EVs though? The brakes on my Bolt ended up being hot garbage every few months stint if I didn't do at least one or two hard stops a month. Not a huge deal when Regen is available, but in an emergency, it might not be.

 

[SANZC02]

I have never heard of having to do this on any new car. Ever.

That is because you stop the car with the brakes and most of the initial stops are at lower speeds with less pressure. This is not the case with an EV capable of 1 pedal driving.

It is more important on the Rivian because for normal stopping you are using regen so odds are when you use the brakes it will be for a harder stop.

Kind of surprised there is no mention of this in the manual or it is not part of their process driving it off the line into the parking lot.

 

[tbolts10]

How many EVs though? The brakes on my Bolt ended up being hot garbage every few months stint if I didn't do at least one or two hard stops a month. Not a huge deal when Regen is available, but in an emergency, it might not be.

1 Model 3 and 2 Model Y's - didn't experience any issues with those.

 

[lefkonj]

In 34 years of driving I have never heard of this process once. Not on a simple Mazda, Audi S3, BMW, Infiniti, Acura, nothing. I understand what you are saying but just would never imagine this is something you have to do on a new car and dealers would tell you to do this prior to doing any amount of driving.

 

[Singletracker]

Speaking of brakes - correct me if I’m wrong, but I always assumed that, while the Rivian uses regeneration to slow the vehicle, it also automatically uses the brakes, as needed, for that final stop or for a more aggressive stops. If this is the case, it’s not like the brakes on an EV are never getting used. The vehicle’s computers are managing their application. Like I said, maybe I got this wrong.

 

[Dark-Fx]

1 Model 3 and 2 Model Y's - didn't experience any issues with those.

Didn't Telsa just implement blended brakes recently? Bolts are Regen only until you hit the power limit, then blend mechanical brakes in. Regardless of if you are in one pedal or not.

 

[Dark-Fx]

Speaking of brakes - correct me if I’m wrong, but I always assumed that, while the Rivian uses regeneration to slow the vehicle, it also automatically uses the brakes, as needed, for that final stop or for a more aggressive stops. If this is the case, it’s not like the brakes on an EV are never getting used. The vehicle’s computers are managing their application. Like I said, maybe I got this wrong.

Rivian uses the mechanical brakes at the very end but doesn't do it to actually slow the vehicle down.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

Usually in an ICE car you have those brakes broken in on the drive home. It's not a problem because you use the brakes often as that's the only way to stop. The problem is when you don't need to use the brakes for your average trip. I can drive 30-40 mile legs driving around town and not need the friction brakes. Now you get to that emergency stopping situation and your brakes aren't broken in so they don't work as intended.

EDIT: for those asking why to do this procedure.

 

[madgrey]

^^ makes sense. Just part of the overall "break in" procedure for a new car. Some have very specific recommendations (mostly about engine revs).

 

[ironpig]

I've definitely heard of people doing this for race cars or older vehicles. Never on an EV with regenerative braking.

I rarely use the brake pedal compared to an ICE vehicle.

 

[Zoidz]

For those interested in specific examples, here's links to Pagid (a performance brake manufacturer) bedding procedures for street and racing pads. You can see just a bit of difference in the procedure, lol. I used Pagid performance street pads on my SCCA Autocross BMW E36 325i. Great product if you want performance pads.

 

[Tanquen]

I've had a number of new vehicles over the years and never had this issue. The truck is probably the heaviest vehicle but the brakes do seem inadequate or not configured correctly, maybe?

At relatively slow speeds coming to a stoplight you almost feel like you're not going to stop.

With the cold weather, it's kind of dangerous as there's a large difference in the stopping behavior. There is a small warning on the screen that I've barely noticed telling you that it's too cold for the region. Okay, but there's also zero breaking when you let off the accelerator and it's been an unpleasant surprise the first couple of times it happened. I was looking through the settings to make sure the regen was on and then I saw the message saying that it was too cold to charge the battery with Regen.

 

[Dark-Fx]

I've had a number of new vehicles over the years and never had this issue. The truck is probably the heaviest vehicle but the brakes do seem inadequate or not configured correctly, maybe?

At relatively slow speeds coming to a stoplight you almost feel like you're not going to stop.

With the cold weather, it's kind of dangerous as there's a large difference in the stopping behavior. There is a small warning on the screen that I've barely noticed telling you that it's too cold for the region. Okay, but there's also zero breaking when you let off the accelerator and it's been an unpleasant surprise the first couple of times it happened. I was looking through the settings to make sure the regen was on and then I saw the message saying that it was too cold to charge the battery with Regen.

There's another warning on the screen when you make the turn at a much higher speed than intended because regen didn't slow you down as much as anticipated. I tried to take a photo of it but it disappeared quickly and didn't feel like trying again just to do it. It's different than the others because it popped up on the left side of the driver's screen.

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