glazed brake pads

[kartone]

On my mazda 2 the front brake pads are glazed.
Is there an alternative to changing the pads to a more suitable compound ?
Can they be "refaced" ?

[Duk]

Easy fix is to give them a good hard stop (or 2 or 3) from highway speed. Obviously use your head as to where and when you do it 

[Neil Choi]

Don't you just take the pads out and rub them with some emery paper, just enough to roughen them up.

[colcol]

When you reface glazed brake pads, you have to do it properly, no half baked measures such as rubbing them on emery cloth and the like, as messing with brake pads the wrong way could get you into a big accident, the proven way is to do what thousands of racers do and motor racing teams do, but you will never see them do it, take out brake pads, find some flat concrete or flat bitumin, with a rough consistancy and rub brake pads in a figure 8 with your hands until all the glaze is gone and the shine is all dissapeared and the finish is all dull, to achieve this you may have to try different types of concrete, note, rub the side that has the softer material, not the steel side as this will not improve the braking performance, if sparks appear, you are rubbing too fast or the wrong side, some of the places to avoid deglazing your brake pads include ANYPLACE at home as this will get you into lots of trouble with your superiors, ideal places include anywhere at work, the people next door you don't like, their front footpath,[when they are not there], and all racetracks, particulary Winton as this will upset Mick, which always makes for a better day, Colin.

[Al Campbell]

Not meaning to criticize, but wouldn't grinding on bitumen introduce the chance of contamination with oil residue, given that one of it's main constituents is tar or oil? Especially if it's not that old.

Al.

[MD]

colcol

..I need to view your posts with more care,  I haven't noticed your sense of humour before  

[Brad M]

colcol

..I need to view your posts with more care,  I haven't noticed your sense of humour before  

He's getting better with age

[kartone]

... since the main reason to get rid of the glazing is to stop the brakes from squeling, a bit of oil residue wouldn't hurt

[colcol]

Seriously, thats how you deglaze brake pads, i could machine them flat at work, but then i would end up with my lungs full of dust, you won't get them perfectly flat on some concrete, but i bet your rotors aren't perfect either, Colin.

[Neil Choi]

Colin, would you recommend deglazing with a good red and then reduce down to a jus.

Or use a white?

[Al Campbell]

... since the main reason to get rid of the glazing is to stop the brakes from squeling, a bit of oil residue wouldn't hurt

Which is apparently why the rear axle seals feed gear oil directly to the discs. Must fix that.