I finished putting new rotors and pads in the car yesterday, and later that night i drove the car to properly bed the brakes. During one of the cool down periods i inspected the brakes with a little flashlight, and there was a little bit of smoke/steam coming from the caliper area. I'm thinking its just from maybe me not cleaning the rotor's properly pre-installation, or possibly they got dirty while putting them on, or maybe its from a top layer coating on the pads. i'm just wondering if this has happened to anyone else or if this is normal. My setup is Autozone blanks and Cobalt Friction GT Sports, with ATE Super Blue brake fluid.

Ali

 

The purpose of bedding the pads is two-fold:
1) Wear the surface of the pads and rotors
2) Bake the VOCs out of the pads.

What you saw is normal. When I bedded my pads with 10 stops from 60MPH, smoke was rolling from the brakes.

 

Thanks, i got all worried thinking i did something wrong. So it will probably take a few braking phases to stop smoking and to fully remove the VOC's. By the way what is VOC's.

Ali

 

VOC = Volatile Organic Compound

These are in the pad binder material and on the backing plates (paint, etc.).