Hi All
I am new to this forum and have been reading the
brake fade problem with particular interest.
On Sunday 26 of March 2000 I was travelling at
about 140kph on the highway for about half an hour
and it was raining. When the car in front of me suddenly braked. When I braked nothing happened for about one second so I pulled to the left and I clipped my right front with the car in front of me. There was no serious damage apart from me almost having a heart attack and some scratches and a small dent to both cars. Everything has been sorted out now and I will be getting my car back on thursday.
But what can we do before someone gets hurt
and how do we make Audi realise that they have a real problem with the A3.

Joe (2000 Black A3 1.8T)

Hi Joe,

...all we can do is write to Audi in our countries. However, I'm just wondering if writing to our respective countries is enough. Maybe we should be writing to Audi Headquarters in Germany(?).

If nothing happens from writing to Audi. The next step is publicity about the problem. And for me, in the UK, there are a number of magazines and TV "company-shaming" programmes (e.g. Watchdog) that can be written to.

Your experience (or worse) is excactly what all of us here are worried about experiencing ourselves. All I can say is, I'm glad you had a "lucky" escape and lived to tell the tale.

Regards,

Alan
'99.5 A3 1.8T MS Silver

Brake fade is overheating not the lack of temperature in the braking system, which it seems is needed to make cold A3 brakes bite!

But the A3 problem presents to the driver in a similar way - i.e. pedal to the floor = no braking.

"Brake fade" is, I think, the term we are banding about to mean the same thing - although a valuable point is that if folk do write to Audi, we should probably be a lot more careful in our description.

Cheers John

David

Hi Guys

I stay in Port Elizabeth (South Africa) which is
about half an hour from Volkswagen South Africa
Head Office in Uitenhage.I have spoken to my
dealer about the brake problem and he gave me the
usual story that their is no known problem with the A3's brakes but he will try to get more info.
I am not to hopeful of getting anything from the
dealer.

I told a friend of mine that works for VWSA Head Office about the problem.He drives a Golf GTI 1.8T.
He has not experienced the same problem with his car but will test it the next time it rains here.
He is going to try to get me a meeting with the
VWSA Product Manager.I will keep everyone posted.

Joe (Black A3 1.8T 2000)

1) THE MAIN PROBLEM: braking response in wet weather. Which is what I have been posting about.

2) OTHER: brake fade. Usually after near constant heavy/hard use of the brakes. Were the pads and disks get so hot, that their effectiveness is diminished. (I have not experienced this)

Cheers,

Alan.

<p>ravenx
'00 Black S3
http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/audis3

Hi Joe

I also had brake problems with my 2000 A3 1.8T, supplied by Audi South Africa.

It is surprising that Audi/ VWSA consistently told me that they know of no issues with A3 brakes. Given their lack of response, I have initiated legal action.

Please contact me at ohadash@hotmail.com to discuss further.

Thanks

OH