At service yesterday, I complained to Clair about my three bad experiences with sudden brake failure in the rain. The technician replaced my rear rotors and pads, which was very nice but certainly won't solve the problem, and noted that reduced braking is normal in the wet. I insisted that the brake failures I had experienced were NOT normal, but were more like complete brake failure for several seconds, which could be deadly at highway speeds.

I took my complaint to the service manager, who is a great guy. He questioned me in detail about my experiences and seemed to take my concerns seriously. He said I was the first Clair customer to complain about this and that he knew of no documentation of or solution for this problem. He said he would bring my case to Audi's attention at this next meeting with them.

I strongly suggest that everyone who has experienced the wet braking failure to:

1) Complain loudly to your dealer and insist that they record your complaint in your service record. Maybe Audi will take notice if dealers start reporting that customers are documenting safety problems in writing that could potentially lead to lawsuits in the event of accidents caused by brake failures.

2) Submit a complaint to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Be very specific so they understand that this is not normal wet braking force reduction. Also, be clear that you have attempted to get help from your dealer with no luck. And tell your dealer, as I did, that you are making a formal complaint to NHTSA.<ul><li><a href="http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/ivoq/default.htm">NHTSA complaint form</a></li></ul>

Not the first time this has been brought up. From a very cursory check of the archives, it looks like most wet braking problems are being experienced by '99 MY and earlier cars. Anybody having similar problems with the 99.5s?

Jack Martin
99.5 1.8 Avant TQMS

actually, there is noticable decline in braking on my 99.5 1.8tqms, but havent had an actual failure

Push the pedal and nothing! Get nervous, let off and try again, and it eventually grabs. Shew! Not safe at all. I've been afraid to just keep pressure on them and see if it eventually catches. No car should do that. Especially a German one.

I am pretty sure it states in the Y2K manual that on a wet day you need to step on the brakes lightly at least once to air them out? It definitely makes mention of doing something on wet days to effectively brake better. I guess AOA is aware of the situation, but I still think that they need a permanent fix for something that could be as potentially dangerous as not braking effectively.

As I've said before, I drove the length of the NJ Turnpike (and other roads, a total of almost 4 hours of driving) smack dab in the middle of Hurricane Floyd -- some of the heaviest rain I've ever driven in, with nearly 28 years of driving experience -- and never experienced a loss of braking power. Not just wet roads and heavy rain either; I'm talking about driving through rivers of water running across roads, huge ponds of water, etc. I don't doubt that others have experienced braking problems as they've described, but since it hasn't happened to me in the worst of conditions the whole thing is a mystery to me. I should add, being in my A4 that day, I never felt safer and more in control in such weather.

Rick
99.5 A4 1.8QMS

Lets hope its not dejavue all over again.

The problem is... no rotor shields on the fronts

First time you hit the brakes in the wet, the brakes don;t grab, until the water is stripped off.

.

Was late for a party and my inlaws hate it when we show up late. It was raining real hard but I felt confident on the highway with the Quattro and was bragging to the wife how cool this car is in the rain. Went to exit and hit the brakes...nothing happened for a couple of seconds. Yikes, shook me up a bit but there was nobody in front of me and the A4 handled the corner (a little faster than I wanted).

That was the only time in the 4 months but as they say once is enough.

If this is the fix I'm stumped as Mintex is the factory material except it's the US spec material while the Red Box is what the Euro A4's have on them and is completely different pad material.

One thing that I noticed that may lend itself to what A4's experince the "Wet Brake Syndrone" and others don't.....

When I applied my brakes with the factory pads, I heard a slight grinding/rubbing noise of the pads against the rotors. That disappeared with the Red Box material.

It would be nice to hear from others if they hear that same noise and experience the sudden brake loss. One other item, my loss of braking was pronounced in very cold (30's) wet weather. Salt, especially the new liquid type, probably has an effect with this situation also...

I have noticed the same sound that you speak of with my '99 A4QMS. It is quite noticable at very slow speeds, where there is little road noise to mask it. It sounds almost the same as the noise produced when the brakes are firs applied after the brake disks have rusted when a car has been idle for some time.

On the other hand I have not noticed the degradation of braking that many others have reported here. However, I have not driven my A4 in a lot of heavy rain. The car is pretty much of a "garage queen". (only 6M miles since taking delivery on 12/7/99)

I have, however, owned a vehicle which had a similar wet braking problem. I owned a 1966 Shelby GT-350 that came equipped with large disk brakes (front) and drum brakes (rear) from the full-sized Ford station wagon. Both braking systems were equipped with near-racing grade friction material (pads/shoes) When driving in very wet conditions, the first time the brakes were applied there was very little braking action for what seemed like several seconds, but in reality was probably much less. This seemed to be caused by the friction material being made to withstand heavy brake use and needed to be hot to become really effective. When the vehicle was driven in very wet conditions, the water spraying from the tires cooled the brakes even more than usual, requiring more time after application before they reached proper operating temperatures. They simply did not slow the car very well when really cold.

Could this same phenomenon be at work here?

. . . familiar with delayed braking in the rain but it never happened in my 99.5 with stock pads and no noise either. Maybe there's dirt/sand in your area?