Anyone have any suggestions as to how I can increase initial 'bite' and decrease pedal effort when braking? The brakes have excellent stopping power but it requires quite a bit of push. The brake pedal doesn't have a lot of travel and doesn't feel spongey. It's quite hard in fact. Feels like not enough hydraulic assist. The pressure accumulator is new from three years ago. Front brakes are 996 calipers w/ stock Porsche pads (Pagid?) over 323x30 rotors. Rears are urS4 calipers w/stock S4 pads over 280x25 rotors. This has not been a progressive problem - it's kind of always been like this, even with the stock brake set up. Could it be that the MC is worn out? No signs of leaks at all.

On a side note relating to the brakes, during prolonged highway cruising I get a bad intermittent hum/high frequency vibration from the front left while traveling in a straight line. Only comes on after about 45 minutes to an hour on the highway. Never in the city. I can make it go away by touching the brakes or by turning the wheel slightly left or right, but then it reappears a few minutes later. Changing the wheel bearing did not solve the problem. The folks on the S2forum know of this problem and it seems to be quite common for those who have done the 996 upgrade. Anyone here experience this? Any known solutions? Anyone know if this problem is common in Porsches?

CF data is often hard to find, but even with street pads, changing from OEM to a Ferodo DS2500 can increase bite and reduce pedal effort by ~40%. And don't forget to replace the rear pads also.<ul><li><a href="http://forums.audiworld.com/a8/msgs/81590.phtml">10 Pad Comparison</a></li></ul>

I typically prefer a low coefficient pad that has lots of progressive, easy to modulate, action. That to me is one kind of feel, which high CF pads reduce.

The other key element of feel , which Audi's are terrible at, is a firm pedal with lots of modulation feedback. I dont know why they are so bad, but they are.

And its not the brake hoses, btw.

Grant

... very progressive with lots of feedback, but I'd run out of pedal travel before I could activate the ABS system on a clean dry road.

It's been a <a href="http://forums.audiworld.com/a8/msgs/38595.phtml">Long Struggle</a> to firm up the brake pedal, but high CF pads were part of the solution. Today I'd say I have good pedal feel and very easy to modulate brakes, but I still wouldn't mind a firmer pedal. At this point, it'd probably require a larger master cylinder.

This will really help with modulation &amp; feel. It will also stiffen the pedal a bit.

Then I would change pads, &amp; maybe rebuild the calipers or change out the master cylinder.