Installed the Mintex in the fronts. Turns out that the rears I was sent were wrong. The rear pads for Quattro and fwd are different.<p>Anyway, after 5 days, my front wheels are cleaner than my rear wheels! Braking power seems on par with stock. I'll need more driving to really be able to compare.<p>By now, my front wheels would have been covered with black dust. However, with the Mintex, they are still bright silver. This is the best upgrade I've done so far for the money. Highly recommended. <p>For any of you Northeast folks, Andrew at Camra will have the Mintex pads available at the event, and Direct Tire can install same day! We already have 4 or 5 people interested, so it looks as though same day installation will be available on that Sunday.<p>Mike<p>P.S. No, I do not get any "commission"...I'm just a happy customer. In fact, I paid $120 at Direct Tire to get them installed! Who knows, maybe the show price will be less!

Do the Mintex brake pads require some special installation procedure...or a mod to the brakes? Normally, brake pads are *very* easy to replace, although I have not yet tried on my A4...<p>- Josh <br>- '98 A4q 2.8<br>- '72 911T

I wrote this up a while back:<p>Replaced my pads @ 30,000 miles with Rofren's front and rear. Front was a piece of cake, nothing special there. Just make sure you use a little anti-squeal on the back of the pads before putting everything back together. <p>The rears were another story. Since I had 30k on the clock, the piston needed to be retracted a lot due to pad wear. According to the FAQ, you can use needle-nose pliers to turn the piston. This wasn't cutting it for me. The pliers would slip and it was very difficult to apply much pressure using this method. I ended up giving up on the rears that day. I went out to Pep Boys and purchased a universal rear caliper tool made by Lisle, it cost $10. On one of the faces of the tool (the tool is shaped like a cube) I ground away two of the nubs leaving two nubs which interfaced with the two slots on the piston exactly. The tool then attaches to a socket wrench entension and you turn and push to retract the caliper. My right rear went in after quite a bit of turning. But my left rear was a bit more stubborn. I got out my largest c-clamp and used that to press on the piston a bit. Then I took it off and used the tool again, then back to the c-clamp. After a few back-and-forth sessions between the c-clamp and the Lisle tool I had the piston retracted. <p>That's about all I can think of....I was pretty happy to finally have mine done and I'm proud to say it was my first ever brake job...a very satisfying feeling!<p>Andy Hedin<br>'97 A4 1.8Tqms, Wett 1.0 Bar, ABT Filter, Euro Headlights...<br>

The C-Techs would be great for the track... They need a warm up for them to work optimally. The Red Box is a great compromise between track and street use.<p>Cris<br>