Q: Inner/outer pads and wear sensors with Q5/Macan/Brembo calipers?

[Wuj3888]

An exciting day of deliveries for me - my ECS 345mm 2 part rotors, Macan calipers, Macan cooling ducts, SS brake lines, Hawk HPS 5.0 pads and a litre of fresh fluid all arrived within hours of each other!

I noticed that the pads seem to be identical, except 2 of them have a small clip presumably to hold a wear pad sensor? These are pads for a Subaru STI, which fit these calipers if it matters. Not much choice for Macan/Q5 calipers if you limit your search to 'official' fit pads.

As I'll be removing a very different set of calipers/pads, I won't have anything to reference, so two questions for anyone who had done this upgrade:

1. Are the pads inner/outer specific, and if so, which goes where? There is no indication on the pad/backer of inner/outer.
2. Is it obvious how the wear sensor will work, if it will even work at all? To be honest, last time I did the brakes I can't recall if there even is a wear pad sensor on the front...

Thanks!

James

[KaiPLN]

Sti brake pads don't have provisions for brake wear sensors for your b8.5. Those two metal brackets/clips on your Sti pads are actually wear sensors when the pad gets low enough they rub on the rotor indicating the pad is low.

Audi brake pads come with u shaped cut outs on the top of the pad to put the sensor in. There's one wear sensor on b8 Audis on the drivers side. So you would need to get a connector to close the brake sensor circuit so your dashboard doesn't show low brake pad light.

Pad choice is vast once you look outside Audi or Subaru that use this caliper.(Brembo calls it a F40 caliper)

All of these use the exact same pads: Q5/Macan/TTRS, Viper SRT10, C7 Corvette, STi, Evo, CTS-V (first gen), Camaro SS, Aston martin DB9/V8...and a couple more.

[MSq5]

I bought my replacement rotors from a Brembo authorized company vendor, BremboStoreUSA. I have OEM 345mm rotors and Brembo 4 pot calipers on my 3.0T Q5 front brakes - identical to Macan.

If I recall, both inside and outside pads are identical, fully interchangeable. At least that was how my Brembo ceramic pads came. There is a place on each to clip the wear indicator. Of course, only one indicator per side. I did not recall there being no passenger side sensor, but its been a while since I did the job, so I could be wrong.

[Wuj3888]

Awesome, thanks for the info. The Hawk pads will be for daily driving, I'll be looking for better track pads once the season rolls around. Good to know the list of cars I can look for with the same pad...

I guess I'll be ordering one of ECS's sensor bypass then...

[KaiPLN]

Just twist the wires together on the old sensor plug and put some heat shrink on...easy diy.

[CinCrz]

Just twist the wires together on the old sensor plug and put some heat shrink on...easy diy.

I just tied mine back out of the way. Less permanent.


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[CinCrz]

I bought my replacement rotors from a Brembo authorized company vendor, BremboStoreUSA. I have OEM 345mm rotors and Brembo 4 pot calipers on my 3.0T Q5 front brakes - identical to Macan.

If I recall, both inside and outside pads are identical, fully interchangeable. At least that was how my Brembo ceramic pads came. There is a place on each to clip the wear indicator. Of course, only one indicator per side. I did not recall there being no passenger side sensor, but its been a while since I did the job, so I could be wrong.

Iirc there’s only a sensor on the driver side. How are those brembo pads in regards to dust? I went with akebono pads when I put the macan calipers on my b8.5. They have very little dust but they don’t bite anywhere near as well as the OE pads.


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