Elise S3 Brakes

[Trebor_UK]

The brakes on my Elise 240 FE never felt brilliant but at 2.5 years old in the cold and wet did nothing when pressed, a few pumps later and some braking happened. I took it in and the pads (oem from new) were glazed. I replaced them with Pagid RS42 and updated fluid. Difference was night and day. 
Now, a year and maybe 3500 miles on and the pedal feel is a little wooden again (like can brake light or hard but nothing in between) and they are squealing really bad at town driving  speeds and light braking (no squeal if I hit them hard).
Today I stripped the fronts down, both inside pads had the central vent clogged, so cleaned those out, the surface of the pads were given a light sanding and the discs cleaned. Reassembled and a few miles of driving to bed them in, no squeal, then I tried some harder braking and the pedal feel is much better again, seem to be able to control the braking force much better (like when first fitted the RS42s).

I don’t daily the car or do lots of short trips etc; the brakes get a decent workout quite regularly.

Anybody else experienced similar? Maybe just have to get used to doing this each year? Or worth considering a big brake kit??

[mattb130]

I suspect that the road driving even if it’s spirited is still below the threshold for the pads to stay optimal and what you’ve proven is that by deglazing them refitting and bedding them in again has fixed it. A big brake kit is going to increase the thermal capacity of the discs and give a longer pad so more even wear but ultimately if you have a track biased pad this likely to be repeated just with more expensive pads. 
 

The pagid pads don’t just rely on abrasive friction they have an element of adhesive friction which will come into play when the pads are at their operating temperature. 

[Trebor_UK]

Makes sense.

The brakes were fine for normal commute type driving, just the squealing was getting ridiculous. Its only once things got spirited that I felt the brakes lacking.

I'm just going to monitor the situation - if I have to deglaze the pads once/twice a year it's no big deal really.  And a lot cheaper than a big brake kit, which may just suffer the same anyway.

Once the pads are worn and need replacing (likely be a while) l'l have a look around and perhaps try something else.