Poor Brakes

[Verne]

I have a '98 A6 2.8 and to say the brakes are disappointing, is an understatement.

The brakes on my old BMW 525 Touring were always great and in comparison the brakes on the Audi are awful, is this normal.

With it being a big car, there have been times that I have been braking heavily and thought that they weren't going to stop me, despite fitting new discs & pads last October.
I have a constant problem with squealing brakes, despite having changed the pads since October and I have refitted them on more than one occasion. I sometimes have a strong smell of friction material too.

My initial thoughts would normally be the quality of the parts, but they are the same make that I have been using for about 4 years, on both my old BMW and my Honda Prelude.

Any ideas, is there a common problem with sticky Audi calipers/sliders

TIA

 

[enda1]

Have you changed the brake fluid recently.

 

[Verne]

No, that's something I'm thinking of doing, but don't want to do it only to find I have to open the system afterwards to recondition a caliper or two.

I asked questions first, as I know from my envolvement in the Honda Prelude club, that the rear calipers sticking is a common problem and wanted to check there wasn't a similar problem on the A6

 

[enda1]

If you change the rear pads you'll know if they are sticking if the dont wind back in. The other thing is the brake hoses are they expanding under pressure. This is usually an MOT failure and would be spotted there but something to look out for.
Some copperslip on the back of the pad will help get rid of the break squeal plus a good clan of the calipers to make sure the sliding pins aren't dirty/sticking