Urgent A4 B6 brake problem
 

I am putting this here in the hope of getting a faster response, as I need to drive 160 miles in the car this afternoon.

As you know I recently changed the D3 for a B6 A4 Cabrio, thought it had an oil leak but that is ok now. Instead the smell is of brakes.

So I took a look at the pads through the wheel and saw the below issue with the outer pads on both sides of the car (see picture). I cannot get to the inside pads to check those.

The brakes do work, it drives fine and stops ok but the smell of hot brakes is a pain.

Obviously it needs new pads, discs are almost new (maybe that's a clue).

What would cause the pads to wear like this.

That's normal - the chamfer on the pad is there to stop squealing. It's had new discs and decent quality or OE pads.

Is it a hot friction material smell? Are the discs getting hot unevenly perhaps? Maybe discs and pads were changed but there's a sticky caliper?

It could just be volatile chemicals from manufacture burning off if the brakes are so new they haven't been heat cycled.

The smell is a bit like that from a track day, after you've done a few laps of the track.

The longest distance I've driven the car is about 25 miles and the brakes have not been smoking. The calipers maybe sticking on the sliders possibly if that is how the pads look when new.

I am not sure, hard to tell from picture but to me it looks like it's not just normal chamfer. It looks like pad is heavily worn on the outer diameter but almost new on the inner side but could be optical illusion.

Edit

It probably is normal when you think about it, just looks a bit odd in the picture

That definitely sounds like a sticky caliper then. I'd suggest taking it for a drive and then see if one of the discs is hotter than the other just by holding the back of your hand near the wheel. Usually if a brake is binding you can easily tell that way.

Does it pull to one side in normal driving or braking? That can also indicate a binding brake.

No, there is no pull and the application of the brake is very smooth and progressive as you would expect, if there is binding it's very slight. There is also no real slow down in neutral and coasting.

I'll drop buy the place where I get my brakes and tyres from, the only place I trust to not try it on. I've been going there for so many years now, and the staff know me by name (and it's not kwik fit).