‘18 Giulia - PowerStop Z23 Pad Slap

[RamFan]

One of my favorite qualities of the Giulia is the braking performance. Because of this, when it’s replacement time I’ve long been hesitant to run a “standard” pad, but also refuse to pay OE prices. This led to running EBC RedStuff most recently. A GG rated pad that performed wonderfully. Unfortunately, they’ve been a bit noisier than I’d like since new. Now, after 35k miles the noise became unbearable. Today I swapped out the EBCs with a set of Z23s.

Can’t review their performance yet, and unfortunately won’t be able to until mid-week when I’m able to reset all the faults that have occurred because of the work. But below are a few pics to share.

A couple notes:

Out of the box the Z23s came with all hardware and lube, which is nice. Though the sensor wires leave a bit to be desired.

The EBC pads wore down nicely. 4mm left up front, evenly worn inside to outside, corner to corner. The rears however got chewed up. Particularly the inside pads which showed just a tiny bit of meat left. Both corners had increased inner pad wear so I suspect this is a vehicle characteristic as opposed to an issue.

While PowerStop CS told me the pads were rated as GG (admittedly a few years ago), they’ve arrived and I was disappointed to find FG. Given that noise reduction is my goal, I decided to try them anyway.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

I hope they serve you well

For future reference, EBC Blackstuff (Ultimax2) is a fantastic daily driver pad and also GG.

 

[RamFan]

I've run these pads now for a month and roughly 600 miles, including some fun driving throughout Austin hill country after 200 miles of initial use.

Pros:
Quiet as a mouse
Consistent braking feel throughout pedal travel (possibly a con, see below)
Brake dust seems to be reduced

Cons:
Less "bite" during initial/lite pedal pressure
Stopping ability does seem reduced compared to the EBC pads

Nothing too complicated here, the Z23's seem to perform fine for daily driving though there are some performance differences compared to the EBC RedStuff pads. Smooth and quiet in their application without any kind of "grabby" behavior, they're perfectly adequate pads and at desirable price point. When pushed on winding roads or during an emergency (simulated) braking situation, they do deliver via reduced speed or stopping, but I don't feel the same level of confidence I did with the EBC pads. Perhaps this is due to their lack of grabby feel. This could be purely mental or perhaps I had just gotten used to the previous pads, but it is the biggest thing I notice between the two pads.

So that's that, my very brief and concise comparison between EBC RedStuff and Powerstop Z23. Will update in the future if anything drastic changes.

 

[Donald]

So I guess what is important to you when replacing brake pads. Noise or confident braking ability?

I typically but Alebono ProAct and they have never let me down. But I am more of an older conservative driver.

 

[97prizm]

One of my favorite qualities of the Giulia is the braking performance. Because of this, when it’s replacement time I’ve long been hesitant to run a “standard” pad, but also refuse to pay OE prices. This led to running EBC RedStuff most recently. A GG rated pad that performed wonderfully. Unfortunately, they’ve been a bit noisier than I’d like since new. Now, after 35k miles the noise became unbearable. Today I swapped out the EBCs with a set of Z23s.

Can’t review their performance yet, and unfortunately won’t be able to until mid-week when I’m able to reset all the faults that have occurred because of the work. But below are a few pics to share.

A couple notes:

Out of the box the Z23s came with all hardware and lube, which is nice. Though the sensor wires leave a bit to be desired.

The EBC pads wore down nicely. 4mm left up front, evenly worn inside to outside, corner to corner. The rears however got chewed up. Particularly the inside pads which showed just a tiny bit of meat left. Both corners had increased inner pad wear so I suspect this is a vehicle characteristic as opposed to an issue.

While PowerStop CS told me the pads were rated as GG (admittedly a few years ago), they’ve arrived and I was disappointed to find FG. Given that noise reduction is my goal, I decided to try them anyway.

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What's the sensor wire go to? I've never seen that before. Does Baer make brake pads for your vehicle, if so have you considered those?

 

[edyvw]

Are there ATE, Textar, Jurid options?

 

[RamFan]

What's the sensor wire go to? I've never seen that before. Does Baer make brake pads for your vehicle, if so have you considered those?

It's just a wear sensor, nothing too fancy. Once the pads wear to the advisable replacement limit, the end of the embedded wire creates a circuit which trips the system and throws a light on the dash.

Are there ATE, Textar, Jurid options?

Admittedly I'm not familiar with any of those. It does look like they all make pads/rotors that fit, next time I'm due I'll take a look and see about costs and sourcing. Assuming you've used them before, where did you purchase from?

 

[RamFan]

Another update: Had a small leak develop on the driver front tire so had the wheel off this morning to get that taken care of. I did a once over with the wheel off and found both slide pins had backed out 1-1.5”. Checked the passenger side and sure enough, they too had backed out.

I’ve put on 3,437 miles on these pads/hardware, this is concerning and I will monitor more closely…

 

[The Critic]

Another update: Had a small leak develop on the driver front tire so had the wheel off this morning to get that taken care of. I did a once over with the wheel off and found both slide pins had backed out 1-1.5”. Checked the passenger side and sure enough, they too had backed out.

I’ve put on 3,437 miles on these pads/hardware, this is concerning and I will monitor more closely…

How are these pins retained?

 

[CleanSump]

Admittedly I'm not familiar with any of those. It does look like they all make pads/rotors that fit, next time I'm due I'll take a look and see about costs and sourcing. Assuming you've used them before, where did you purchase from?

Textar, Jurid, and Pagid are the OEM pads on Mercedes and BMW known for the great initial bite of those cars.
I've used EBC Green on a Mercedes and the initial bite wasn't as good, though overall they were excellent.
EBC Blackstuff Ultimax were a HUGE improvement on a Blazer and 2 Cherokees we had.

 

[RooflessVW]

How are these pins retained?

It's in the first photo. They have a friction ring. Brembo calipers.

 

[RamFan]

How are these pins retained?

I knew I should've taken a picture... They're a simple push pin for a four piston fixed caliper set-up. Get pushed from the inside of the caliper to the outside, along the way sliding under the brake pad tabs. Pictures of the new pins used can be seen in the first picture of my original post above. Below are some pics I found online to show configuration. As @RooflessVW pointed out, they have a friction ring that should "lock" them into place. I'll also add, when I changed pads the first time with the EBC Reds, I reused the OE pins as the EBC pads didn't come with hardware.

First image, zoomed in on the pin specifically.

View from the top.

Angled front.

 

[RamFan]

Update: Roughly one month later and three of the pins have remained in place. One on the passenger wheel has backed out twice. I’m thinking of a dab of loctite on the friction ring if it backs out again. I hate the idea, but am tempted…

 

[KrisZ]

Update: Roughly one month later and three of the pins have remained in place. One on the passenger wheel has backed out twice. I’m thinking of a dab of loctite on the friction ring if it backs out again. I hate the idea, but am tempted…

You need a new pin, the tab is squished too much. Loctite will likely melt away anyways, so it's not a permanent fix.

 

[E150GT]

How much were the stock pads? Just out of curiosity. My personal rule is I will pay big bucks for the stock pads if they worked well. I dont have any performance cars though.

 

[crashz]

Thanks for the update. And btw - I appreciate the level of immersive detail in the first photo, of drinking imported Italian sparking water while working on an Italian car. Bravo!

 

[RamFan]

You need a new pin, the tab is squished too much. Loctite will likely melt away anyways, so it's not a permanent fix.

Yeah, I'm half joking about the Loctite and will just end up getting a new hardware kit.

How much were the stock pads? Just out of curiosity. My personal rule is I will pay big bucks for the stock pads if they worked well. I dont have any performance cars though.

Last I thoroughly checked, OE front pads are $400+. But I just did a quick search before posting and it looks like a dealer out of NY has an online parts store and is selling them at around $130. Need to dig into that though as that’s quite a drop.