Akebono Performance Ultra Premium Ceramic Pads 12k mile review

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These are the ASP part number. Akebono Ceramic pads.
I drive a rather heavy Ford Flex with the "heavy duty" brake options giving me 352 mm rotors up front and with my fat butt and my usual camping gear and half the kitchen the heavy duty brakes are just adequate enough not to get heat warped constantly. I can pretty much make the brakes grab and tires squeal/abs come on with any set of pads so I think that the limiting factor in this car are TIRES. With that being said onto the review.


Obviously 12k is nothing.
It was 10 degrees Fahrenheit today and due to a series of really stupid people I decided to make the review. These pads are rated GG for those that care, they took a long time to break it they perform well, they have a very consistent and linear response. They don't have a high initial bite like some Euro pads or semi metallics but the force is easily modulated by the brake pedal so this is a matter of preference I would think.
I have to do several "oh sh--it!" Stops today very early in the morning with COLD brakes and the performance was excellent.
I like the linear performance but many here would call it "wooden feeling". Push the pedal more and it will stop more.
Brakes behaved well in the Poconos and in the Appalachian brake torture tests. Again HEAVY car ~5000 pounds and rather mediocre brake size.
I guess the real test will come in 20k more miles because ford flex EATS brakes like fat kid at a willy wonka let loose in the chocolate factory.
So far no abnormal wear indication.
Dust? I cleaned my wheels while doing the brake job and have silver wheels. No dust that I can see.
TLDR

1)cold performance is great (at least compared to generic auto parts store semi metallics)
2)they seem to be wearing well
3)they deal with heat well (5000lb car going through hills and mountains with brakes that are too small for its weight)
4)Consistent grab on the pads but nothing like the high initial grab of Euro semi metallics.
5)No dust.
The pad feels very "Japanese", it works very well, it keeps on working and gives no problems but its nothing spectacular like its "performance ultra premium" name suggests. Just a good reliable pad so far. It has only been 12,000 miles so there is that.
Ford Flex tends to eat pads so that is somewhat good number of miles for the pad.

Edit: almost forgot noise, no noise, I never had issues with noise on any pad i used since early 2000's and the only time i recall any pads making noise is when something is very wrong.
 
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Nice review! As always the higher end brands provide good performance. Unlike the nearly unlimited number of Chinese nonsense brake pads.

Ford is now using F-H and G-H rated pads on higher end F150's (tow package/lariat etc) with what they call Nitro Tough Iron disks. The pad is a ceramic compound known as FER9213. They are on my new F150 and darn good.
 
I'm a brake junkie and prefer my brakes to stop me NOW. Obviously tires are the key friction point with the road and I always use highly rated ones. That said, I have experienced good overall performance with the Pro-Acts in the vehicles they were installed. Well made and always fit properly. Initial bite is what I find lacking and it's a really critical aspect for me. Once you get into the pedal, they work well. Very linear and easy to modulate. But I still want more up front. I have not used the Euro ones, but hear they have a bit more "European" feel, ie; better bite when cold and high friction characteristics, while keeping noise and dust low. For now, I'll keep my semi-metallics and wash my wheels more often.
 
Our 24 Nissan has akebonos and after they got a few K on them they’ve been almost as good as my ebc redstuff pads. Except no dust whatsoever.
 
Been using them for 25 years across 3 cars (both American and Japanese), never had any issues. Long story short in October, my rear left I had to even take off the shims (never did that before), still no noise. The only car I don't use them on is the one that came with semi metallic and even OE pads to OE rotors on that car, there is noise from the rears.

To not use Akebono imho is very very little savings, we're talking usually less than an Andy Jackson.
 
I'm a brake junkie and prefer my brakes to stop me NOW. Obviously tires are the key friction point with the road and I always use highly rated ones. That said, I have experienced good overall performance with the Pro-Acts in the vehicles they were installed. Well made and always fit properly. Initial bite is what I find lacking and it's a really critical aspect for me. Once you get into the pedal, they work well. Very linear and easy to modulate. But I still want more up front. I have not used the Euro ones, but hear they have a bit more "European" feel, ie; better bite when cold and high friction characteristics, while keeping noise and dust low. For now, I'll keep my semi-metallics and wash my wheels more often.
One of my cars is a 5000 pound ford flex with all season tires (I live in a very snowy part of the rust belt).
One of my cars is a weekend project car that is a stripped down R53 mini cooper with heavily modded and upgraded brakes and will wear high grip summer performance tires.

On my ford flex most good high end brake pads will easily lock up and max out my tire almost instantaneously.

Mini cooper? This is where it starts to matter a lot, wide grippy tires light weight car, high initial gram semi metallic compounds will absolutely make a difference.

I see a lot of "tests" where they test stopping distance with a performance car with fancy shmancy almost track day tires. Do that to a daily driver grocery getter SUV and depending on the brake and tire combo they will all lock up the tires in about the same time and manner.
Like everything performance related the answer is "it depends".
 
Cross hatch from the rotor machining is still visible.

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