Any opinions on aftermarket brake pads?

[Ddub]

My wife's Mazda will likely need new front brake pads within the next 10K miles, and I was wondering if anyone had any experience (good, bad, or otherwise) with aftermarket companies like Hawk, EBC, etc. I'm sure the Mazda OEM ones are good, but I see the other 2 advertised in my Car and Driver magazine pretty frequently and was just wondering.

My main goals would be shorter stopping distances and incresed brake feel without any significant decreased pad life, or increased noise or brake dust.

Thank you.

 

[Brybo86]

duralast pads all have lifetime warranties, the cheaper ones have more dust while more expensive have hardly any dust, on the downside the more expensive pads wear on the rotors more...

 

[Hokiefyd]

I generally stay away from aftermarket pads, though I will say that I've never used an Akebono that I didn't like.

 

[barlowc]

Since formulations vary per vehicle, the best opinion you'll get is from someone with a vehicle similar to yours.

Akebono ProACT, Wagner ThermoQuiet, and Bendix CT-3 all generally get pretty good reviews from people who have used them on a variety of vehicles.

The front OE pads on our VUE were Akebono. When it came time to replace them, I used Wagner ThermoQuiet. Both did well for that application.

 

[Jim 5]

I like the thermoquiets as good aftermarket replacements for a non-performance replacement pad.

I like Axxis/PBR Deluxe plus to replace dusty OEM european (BMW/Audi etc.) pads.

I've got probably 250,000 plus km on those recommendations.

 

[d00df00d]

Originally Posted By: Ddub
My main goals would be shorter stopping distances and incresed brake feel without any significant decreased pad life, or increased noise or brake dust.

Well, yeah. Those do tend to be the goals, don't they?

Aftermarket brake pads are only worthwhile when they address a specific limitation -- AND if you're willing to put up with a huge sacrifice or two. There is no free lunch. Longer-lived pads will have worse stopping power and/or chew up rotors, better stopping power usually comes with more dust, better cold bite usually comes with worse heat resistance, etc. -- and if you want a pad that does everything well, prepare to pay through the nose for only slight benefits in each category.

In general, when it comes to cars made by companies that generally know what they're doing (e.g. Mazda), I strongly recommend sticking with OE unless you drive hard enough to need a sportier pad.

As for the supposedly longer-lasting pads with "lifetime" warranties... I would never EVER trust a pad designed with long life (or low dust or noise for that matter) as the main priority unless I could be absolutely certain that they would still have enough power to overwhelm the tires at most speeds.

Long story short, OE is probably your best bet.

 

[SteveSRT8]

Originally Posted By: d00df00d
Originally Posted By: Ddub
My main goals would be shorter stopping distances and incresed brake feel without any significant decreased pad life, or increased noise or brake dust.

Well, yeah. Those do tend to be the goals, don't they?

Aftermarket brake pads are only worthwhile when they address a specific limitation -- AND if you're willing to put up with a huge sacrifice or two. There is no free lunch. Longer-lived pads will have worse stopping power and/or chew up rotors, better stopping power usually comes with more dust, better cold bite usually comes with worse heat resistance, etc. -- and if you want a pad that does everything well, prepare to pay through the nose for only slight benefits in each category.

In general, when it comes to cars made by companies that generally know what they're doing (e.g. Mazda), I strongly recommend sticking with OE unless you drive hard enough to need a sportier pad.

As for the supposedly longer-lasting pads with "lifetime" warranties... I would never EVER trust a pad designed with long life (or low dust or noise for that matter) as the main priority unless I could be absolutely certain that they would still have enough power to overwhelm the tires at most speeds.

Long story short, OE is probably your best bet.


Excellent info. As I have said a bunch, brake pads come in a million flavors, just like ice cream. We do several brake jobs every year here with our fleet and have learned the hard way that it is very hard to beat the factory pads for overall performance.

I especially agree that NO low dust formula is as good at actually stopping your car as a good semi metallic blend like most OE.

 

[Ddub]

Originally Posted By: d00df00d
Originally Posted By: Ddub
My main goals would be shorter stopping distances and incresed brake feel without any significant decreased pad life, or increased noise or brake dust.

Well, yeah. Those do tend to be the goals, don't they?

Aftermarket brake pads are only worthwhile when they address a specific limitation -- AND if you're willing to put up with a huge sacrifice or two. There is no free lunch. Longer-lived pads will have worse stopping power and/or chew up rotors, better stopping power usually comes with more dust, better cold bite usually comes with worse heat resistance, etc. -- and if you want a pad that does everything well, prepare to pay through the nose for only slight benefits in each category.

In general, when it comes to cars made by companies that generally know what they're doing (e.g. Mazda), I strongly recommend sticking with OE unless you drive hard enough to need a sportier pad.

As for the supposedly longer-lasting pads with "lifetime" warranties... I would never EVER trust a pad designed with long life (or low dust or noise for that matter) as the main priority unless I could be absolutely certain that they would still have enough power to overwhelm the tires at most speeds.

Long story short, OE is probably your best bet.


Was kind of thinking the same / similar thing, but thanks for your (and every one else's) reasoned response. The reason I listed my criteria was that some people might just want less dust, noise, etc., while others might just want shorter stopping distances regardless of the trade offs. I think I'll check out out the Mazda 6 forum too.

 

[Falcon_LS]

I'm a fan of the Bendix CT-3's myself, I've got those on my Envoy and Grand Marquis and I couldn't be happier. I've got Akebono ProACT's on the Pajero and they're pretty good too, but I'm partial to the Bendix.

 

[HerrStig]

EBC pads come in a number of different formulations for cars and bikes.

 

[shDK]

Dont know if theese are available in the us. But ATE Brembo and Ferrodo are a safe choise both in performance and lifetime. But often they are just at expensive as oem.

 

[zloveraz]

Akebono is the OEM pad for my G37S.

 

[Donald]

Wagner TQ or Akebono.

 

[Ddub]

After a quick perusal of the Mazda 6 forum and input from BITOG, it appears Akebono (which I think is actually the Mazda OEM), and EBC Red, are the majority preferred options. Thanks again.

 

[redhat]

I put Akebono ProACT Ceramics on the Accord and love them.

 

[Corvette Owner]

Any premium quality pad is as good as, if not better than, OEM.

For performance pads, HAWK HPS have been great for me on my Corvette.

 

[Ken2]

I've had great results with Performance Friction, and have used Axxis/BPR also with excellent results.

 

[gregoron]

I'm using Best Brakes Select ceramic pads from O'Reilly's on my VW Jetta instead of the expensive OEM. It's manufactured by Bosch for O'Reilly's. It's been performing well for daily use. It feels like OEM, it's quiet, and clean.

If you're doing weekend racing, I'd go with steel pads.

 

[lugNutz]

I've used Akebono's ProACt and the Wagner ThermoQuiets's on a number of cars with great results. I have more recently found that if you want the OEM feel and performance, check and see if BeckArnley has them. Their 089 series brake parts are the original parts made by the OEM suppliers, they just put the parts in their boxes. If they make the parts for your car, you can look up the part number on Amazon and get them cheap. I order these for my own vehicles since I don't really look for performance parts.

 

[Zako2]

I really like Wagner Thermoquet Ceramics. I have compared them to StopTech street performance, which are more of a dual street/race track brake pad. Wagners bite strongly cold or hot (but slightly less strong than stoptech) and never fade.