Gambling is a tell tale word.
Gambling with non-OEM brake pads?
- Thread starter nthach
- Start date
edyvw
$50 site donor 2025
Toyota brakes are McDonald's of food quality. You are not missing much.
I personally would go with Pagid on Rock Auto, but see how that works.
I’ll stick to OE Toyota for pad slaps and on hybrids - I feel too many machine shops ruin rotors. And hybrids really don’t have brake “feel”. I have a set of OE rotors at home.
My main beef with the OE Toyota pads on this van is brake bite. NVH wise, they’re mostly fine but a machine shop molested the rotors with excessive run-out. There’s a little shimmy with high-speed breaking.
edyvw
$50 site donor 2025
1. Toyota rotors are garbage. They are OK to drop kids to school, to go get grocieries. Anything more aggressive, they are done. I had 2015 Sienna, they are just bad. Machining won't help. Get yourself EBC rotors if you want to resolve problems with rotors.
2. Pads definitely lack performance aspect. Unfortunately, for 2005, Pagid does not make semi-metallic pads, but you could go EBC Ultimax or Green stuff. They will dust more, but they will bite hard especially Green Stuff.
@The Critic will give me flak for this, that is for sure. The old saying about curiosity and cats…Let us know how they are
I have a set of new Toyota OE rotors on deck too. Else, I would have went Powerstop or DFC Geomet/Geospec coated or tried to find a high-carbon option. I tried DuraGo from the parts house on this van and they seemed lighter than the OE blanks.
i've also had great experience with powerstop geomet combo.
I have used many different pads, something as cheap as composite $15 close out to OEM or ECB Ultimate. They stop good enough to having my tire skid on dry pavement, that's where the brakes' responsibility is done and the tire's responsibility begins. I don't track so they never get overheated either, so I never really need those racing pads just some non fading generic stuff.
Ultimate has very good bite but they chew through my rotor like no other pads do, and they dust like crazy so I have to wash the wheels all the time. I won't recommend that for family hauler like a minivan unless you like paying the kids to wash your van all the time.
I personally like OEM, Akebono ProAct, Wagner TQ, and then whatever else reputable, and finally no name close out, in that order.
Ultimate has very good bite but they chew through my rotor like no other pads do, and they dust like crazy so I have to wash the wheels all the time. I won't recommend that for family hauler like a minivan unless you like paying the kids to wash your van all the time.
I personally like OEM, Akebono ProAct, Wagner TQ, and then whatever else reputable, and finally no name close out, in that order.
Akebono or Powerstop, my recommendations.
I've been using Wagner "OEX" pads recently on a couple cars and they've been great. Bought 'em on a whim because they were on clearance at RA. Box was clearly "new old stock" and was marked Made in USA. The pads worked so well I bought another set to sit on the shelf until then.... And the price this time was $1 cheaper. Outstanding performance at a great price.
The times that I have had vibration when braking, after brake work, I have been able to fix it by aggressively bedding in the new brakes - aggressive acceleration followed by strong braking, repeated a number of times.
Have you tried bedding in the brakes?
Yep, it’s my SOP after a brake job and whenever I take the pads off to “roughen” them up to cure a squeak by lapping the friction material with 100-150grit sandpaper on a piece of marble or granite.
I do 10 stops from 20-30mph, with 30 seconds of cooling between stops. I do this in an empty parking lot, long stretch of road or somewhere safe.
Not a fan of the Powerstop geo - would much rather have a OE, Advics, Akebono rotor. OE is the right choice
Yea, I feel all the Chinesium is the same. I have those DuraGo rotors on the rear axle of a LS430. They work, but meh. The local parts house had then and I don’t buy rotors from the FLAPS(OR/AZ). Centric was my go-to for Chinesium.
Akebono rotors are supposedly the same as Bosch QuietCast and Textar rotors - an Worldpac exclusive. Advics has been sourcing from China, the rotors I have on the van now are US-made by Aisin’s casting plant in Indiana or Tennessee.
Don't need no stinking OE brake pads, just make sure they aren't ones that dust up the wheels.
The most difficult thing about changing most pads is jacking the car up, once the tires are off its like a 3 minute job per wheel on some.
The most difficult thing about changing most pads is jacking the car up, once the tires are off its like a 3 minute job per wheel on some.
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2024
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- 585
Unless my local Midas has worked on them. Come and see how everything that can seize seizes....The most difficult thing about changing most pads is jacking the car up, once the tires are off its like a 3 minute job per wheel on some.