Came across this video and am impressed with the amount of effort he put in to review this many different pads. He had most of the pad's I'd be considering on his list. He confirmed my experience that Wagner pad's are junk these days. I've got a set of Akebono's on the wife's CRV now and am liking them. I just picked up a set of Bosch Quietcast pads to replace Junk OEX pads on my Mazda.
Interesting Brake Pad review video
- Thread starter nwjones18
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Mods can delete this I just realized it’s already been posted here:
Propflux01
$100 Site Donor 2026
Akebono is pretty much all I use
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- Sep 2, 2016
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Thanks for sharing, that is incredibly thorough testing. I think I would go with the Bosch QuietCast overall for normie cars that don't use ECE R90 pads.
At this point in the poop show that is the auto parts industry i will settle for CONSISTENCY.
All these brands are going dumpster diving in the parts garbage bin and slapping their name on random stuff.
All these brands are going dumpster diving in the parts garbage bin and slapping their name on random stuff.
I don't know if I'd call Wagner junk. My TQs have been great, minus the incredibly thin material on the rears even new. I'm using advics on another car and they only bite when wet or cold. Outside of that they're downright awful. I wish EBC could get their dusting down to any kind of a reasonable level and they'd be the greatest pad ever. After the 2nd time of chiseling out the center slot I chucked them in the trash. When that slot gets filled they get hot and trash rotors in a hurry.
Some pads don't even have the center slot, and some have 2 slots. Since you like Wagner, their OEX pads are sometimes a different shape for better cooling, and many of them have 2 slots in the pad material.
Do the Advics pads have a center slot? I noticed many of their pads don't, but of course this varies by application.
Remember that EBC uses a special coating on their pads to make bedding them in easier. That creates more dust than the regular pad material itself. The Blackstuff dust level is similar to OE, and now they claim the Redstuff to be the lowest dusting pad in their lineup. They changed the Greenstuff formula many times over the years, sometimes low dust, sometimes not.
I used red stuff, greenstuff and the ultimax/black and all 3 were the same. I dremeled or chiseled out the center slots front and rear, which i chalked up to break in coating, The next year I went to service my brakes and they were plugged again. I'm not necessarily a wagner fan but needed pads from the ebc debacle and they were cheap and readily available on amazon. I love ebc rotors with a passion and think their pads bite like no other, but they coat your calipers and inside the wheels with a material that's near impossible to remove. I haven't noticed a difference between wagner and ebc on my 21 but this car also has excellent brakes to begin with. I used green stuff on my 18 rogue, who's brakes just suck and it transformed the whole brake system. Unfortunately they were somewhat loose in the oem calipers and I had terrible pad knock. That's how I ended up with advics which are clean but offer next to no bite. Ebc shipped me all 4 new pads after I reached out and told them about the fit, but they're setting in a box.
Eh, I'd say that depends on the OE application. Definitely more dust on my MDX with black stuff, however not bad and noticeably superior performance to OE Akebonos. Well worth it. My rim spokes are also gray except for the surface, so that helps with aesthetics on the dust. I could see how it would be a different story with standard color alloys.
IMO It's often a compromise between grip, dust, feel, and price.
On my 528iT the OEM pads are extremely dusty but, in return, have great initial "bite". I put on some Hawk pads that stop nicely, have consistent feel and almost zero dust but I still miss that immediate bite.
On my 528iT the OEM pads are extremely dusty but, in return, have great initial "bite". I put on some Hawk pads that stop nicely, have consistent feel and almost zero dust but I still miss that immediate bite.
There is a lot of mark up for some of these pad when they are just relabeled and sold under another name for cheaper. More and more for me, comes down to the quality of hardware included and backing plate materials used vs. the pad material itself.