Lets talk brake pads

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I put Hawk LTS along with Brembo OEM replacement rotors on all 4 on my 2001 Ford F150 SuperCrew 4x4.
LOVE IT! stops better than my cars.




one other thing, i hate to say "NO" dust, but, I've yet to see any amount to be "worried" about (aka: make my rims look like garbage).
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I recently replaced the orig front pads on my mazda with Duralast Gold Pads. They looked to be of decent quality, but i did get a lot of noise from them. I removed them, had the rotors turned and installed new Oreillys Auto Parts Brakebest Ceramic pads (cost $28). They were of OEM spec and had the backing plate rivited on their, just like the orig oem ones. So far they are absolutly noise free and brake power feels good. So far little or no brake dust. For 28 bucks, i'm very happy.

I'm not sure who makes them, but they appeared to be very similar to the Raybestos pads i put on the back not long ago. I've also had good luck with the Raybestos PG Plus.
 
I like Performance Friction better on both my f-150 and the accord. Better pedal feel and initial bite, less fade when hot.

One thing to keep in mind, there is no such thing as a pad that stops well, makes no noise and is dust free. It is all a compromise. I would rather have a little more dust and noise for more performace. The Performance Friction pads work better when hot and can take temps over 600F.

My best suggestion is to do a little research and make your own decision. Personally, I prefer carbon metalic pads. I won't use ceramic, they give up too much to reduce the dust.
 
I am satisified with the "satisfied" pads I put on my protege.

I once put some performance friction pads on an old grand am, the brakes got worse! they had to get warmed up before they'd have some bite, not a good feature for a street pad. basically it made marginal brakes worse. they were the wrong pads for the car, nothing wrong with the pads though.
 
I have Hawk Performance Ceramic pads on the front of my Impala and Raybestos Quiet Stop pads on the rear. The Hawk pads stop better than the OEM pads but are not dust free as Hawk claims in their ads. They also squeak until they warm up. The Raybestos generate very little dust and it is clearly grey. However, with a heavy front wheel drive car I do not know if the Raybestos pads would produce the same results - no sqeaks and little dust - if mounted on the front.
 
The AXXIS/PBR pads are well regarded in the BMW community. People use them because they produce dramatically LESS dust than than the stock BMW pads (which seem to hold the record in high dust production).

The performance trade-off is said to be minor.
 
Like Jim said. I currently have the Axxis Deluxe Pluses on the 330. So little dust it looks like I don't drive the car. Not quite OEM performance but similar, I've adjusted to the difference. They take a little more pressure when dead cold to produce the same brake torque. Get a small amount of heat in them and the bite, pressure, feel, and modulation is dead even with OEM (Textar, Jurid). I hated the dust and while I'm not one to compromise safety for asthetics, its nice not to have to clean the wheels so often.

I have the ProACTs on the van and they are extremely linear. Great cold bite, feel, and modulation. Much better than what came OE which lasted only 25K. Minimal dust is a bonus since the wheels aren't really easy to clean unless you have tiny hands (I dont).

Hawk HPS on the truck and they perform well. Like the Axxis, they need a bit of heat to work best. Not too pleased with the initial bite, but once they get going its very linear. They do wear fairly quickly and do produce a fair amount of dust. Never had noise issues but I attribute that to bedding the brakes properly.

All of the cars at the driver training facility use Performance Friction rotors and pads. They work extremely well in this type of environment, especially on a 4300lb. car traveling from 100mph+ to about 20mph, HARD and repeatedly.

Never liked the EBC pads in any of the three applications I did. Serious rotor wear and they had a funky feel to them. They'd start off fine but got extremely grabby. Got frustrated trying to modulate them, not very linear at all.

One last tidbit. Ceramic is a marketing ploy more than anything else. The manufacturers have gotten folks to equate ceramic with quiet, dustless, long wearing pads. The actual ceramic content varies, but most are around 5%. Other friction materials like sintered metals and fillers like clay, play more of a part in what you get depending on the amounts used.
 
I also like the Axxis/PBR Deluxe, which I first tried when I had an 85 SAAB 900 (when they were called Repco) and also on a 90 Legend. I must have worn out at least 4 pairs. Never any issues, good cold stopping, low rotor wear, low dust.
I am considering putting on the updated Deluxe Plus when I need pads next, but also thinking about the more aggressive Metal Masters to try to prevent pad material transfer, which some people say is the cause of vibration with OEM pads on Acura TL/CL/TSX...
 
Glad to hear the positive feedback on the Deluxe plus pads Shortyb, I've got a set in the garage I'm ready to install. I won't miss cleaning the wheels once a week.
 
So far I've just bought the cheapest FF rated pads I can find. I think the last couple of sets I've bought were Jaspers from Canadian Tire/Part Source.
 
On my full-sized truck and my wife's acura, I have used Wagner Thermoquiet brake pads. It was the most premium pad that the local auto parts chain sold. I noticed no difference from stock in either case.

No issues with rotor warping so far either, which is nice, since the 3.2TL's were known for warping front rotors and a TSB blamed this on the factory brake pads.
 
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The Autozone GOLD pads I have on the Saturn are garbage and squeal like a pimp mobile.




Something was set up wrong in the brake job for this to be the case. I dont know what the actual functional definition of garbage is, but I assume there was some issue with poor stopping, pulsing pedal, etc... allof which will in some way come back to rotors, calipers, etc.

We did a comparisson of Honda vs. autozone pads on the fiancee's integra, and the autozone pads stopped (you can feel the bite much more) and operated better in every way. They are actually GG friction rated (every model Ive looked at are), so they are quite good by specification analysis too. Ive bought them as replacement in my truck too.
Of course, YMMV - maybe the saturn pad is some weird formulation.

JMH



They seem to stop OK.

Its the noise upon stopping....and the common "rubbing" noise I get...it seems as though something is rubbing. It was fine for the first 1-2k after the brakes were put on, then all of those odd noises came back. We got 88k out of the original set (F/R Disk), could've gotten more. Now at 97.6k.
 
I have been using Performance Friction Brakes for years now and love them. In my opinion I get better wear out of them than I do from OE pads. Especially on medium duty trucks, their Z rated pads are hard to beat. Best of all I can order them online directly from ryderfleetproducts.com and usually have them on my door step the next day. They also manufacturer high performance rotors.
 
when my oem needed replacement,78k,i went with raybestos cermanic and new oe raybestos rotors..with proper breakin..after 5k-10k started virbation when breaking..turned the new oe rotors,which had about .010 lat run-out.virb's went away but came back after another 5k..turned the orig oe rotors and put those back on..about 5k's later,virb's came back...put on raybestos pg plus on and turned the oe rotors again and now have over 25k's and NO virb's...won't use cermanic(raybest)again..2000 pont gp.
 
I drive an 88 IROC Camaro. Some way, some how, the front rotors got warped. ????? So, I'm going with new Raybestos Brute Stop rotors and new wheel bearings in the front, with Bendix TitaniuMetallic pads. In the rear, I'm going with Raybestos PG Plus rotors and the same Bendix TiMet pads. The Bendix TiMet pads get good reviews over on the TGO site.

Also, the wife's Taurus needs brakes, so I'm going with Raybestos PG Plus rotors on all 4 corners, Bendix TiMet pads on the front, and Bendix organics on the rear. Those rear pads are very small on that car, and the rear rotors are solid.

I hear the TiMets dust a bit but are pretty quiet and are good stoppers. We'll soon see.

Also going with Earl's stainless flex brake hoses on the Camaro, supposedly they really firm up the pedal.
 
The Repco/PBR/Axxis Deluxe are OK if low dust is your first priority.

If one seeks better performance, I'd skip the Metal Masters, which are moderately hard on rotors and have poor cold bite that can lead to "oh sh!t" moments on cold mornings.

Jump straight to the Ultimates, which have better all-round performance, including better cold bite. They're akin to a heavy-duty version of the OE Jurid pads on BMWs...though they dust almost as much.

I'm with the seeming minority here who value performance (feel/linearity, modulation, bite) over lesser issues like dust and durability.

But once again, there are too many variables (driver, vehicle, usage) and different priorities to call one pad "best."
 
I was happy with EBC Green on my A4 - same performace as OEM ATE pads, yet much less brake dust.

For the 5er, I'll probably stick with OEM (whoever makes them), unless I can find something of equal performance but with less dust.
 
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