My brake pad experience...

[Pew]

Originally Posted by willbur
Thank you Pew-
I did a quick google search on semi-met pad transfer. Brake and Front End April 2016 (and several others) do indicate these pads rely on abrasion for stopping; not pad transfer as do the others. Not being argumentative but I wanted to know for sure.


I vaguely remember reading something about that too - I can't remember if it was from a technical page or from this forum. But I do recall the PFC and AP Racing engineers putting a very strong emphasis on making sure there was a proper transfer layer between the rotor and pad. However I do know that PFC does have some "turn 1 ready" racing pads that do not require bedding and AP Racing does offer burnishing services.

 

[nwjones18]

I put Wagner thermoquiet ceramic's on everything and have never had any issues..

 

[dogememe]

So how to prevent "warped rotors" or "pad transfer"??? It's super annoying on my Escape. I do grease everything properly, I just drive it really hard.

 

[HangFire]

If a semimet pads are leaving rust spots on the rotor, there is a problem that has nothing to do with the pas chemistry. The entire rotor swept area should be clean.

Semi-metallics do indeed embed friction material in the rotor and rely on friction. Without the metal content the buildup would be horrendous.

Pad buildup and shudder can occur even on zero runout rotors, as happened on my Camry with OEM pads. Runout was only .001" and didn't correspond to the glazing on the rotor. I just sanded it off and after 25K miles it is just starting to come back. I blame the OEM pad for that.

But for your best chance to avoid shudder, besides pad choice, check rotors for thickness all the way around (the parallelism check) before installing, and for runout once installed. If there is rotor runout shudder is almost certain to occur.

 

[domer10]

Originally Posted by dogememe
So how to prevent "warped rotors" or "pad transfer"??? It's super annoying on my Escape. I do grease everything properly, I just drive it really hard.


In my experience warped rotors have been due to buying the cheapest rotors on market, and then in winter is when is start to show itself, extreme heat then cold. The junk metal can not handle the wild temp fluctuations. I learned my lesson with brakes. You get what you pay for especially in this department, I even tell people who may not be in best financial position to go buy at minimum middle of road brakes, and I'll put them on for you. That or just be prepared to have to get new rotors within the year, and you end up paying double. Either way it comes back to haunt you.

 

[GoldDot40]

Can't say for sure if there's a rotor out there that is immune to warping, but I would absolutely venture to say quality goes a long way. You'll notice when shopping for rotors that there are different tiers of quality. Economy, standard replacement/daily driver, and premium. The higher end units do seem to resist warping, cracking, etc vs economy priced ones. Definitely seem to get what you pay for when it comes to rotors.