Negative experience with EBC Ultimax2 Brake Pads

It was the pads. He went to advance and bought a set of platinums for the front and the pad knock is gone. I had ultimax 2s on one of my cars that had pad clunk when backing out and then the 1st initial stop going forward. I switched to brembos and the sound was gone. I figured it was a fluke, I’ve ran ebc on my 21 since the oems came off and perfect. Seems like ebc misses the mark on a few models. To much money and pain when you can’t just run up town and return them. He emailed ebc so it’s a waiting game now.
Same thing with Akebono's and SOME German model pads they make.
 
I’ve since installed a set of green stuff on my 18 rogue with high carbon rotors. Same pad knock, so I ordered a set of advics from rock auto. Comparing the advics you can see why. Ebc are a good bit smaller yet wider which is what I experienced with ultimax pads on my 21 Altima and had to file down. I put the advics on yesterday and they fit perfectly. The dust was so bad from the break in coating that it completely clogged the center slot and the caliper was a heavy dirty black. Ebc is mailing out a replacement set for free as they can’t believe that there wasn’t a defect in manufacturing. Either way, I’m done with ebc. To much aggravation and problems down the road from dust. I’m probably just going to replace the ultimax as well, I never felt good about having to file them and can see the dust and gotta believe that the break in coating did the same thing.
 
I have a hunch unless EBC can get the backing plates from Europe, they are likely using NRS plates. NRS is one of the major aftermarket suppliers of brake backing plates and shims. Japanese and Korean calipers are known for pad clunk if the pads don’t fit as precise as the OEM(Advics, Akebono, NBK, Hitachi, Nissin, Sangsin or Mando). Hence why there’s better experiences with them on European and “American” cars with ATE or TRW calipers.

I’ve had Wagner, Centric, PBR and Bendix clunk. None with OEM or Akebono.
 
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