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- Apr 19, 2025
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Raybestos Element3.
Quality-Built Brake Pads & Rotors
- Thread starter MattLawz
- Start date
I also did sand-start burnouts when I was 18 in my 1965 Mustang. And sheared the output shaft in transmission. And had to replace the transmission with one from a junk yard. Was not an aggressive driver after that.
I went Akebono when I did the pads and calipers on my GX460. Rotors I used whatever the most expensive thing is NAPA has. In rotors, look for *ductile* iron vs normal grey iron. Ductile iron costs more, but it is far less likely to warp, has better corrosion resistance and wear performance.
I know Akebonos aren't known for bite, but on my GX they will stop plenty hard.
When I want bite, I used Porterfield Carbon Kevlars. (R4S compound). They don't eat rotors but they are pretty aggressive. They do get a bit squirrely in very cold weather, but they are a streetable pad. Heck, I have them in my minivan right now.
I've no experience with EBC, but I wouldn't hesistate to try them.
I know Akebonos aren't known for bite, but on my GX they will stop plenty hard.
When I want bite, I used Porterfield Carbon Kevlars. (R4S compound). They don't eat rotors but they are pretty aggressive. They do get a bit squirrely in very cold weather, but they are a streetable pad. Heck, I have them in my minivan right now.
I've no experience with EBC, but I wouldn't hesistate to try them.
Akebonos have good stopping power they just don't have high initial bite of euro duster pads.
When my wife's 2007 Prius turned 100k about 10 years ago I replaced the pads and rotors because of rust. I replaced the rotors with Brembos. I had the brakes apart to lube the caliper pins the other day, and the paint was still holding up fine on the edges of the rotors. Prius brakes don't get much of a workout due to regenerative braking, but I was impressed that the rotors would look so good after 10 years.
I have no way to test every product out there on the same vehicle over same period of time and environment, so I can't say for certain whether the anti-seize you use is better or worse, only that the Raybestos DBL-2T has been working fine and is the same lube I used for other brake grease applications as well as other things.
However it's gone up in price, now $26 on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Raybestos-DBL-2T-Brake-Lube-Brush/dp/B0015RCGRM
Due to the price rise, I'll be looking around when I need more. Mission, 3M, and a few others whose names escape me at the moment, make something equivalent, which would be called silicone paste, not silicone based which is often not the same.
How much could oe be and how bad are they, I would think Lexus brakes are competant and last. My Accord brakes sucked, Hawk fixed that.
No they're not
I have the Duralast Elites on a Sienna. So far, so good. They feel firmer than Toyota “warranty” pads and seem to have somewhat better bite. Bosch makes these in Mexico, the “regular” Duralast is made in China, Gold is made in India.
Quality-built is a MPA brand. They’re an importer and work with the parts stores on their house brands.
I didn't know there were Duralast "Elite" pads. Just looked 'em up, thanks!
As an added benefit I bet the cool hexagonal pattern adds 5hp
Eric from YT uses Muscle Grease on the hub. I use it also.
I use Dow 111 if the car doesn’t call for a “special” grease like Toyota red rubber grease(Subaru calls for Niglube RX2, and I’m convinced the Toyota stuff is the same - they’re both a watermelon red/bubblegum pink in color). Syl-Glyde is also acceptable. As long as it’s not that Permatex green/pink stuff.
Here in California, if the car goes to Tahoe or goes to the coast often I’ll apply a film of anti-seize or spray dry moly lube.
Care to provide any evidence?
The issue with Syl-Glyde and many of the others with a castor oil or petroleum base oil is their longevity is much shorter than a true silicone paste lube. However if switching to silicone, the old lube needs cleaned out which is fairly easy with brake clean or even gasoline, but once you put silicone lube on, it's very difficult to remove it all and I feel like there's no reason to switch back so it's a non-issue, except for that certain group of people who would put it on their caliper sliders (as I do), then later want to paint the calipers, and find the paint won't stick to any area that the silicone paste came in contact with... though I suppose enough wire brush action to remove a layer of metal should do the trick.
What model year and wheel size though? There was an era where cars had Little Wheels (for their size compared to today), which resulted in less clearance for larger rotors, making brakes weaker unless you used pads with a lot of bite.
In particular I had some GM full sized sedans in the late 80's, and '90s, which only had 14" rims, but also the way they were geared (along with delayed downshift points @ speed), they pulled when coming to a stop and the rotors always ended up glazed if aggressive pads weren't used. It's been a while since I thought about it, but one of them, an Olds Delta '88 3.8L, would maintain 40MPH on a flat road without giving it any gas, just idling, so a conservative strategy of just letting off the gas to slow down when you see the need to ahead, doesn't work so well.
Mine were....
We used to sell china white box rotors to EBC
I have been using these for the last 5-6 years on my vehicles and for the money I have not found anything that comes close but I am curious to try to Powerstop Z23's - heard a lot of good stuff about them.
