recommended brake upgrade for 15 Rav 4 XLE ?

[Kalle.J]

Every component contributes to stopping distance, even if the degree is less. I used EBC on lame used tires and noticed the bite and control their Red Stuff brakes could do.

Initial bite and power required at pedal might differ some yes, aswell as temperature curve etc.
After that is going to be up to the tires if you are comparing new brakes to new brakes and not the old rusted ones.
Have not seen any evidence of anything beyond that.

Otherwise just get ECE R90 certified pads and you will be good. Don't know how wide spread that standard is in the US though.
https://www.powerstop.com/resources/ece-r90-certification-brake-pads/
https://www.ebcbrakes.com/race-motorsport-articles/ece-regulation-90-whats-it-all-about/

Ordered Rotinger Graphite Line and ATE Ceramics for the rear on the Volvo, will be replacing the Zimmermann set.

 

[VersatileGuy]

Initial bite and power required at pedal might differ some yes, aswell as temperature curve etc.
After that is going to be up to the tires if you are comparing new brakes to new brakes and not the old rusted ones.
Have not seen any evidence of anything beyond that.

Otherwise just get ECE R90 certified pads and you will be good. Don't know how wide spread that standard is in the US though.
https://www.powerstop.com/resources/ece-r90-certification-brake-pads/
https://www.ebcbrakes.com/race-motorsport-articles/ece-regulation-90-whats-it-all-about/

Ordered Rotinger Graphite Line and ATE Ceramics for the rear on the Volvo, will be replacing the Zimmermann set.

You seem to believe the points of friction are mutually exclusive when they are not, and even insulted another member's intelligence with a ferocity in a deleted post.

Two, the matter of ECE R90 certification merely guarantees equivalence, not superiority to OEM. Thus, you are implying that there cannot be an improvement in the friction performance between pad and rotor.

Yet, the need to certify performance to OEM specs indicates that there were worse performing pads compared to OEM prior to the regulation's passage. Thus, as a general concept, there is variation in friction performance between pad and rotor, not just tire and road.

 

[edyvw]

Get Pagid pads, semi-metallic on Rock Auto.
Advics, Brembo etc. rotors.

 

[D1dad]

I don’t care if you’ve got the best tires known to man for your application. If your brakes suck, you’re in trouble. Go to Walmart and get a set of Douglas tires and get some hawks, ebc or whatever high dollar components and you’re in business. Way too much is being made of this. Yes, great tires will stop your car better with great brakes. Great brakes will stop your car with not so great tires just fine for 99% of drivers out there. I’d prefer both. This isn’t a car and drive road test. The poster needs new brakes, he didn’t post asking about tires and brakes.

 

[D1dad]

Unfortunately for me, Red Stuff only lasted a year for me, so I opted for longevity with Duralast, and Autozone's sweet warranty that includes ordinary wear. Autozone's highest pads are clearly worse than the Red Stuff. Warranty came in handy when a brake hose died and destroyed the pad.

and you pay for that warranty unless you go with the absolute cheapest pad they offer. My son, in a pinch went to advance for rear rotors and pads and walked out spending just shy of $300 for cheaply painted rotor hats and rebadged pads that were priced 3x more than they were worth. How you got 1 yr out of red stuff pads is beyond me. Unless your logging 40k a year.

 

[VersatileGuy]

and you pay for that warranty unless you go with the absolute cheapest pad they offer. My son, in a pinch went to advance for rear rotors and pads and walked out spending just shy of $300 for cheaply painted rotor hats and rebadged pads that were priced 3x more than they were worth. How you got 1 yr out of red stuff pads is beyond me. Unless your logging 40k a year.

Well, it might be the Toyota Matrix is a smaller pad and there was also plenty of stop-and-go or mildly hilly terrain. So maybe that's why the EBC Red failed quickly for me. I definitely noticed the superior "control" with them compared to all the other pads that were on the Matrix, including the factory OEM(two times the car rolled with OEM, when the car was brand new, and from about 2014-2017).

I would never buy brake pads from Advance because their warranty, to my knowledge, does not cover ordinary wear. It is a "designed to deny warranty" when I tried to replace a starter. Their bench passes the starter when its failure in the car environment is beyond obvious. (Starter spins=pass, so I cut the brushes to get the warranty).

As someone who has dealt mostly with Toyota factory rotors, I also have little interest in the market for aftermarket rotors except for Advics(which Toyota partially owns) or the EBC-level of parts. I did buy a pair of cheaper Centrics for a van way back. The Toyota rotors avoided visible warpage despite being under the legal limit and having a failed brake hose shoving the first Autozone pad into it constantly.

I think it was around 54 bucks for the original pair of Autozone pads, the Duralast Elite or something. Autozone warrantied no questions asked. So basically, 2 pairs for 54 bucks.

 

[apollo18]

hey all, seems like my rear rotors and pads are perfectly fine so just going to do the fronts

picking between these two at the moment but looking to take other recommendations, i saw pagids were mentioned above but idk how to tell if they would be bettter then these

ebc ultimax 2 and ebc plain standard/smooth rotors (the best priced set)

or

ebc greenstuff and ebc plain standard/smooth rotors ($40 more then the above)

not sure if i should spend $40 more for the greenstuff or stay with the ultimax2, any input would be appreciated!

also before i pull the trigger, if there is any 'better' front brake and rotor from a diff brand i can get for under $150 i would love to pull the trigger, i don't care about longevity, noise, dust or etc. all i want is the best braking performance and i guess a good pedal feel.

ty

 

[apollo18]

Toyota in general has crappy brakes.
EBC rotors will work much better (no vibrations after some time). But with EBC you must match pad with rotor.
Premium rotor and Ultimax pads would work great. Sport rotors with Green or Red stuff.
Pagid pads are great too. Pagid is OE on Porsche, so there is that.
I agree that tires make the most difference performance wise. Problem with Toyota is that rotors are low carbon one. If you like to push vehicle, especially if you get good tires that allow higher limits, it is easy to overwhelm rotors.

ty if i decide to go with the greenstuff can i just get the ebc combo? it comes with greenstuff pads and ebc smooth/standard rotors

 

[JimPghPA]

Be aware that there are Uber expexsive brake rotors and pads used on high speed track only race cars, that are designed to run extremely hot. However, they are garbage when stopping when cold. Sometimes people put them on a vehicle used for everyday driving and get rudely surprised when they can't stop the vehicle and go through red lights with their foot on the brake peddle. They end up removing them and going with brakes made for every day driving.

An expensive lesson you don't want to learn the hard way.

 

[edyvw]

ty if i decide to go with the greenstuff can i just get the ebc combo? it comes with greenstuff pads and ebc smooth/standard rotors

You can. What I found on Sienna (which is though much larger vehicle) is that Green Stuff pads wear out rotors in 40k. But, brakes are much better, more aggressive.
Honestly, Pagid would be my choice here. I will use Pagid on Sequoia once these wear out.

 

[Rust_Belt_Pete]

You can. What I found on Sienna (which is though much larger vehicle) is that Green Stuff pads wear out rotors in 40k. But, brakes are much better, more aggressive.
Honestly, Pagid would be my choice here. I will use Pagid on Sequoia once these wear out.

This is why I got ceramics for my ford flex. Stupid heavy under braked car that will eat performance pads every other oil change how I drive and where

 

[Kalle.J]

This is a real upgrade. No need for the slotted and dimpled rotors with special pads though.
Camry TRD brakes.

 

[meep]

^^^ Once you know this can be done, it’s hard to not think about it. Bigger rotor/caliper set, and then run a nice well-mannered pad, and enjoy all of it.

Front end suspension busy-ness will probably be perceptible to some degree with the additional unsprung weight, and if that’s a concern, it can make sense to play the “nice pads” game. GG rated pads *can* be found that help.

Other thought - and I know this is a bit picky - but if you do change pad coefficients on the front, I prefer changing all 4 to preserve the original front/rear braking ratio. The suspension gives in its “alignment” under hard braking and acceleration, and some design does go into this to keep it stable. Will it be noticeable? Idk. Have I been grateful for excellent brakes after panic stops? Yes.

My favorite brake experiences:

2001 MDX with raybestos AT rotors and Akebono ACT pads. The pedal feel was excellent, and it would stop on its nose,

2018 F150 with element3 pads on all 4, oem rotors. Previously tried oem pads and hawk LTS. Hawk felt great but dusted ugly red. Element3 (prior manufacturer) was every bit as good, but wore rotors more.

Volvo - oem in all the things. One could put regular 3rd party parts on it and it would feel like a Honda.

Runner up- 2015 CRV as an experiment got akebono ASP (GG) pads. They excelled at hot stops from 60 on the country highway here. In regular driving they had the vehicle stopped before the pedal ever seemed to meet resistance.

 

[Rust_Belt_Pete]

Adding wheel spacers? My local potholes are gonna love the wheel bearings gently