Brake Pad Suggestions? Options

[dstock22]

Stock brakes, but the pads are basically gone. Any suggestions for a certain well known brand/type for DSM's?

[SCCA Stang]

I am using Bendix CT3 (ceramic pads) with Power stop slotted rotors on the GSX..... I am very happy with the combination.

I have also used Bendix regular pads on several other cars with very good results.

Hope this helps

[akamiami]

porterfield rs4's from rre. www.roadraceengineering.com.

[natedogg]

If you don't want to spend a small fortune on performance brake pads, you can pick up some EBC greens from tirerack. They've served me well on the Talon and the Evo.

[wortdog]

I run Carbotech Panther XP8's, but those are total overkill on the street and cost $$$

If you're looking for some improved fade resistance and grab, Porterfield RS-4's are very good, but expensive. EBC Red/Green are so-so at best, the EBC Yellow compound is a big improvement. The MetalMasters are pretty popular, but they're not much better than generic pads.

If you're not doing any kind of repeated hard braking, you won't really need any more than cheap generic semi-metallic pads and a good brake fluid flush.

[awd4kicks]

With the information and opinions posted I would like to get some clarifications from those with experience that will fill in some blanks that have been left.

Isn't it true that you can go overkill on the pads in a way that will be detrimental to stopping? EBC reds and higher performance pads need heat to get in their performance range. Someone doing street driving only or even slightly spirited driving will never get the high performance pads hot enough to work their best will they?

Btw - I've heard RS-4's are good but make a lot of brake dust. I thought EBC green's were supposed to cut down on brake dust.

[wortdog]

Even with totally cold, full on race pads you can still lock the wheels. Race pads have the same coefficient of friction cold as a set of generic semi-metallics, they just work even better when warm. When my pads are all warmed up, braking takes very little pedal effort, which is very covenient for heel and toeing downshifting while coming into a corner.

Pads like the EBC Red and the Porterfield R4-S work better with a little heat in them, but its not as dramatic, and they have much better cold grab than race pads or normal pads. The Reds go away pretty quickly with massive heat, the R4-S just fades gradually and predictibly.

The Greens have really really good cold grab, but they can't really hold up to any repeated stopping, two or three stops from 120 and they'll be noticebly faded.

The EBC Yellows are really cool because they have almost the same inital grab as EBC Greens, but they can take more heat than the Reds. I'm not even sure really why they even make the Reds anymore when the Yellows are better in every category.

Worrying about dust is for sissies

[dstock22]

.....So many choices.... ahh!

[SCCA Stang]

I am using Bendix CT3 (ceramic pads) with Power stop slotted rotors on the GSX..... I am very happy with the combination.

I have also used Bendix regular pads on several other cars with very good results.

Hope this helps

As far as clarification on this experience....

with the ceramic pad and slotted rotor experience, i have done quite a few runs on road coarse style runs... several times bringing the car down from 100+ with almost zero brake fade.... and the ceramic pads don't produce much brake dust (good if you have nice wheels)... I think that the stotted rotors help significantly with the reduction of brake fade.

as far as the regular Bendix pads (semi-metallic), those were only used on slightly spirited runs and daily driving. on My Dakota R/T, they faded quicker than desired on the couple of "more than spirited runs" that I did.
however worked great for daily driving and "spirited driving"

[awd4kicks]

So Eric, your saying that I should order EBC Yellow pads for my 2G caliper upgrade? I'm going to get fresh fluid and the stainless lines. While I'm buying new pads, I might as well get some that will slow me down from 'speed' for those spirited driving tests we all share every now and then.

If Yellows are the way to go on a daily driven ride that may need to stop from triple digit speeds and work good on the occasional auto-x and road corse, tell me where to get them. I need pads soon!

Marcus

[wortdog]

perfectbrakes.com carries all of the EBC pads for Mitsu calipers, $360 for a big brake equipped DSM set of 4 Yellow pads.

Here are the 'stats' on EBC's compounds:
http://www.ebcbrakes.com/trackday&race.html

[awd4kicks]

I now have two sets of EBC yellow pads. A week or so ago I was over at Natedogg's and I seen he had EBC red's. I asked why he didn't go with the yellows. Natedogg gave me the box which showed the greens as a street performance pad, the reds as a performance street/road corse pad, and the yellows as as straight performance road circuit pad with some use on highways.

This scared the crap out of me. I don't want to put pads on that need a pile of heat in them to work. Can I get any clarification on this?

Wort, do you know something about these yellow pads that EBC isn't saying on their packaging?

[wortdog]

According to the data from EBC they bite harder than the Reds at all temperatures, even when they're cold.

[akamiami]

Referencing the Haynes Import Car Customization Manual chart I see that green < red < yellow.

Follow the ricer/speed color spectrum to high performance.

[awd4kicks]

According to the data from EBC they bite harder than the Reds at all temperatures, even when they're cold.

That's good news! Do you have a link to that info we can post up here?

[natedogg]

The main reason I went with the reds is because they are ceramic. It cuts down on the dust. The greens I had on previously were dusty as hell.

Here is EBC's summary, but it would be nice to see some data from a third party.

http://www.ebcbrakes.com/trackday&race.html

http://www.ebcbrakes.com/Automotive.html

[awd4kicks]

EBC Yellow Stuff:
Although a full race material and capable of high temperature use with very good wear life, this new formulation sets a new trend in race type brake pad compounds. The “bite” from cold is superb which is uncommon with race materials (normally requiring warm-up) and makes this a pad which can be safely used on the highway as well as on the race track. This new formulation was used by numerous championship race and rally drivers in 2004 and is truly a milestone in brake pad material development.

This is GREAT news. I am not so worried about the brake dust. More about cold brake pad bite. I just didn't want to have to heat up the pads to make them work. That would not be safe at all for street driving. These things say they don't dust anymore than the factory pads and that's fine. I might get those installed this weekend too!

Thanks Nate & Wort ...doggs!