relinuca

My beloved '99 cabrio w/74K miles is finally in need of F+R pads and front rotors...the red "Brake wear" light just came on and about a year ago a dealer tech measured the rotors and reported "Start saving your $$; you'll need front rotors and F+R pads soon". So I'm not too surprised about this.

Rennlist comments seem to favor using OEM rotors and Textar (or Hawk)pads, given my driving habits. Comments?

Also, I favor replacing the rear rotors at this time, too, although they measured "OK" last fall. Comments?

FYI-My car is a bone stock daily driver, no track time, and only occasionally "pushed".

Thx,

relinuca

alpine003

You'll get a lot if opinions on this AGAIN. But it basically boils down to YOUR priorities: initial cold bite, low dusting, rotor friendly,squeaking,brake fade, longevity, etc. Pick a few of these and order them of importance but you won't find a pad that hits on all these points.

I don't think none of us can recommend a pad without knowing your priorities. A lot of peeps tend to recommend what works best for THEIR priorities usually.

As for rotors, I've usually been able to get nearly double the life on the rears vs the fronts. It's your call whether your the type that squeezes that toothpaste to death or the type that tends to throw away the toothpaste when it starts getting difficult to get some out.

ECS Tuning

We offer two different brake service kits that include everything you need for the dealer tech to do the job. It all depends what you want to do, but from the sounds of it I would lean towards the OE kit we offer. For more information Click Here.

OE Kit Includes the following parts:
~Sebro coated front & rear rotors
~Mintex front & rear pads
~URO brake pad wear sensors
~ECS stainless steel rotor set screws
~AGS Syl-Glide Silicone Brake lubricant

5CHN3LL

A daily-driven, never tracked car doesn't need any setup more aggressive than the stock brakes. If you feel that your brakes were already good enough, there's no reason to upgrade.

If the rear rotors are worn, replace them. If they're not worn, don't - unless you're paying someone else to do the work and you can get a better deal than doing front and rears separately.

You can DIY brakes with minimal tools and knowledge and save yourself about half the cost of going the dealer route...if you're so inclined.

MiamiC70

I am in same boat with my 2004 40th AE. Light just went off and I know need rotors but I want to go OEM all around served me well so far for almost 75k miles. Any deals on OEM brake fit w/ rotors & pads all around?

zachsdad1

I find OEM pads are dusty. I had the same issue with my Mercedes. Now granted we are talking about two different animals, but I went with Akebono pads on my MB. I plan to see if they make an application for the 911. I was very happy with them. Good perfomance, zero dust, quiet...in my opinion great for a daily driver. Not sure how they hold up under agressive/track driving. Just my two cents.

Barn996

I used Zimmerman rotors on front with Textar pads and would do the same next time it's needed. Haven't done the rear pads or rotors yet because they don't need it.(68k miles)

ECS Tuning

We do offer the same kits for the 40th and if you don't like whats included in them I can always build you a kit, if you would like of just what you want, just shoot me a PM. For more information on the 40th kits and brake components, Click Here.

coffeehead

The ECS kits are a pretty good value, and very convenient. I track my Sebro rotors, and have nothing but good things to say.

wyovino

Definitely a DIY job. There are some great step-by-step videos on YouTube. I did my pads, rotors, and dampers all around with OEM parts, but that's just the way I do things. Probably could have saved a lot of money going aftermarket. I had never done brakes on any car before and found this not very difficult to do after reading everything I could find on the forums and watching the videos a few times.

Edit - Also replaced all of the caliper bolts which is recommended, though some find it unnecessary.

Edit - Links to the very excellent videos on YouTube:

cobra935o

Porsche brakes have got to be the easiest I have ever done. Why do you think you need new rotors, you may be able to just have them turned, get some of the imperfections off them if any (lines, grooves, etc) if they arent that bad, most places only charge 10-15 bucks to turn em, than you just have to worry about pads, if you are careful with the sensors, they and everything else is reusable.

Spokayman

OP's mechanic indicated they were getting too thin when he measured them. One of the first things to do when considering replacing your brakes should be to measure the rotor thickness to determine how much rotor wear life is left. I would only consider machining the rotors if they were lightly worn and had some sort of light surface defect (warping, etc.).

On my '01, I replaced the rear rotors when I changed the rear pads at 51K miles. The rotors had about 30% of their wear thickness left. I think total wear thickness is something like 2MM and I had .6 to .8MM of wear left. So, if the rotors were not replaced now, they would likely be too thin by the time the second set of pads wore out. The front rotors were already replaced by an earlier owner of the car at what I would guess to be 40K miles.
I agree that it is an easy DIY.
I also used ECS's kit and found it to work well. I replaced the caliper bolts as recommended as well.

MiamiC70

This ^

targa996

Sebro rotors are oe equivalent and will save you $ . I also went with textar pads. Turned rwar rotors since they were still in spec. Very happy , including one track day ....

Rubik

Didn't want to start a new thread. Im interested in product information about pads and rotors. I read the reviews and they are usually very stupid like "easy to install" or "works" or some stupid **** like that. And my response to those idiots is: "Oh really!"

Anyway there are a few brands I've seen and I'm interested in your experience on several aspects, namely:

Pads: Stopping power and grip? I don't care about dust. I care about stopping distance. For example I replaced my Mercedes OE pads with Akebonos and yeah it's nice that there is no dust but it has no frikin grip! Noise? Fading!?

Rotors: Ability to handle heat and resistance to warping? Noise?

The brands I've seen are the following: OE of course, Sebro, Textar, Zimmerman, ATE, Akebono, Bosch, Mintex, Pagid and some others.

Thanks in advance for all the information. You guys rock!