toofast928

Looking to see what you guys recommend for street brake pads. I'm looking for pads that have low dust but high bite. Right now I have the EBC Red Stuff almost no dust but the initial braking is dull.
Pedal effort is almost too easy, also thinking of the 7" booster. What do you think?

Speedtoys

You wont get both.

You can compromise on dust that wont mess stuff up tho...Im a Porterfield R4S fan..have been for 20yrs.

Hawk HPS, no way HP+, they bite, but erode rotors, and thats what screws up the wheels and finish.

GregBBRD

You will not find a brake pad that works as well as the stock pads for street use. Everything else looses "bite" and requires increased pedal pressure.

I've always had a tough time describing the feeling of the "lost bite" of all the other pads. One of my clients described it as having just gone through a giant puddle of water and getting the rotors wet.

The downside to the stock pads is the dust.

Chalkboss

One product that works really well at combating dust is armor all brake dust repellant. Spray it on and let dry. Keeps dust off and when you do need to clean the wheels the dust comes off with a jet of water. I've been using it for a few months and it works.

Speedtoys

Greg is right..but the happy medium ive found is a pad that raises it's friction coefficient aggressively with temperature..the R4S pads do that.

Jim Corenman tried a set out.

SeanR

I've been very happy with the EBC/World Pac pads. Been using them for several years on my own and customers cars. Next to no dust and love them performance wise. Granted I've not had my car on track in several years so can't say how they would hold up under those sorts of situations but I'm not known to be easy on them either. Everyone who's driven my car want theirs to feel exactly like it.

The only ones I recommend are these or the Hawks but the price of the Hawks is fairly high.

GregBBRD

I suspect that EBC and Metal Master have a common history....

As I just mentioned in another thread, Metal Master = No dust, no squeak, no stop.

Although improved from Metal Master, I dislike the "bite" of EBC pads. Too much pedal effort to get the same initial performance as a Textar. Heavy braking....no problem. Light "normal" driving....too much effort. Other than that, they work well.

Brake pads are always a compromise....I've never found a "perfect" brake pad.

......And to make things even more confusing, different brands of cast iron rotors change the "bite".

Find something you can live with and use that.

UKKid35

I must admit that I'm not dust sensitive, and as that is a consideration for you perhaps this is not relevant.

However, I am a big fan of EBC Yellows for both road and track.

I've used them on both cars I use on track and they haven't let me down yet. But, I am not that quick, and I am very price sensitive.

Also, they are very good and not eating brake rotors, and the bed in process is very simple.

Some people will argue that they fall apart, but when you question them you find out that their experience is from many years ago before various reformulations.

Good thing is that they are so cheap that you can try them out without investing the same sort of money that you would in Pagid RS29 or whatever.

toofast928

That's why I wanted to try EBC ceramic pads over the semi-metallic. So I'm currently using red, anyone using yellow?
How about the brake booster, anyone go from the 9" to 7" booster?

SeanR

i use the ceramics also. They are only a few bucks more than the semi-metallics.

toofast928

Yea Greg you hit the nail on the head. EBC lot of pedal stroke to get to the 'bite" point.

skpyle

Subscribed, as I'm now in the same boat.


Seth K. Pyle

SeanR

That's something I've not encountered. Odd.

jcorenman

We used Porterfield R4S pads on the GT for a few years. Quiet, some dust (but didn't stain), and didn't overheat with spirited mountain driving. The R4S pads (with new rotors) replaced PBR pads at Jeff's suggestion, and resolved a repeated problem that we had with overcooking the PBRs in the mountains, with warped rotors and chatter.

(Rotors don't literally warp, what happens is that overheated pads get soft and sticky and leave uneven deposits on the rotors. This causes uneven braking-- judder or chatter-- which in turn causes uneven rotor wear-- thickness variation-- and makes the chatter permanent. The fix is pads that can take higher temps, which the R4S can.)

However the tradeoff was less braking when cold. Once warmed up they were great, but we had a couple of close calls with frisky deer jumping out of bushes (Sean's beloved "hoofed rats"). Unless warmed up first they wouldn't brake hard enough to get into the ABS. This is not a knock on the R4S pads, but in our situation that isn't a tradeoff that we wanted to make.

We recently upgraded the GT brakes to GTS calipers with RB floating rotors, and went with stock Textar pads at least for now. Cold stopping is much improved, what we don't yet know is how they will do in the mountains. The bigger/better rotors will certainly help but we've also got a bunch more horsepower between the corners.

How do the Hawk HPS pads compare to the stock Textar pads? Do they stop as well when cold?

The Forgotten On

I use Ferodo DS2500 on my 81 with 993 calipers. They have a nice bite and pedal feel. Under normal braking you just need to rest your foot on the pedal to get it to get the car to come to a gentle stop.

They are marginally more dusty than stock but have been super gentle on my rotors with little noticeable wear on them with 25K miles driven. The dust also washes right off with a soapy rag and doesn't stick to painted rims at least.

They can squeal under light braking as they are a light duty track pad but anything over resting your foot on the pedal and they stop quietly.

The main drawback is at $450 a set they are not cheap and the bed in process is a bit aggressive (you need to get the pads hot enough to smoke to cure the compound).

They also do not work as well as a factory pad when super cold and require some additional pedal pressure but after the first or second stop on a normal drive and they feel like they should.