David R

I've had a pretty grim experience with the new brakes that were fitted to my 993 C4 prior to purchase. New discs and pads were fitted up front but with fairly spirited driving the brakes judder badly as the pads overheat - aditionally the holes in the discs fill up with brake dust (to the point I need a small drill bit to remove it all) and there is excessive dust on the wheels.

I've pulled the brake pads out and they read "textar" on the back plates.

My question is this.. Are the textar brake pads different to the OEM porsche ones (the OPC locally tell me that the porsche pads read textar on the back too) - and if I buy the OEM ones (assuming mine are the cheaper textars) will the performance improve?

Price wise the textars can be had for £50 whereas the OEM are £90 - suggesting a difference (although the Porsche box and frothy coffee at the OPC can account for some of that)

I was expecting the standard 993 brakes to be pretty much unburstable on the road (my friends 964 brakes are) and have been dissapointed to find mine lacking so badly. Clearly there is little point in getting the OEM if the OEM are the same as the textar ones!

Cheers!

David.

KOAN

I'm not sure if they are the same or not, but I would guess that the problem you had was that the new pads-rotors were not bedded properly. The holes filling with dust, and the brake dust on the wheels are standard for every pad I've ever tried, track and street. The stock brakes should exceed anything you can do on the street pretty easily. You may have to find a set of more aggressive pads to wipe the rotors clear, and start over with a concerted bedding process, which takes about 15 min. The rotors are almost certainly still useable. I've heard of some inexpensive pad resurfacing material that can accomplish what you need, but can't remember where. Hawk Blues will do the job in about 30 secs., but not worth the purchase price.
I use textars on the street with no problem, by the way.
Good luck. Sorry you aren't near by. I have a set of race pads that would do the job.

Bull

You need to check with a knowledgeable person at Porsche or Textar to answer the question about any pad differences, even though they are the same brand, or someone here who alrady has checked. They very well may be different.

Porsche factory rotors were sourced from both Brembo and Zimmerman (maybe still are), but the Factory supplied Zimmermans are not built to the same spec as the after-market Zimmermans. Could be the same situation for pads.

agdamis

As Bob says Textars are OEM. Could be a different Textar, but highly unlikely. Great pad!

jnnking

Textar is an OEM pad, as other have said. I'd second the improper bedding as the source of your troubles.

David R

Thanks for the input!

The pads / discs were bedded in using a modified version of Stoptech's advice - and have now covered 8,000 miles since replacement.

The pad deposition comes and goes, so the vibration dissapears after a gentle drive and reappears with hard use of the brakes. I have a set of Hawk Blues in Audi S4 fitment for disc scrubbing in a former life! Works a treat! My discs are badly checked now and probbably worth a change at the same time as the pads.

It's maybe worth a try of the Porsche labelled textars - I suspect they may be different to generic textars (I hope so!).

Anyone compared generic textars to OE textars?

JasonAndreas

The Porsche factory rotors are actually supplied by SHW Automotive, they have been the exclusive supplier since 1996.

KOAN

David,
It certainly sounds like you've done everything right with bedding. 8,000 miles isn't much for street driving. You mentioned checking of the rotors. Do you mean the cracks between the holes? Do they extend fully from hole to hole, or from hole to inner or outer edge?
I have heard that it is ideal to use new rotors with older pads, and older rotors with new pads when bedding, but don't know how important this is.
I have Stoptech rotors on my Audi, and although they are spidered with small cracks, the grooves are still deep, so I'm going to hang on to them for a while. I use Textars on the Audi in the front successfully, but use Pagid Blacks there if I take the Audi to the track because of the S4's mass.
Pagid also makes a street pad that Porsche has used as OEM. If you are looking for an alternative, that might be a consideration. Also Hawk HPS is a good street pad to consider. I use them on my Audi in the rear, and like the way they perform on the street.

David R

Chuck,

The checking is extensive but so far the cracks haven't joined up! It's always a little worrying when there is so much checking in case the rotor cracks terminally. I think I killed the current pad / disc combo on a recent trip to the Isle of Man - running the TT course over the mountain mile I stopped at the bottom to find acrid black smoke pouring from the brakes and this continued for 3-4 minutes.

Has anyone tried the brake cooling ducts with pipe work with any success? (It seems for most the mod is purely cosmetic!)