AMG5PT4

Anti seize paste between the rotor and hub. This is to help removing the rotor next time. The rotor has a coating from Zimmermann that should keep corrosion between the rotor and rear of the wheel.

Sorry for the confusion.

Al

phaphaphooey

I just did a fair amount of searching and the cheapest I could find was from www.sportcompactwarehouse.com. They have a facebook and reviews so they seem legit. We will see. Anyway, order total came to $244 shipped for front and rear sets of the hawk ceramics.

orange260z

My experience with ceramics om my BMW ZHP (using "Posi-Quiet" pads) was very disappointing as well, and similar to NV's description. I went through the bedding process twice, re-bled the brakes twice (has already done a fluid change with the pad swap), but the pedal remained "unresponsive". It would need incredible pressure to stop the car, and I found myself misjudging braking distances as a result. Swapped OE pads back in, and regained all my braking feel.

That said, I'm open to any ideas that reduce brake dust...

StormRune

The posts in this thread and others are full of people telling you that the Hawk ceramics perform great and reduce brake dust dramatically. The prior post didn't provide any meaningful information at all since he based his comments on Akenono pads, which are fairly mass-market pads that I used on my Lexus and you can pick up at most any auto parts store for most any "sporty" car. You can't assume that all ceramic pads are the same just like you can't assume all metallic, semi-metallic, etc. pads are the same.

I get plenty of performance with my Hawk ceramics when I'm driving hard and even when I'm autocrossing brake performance problems never show up. I know that autocrossing isn't the same as all-out track use but it is pretty damned demanding on the car and its brakes. The amount of dust is dramatically less, 80 to 90% I'd guess than OEM pads. I used to clean the dust off two or three times between car washes but that doesn't happen any more.

Unless you are heavily tracking the car I think you'll find the Hawk pads are just what you'll want. I've happily used them on four cars now so it's clear I'm sold.

Edit to add one qualification: Right after washing the car and while the discs and pads are still soaked, it does take a moment and extra pressure for the first one or two seconds of braking. I don't recall that with the OEM pads. But right after a wash is the only time I feel that.

phaphaphooey

Just installed and completed the bed in process. I have never done brakes before and the install took me 3 hours for all 4 wheels. That includes getting all tools out/jacking up the car at each wheel/pulling off each wheel/telling my wife multiple time that it will only be a few more minutes before we eat dinner. I did not reuse any of the shims attached to the stock pads. My rotors only have 16,000 miles on them and barely have any wear on them. So far, the brake pedal feel is the same as it was before. The stopping power during the bed in process during the hard stops seemed to be the same. I noticed no noise or squealing while doing the bed in. Hopefully this will continue.

Something odd did happen during the install. While pulling the old shims off the front calipers, one of the inserts that goes down inside the hollow brake caliper piston broke free from the back plate and remained in the piston. I couldn't get it out. I noticed no noise or odd braking sensation. Further, I looked and it did not rise above the piston body itself so it should have no effect on the braking. I will report back if anything odd happens.

F308gt4

Just ordered a set (front and rears) from Pelican parts. Not super cheap, but they ship fast since I'm in Socal.

My Brake Pad service light went on this morning (997.2 Targa 4s). 24,000 miles on the car, so I went with pads only (but I'll check the rotors tonight to be sure). I decided since I'm going to do the change to the Hawk's, to do both front and rear. Also ordered a set of sensors, and after doing some more reading, a set of 2 wheel bolt guides.

Hope to do the service this weekend. I've done brake pad replacement on other cars, but never the 997. It sounds pretty straightforward.

upier

Did the Pelican website identity the right pads?

F308gt4

No. I looked them up based on the numbers provided in the first post:

Front: HB667Z.622
Rear: HB664Z.634

When I went to Pelican and typed in my car (2009 Targa 4S), only rear's showed up. I expanded to search to include all 997 cars, and was able to find them by the number.

F308gt4

Well, just looked at the rotor wear dimples. They look very tiny on the fronts. Looks like I'll be ordering some front rotors from Pelican tonight...

Rear rotor and pads look fine, but I'll go ahead and changr the pads to the Hawk.

F308gt4

Installed the front pads and new rotors this morning. Did the bedding-in procedure, and so far looks good. Feels the same as stock.

The hardest part of the install: routing the damn sensor wiring. Porsche routes it using 4-5 clips on each side, which were a pain to remove/reinstall. Makes for a beautiful looking install, but man, what a hassle.

Unfortunately, my rear pads were drop shipped directly from Hawk, so haven't gotten here yet. I'll probably install them next weekend...

Lvt19672

I've read that the Hawk ceramics don't have as much initial bite as oem textars, is this true?

scorcherjf

Been running these for over a year now for street use (run PFC08/11 for track). They work well, definitely a bit less initial bite than OEM pads but once you get used to it, it's fine and the performance is similar but markedly less visible brake dust.

gasongasoff

That's what everyone says, but I just replaced my OEM pads with Hawk ceramics, and I think the Hawks have the same initial bite, if not better. The bed in procedure made a big difference, nobody should skip it when swapping the pads out.

lowbee

Do you guys replace pads at both the front and rear at the same time or are you just doing the front ?

F308gt4

I did the fronts, and am waiting for the rears to arrive.

I had to do the fronts since my brake pad warning light was on, and didn't want to wait for the rears I ordered to come in.