Recommend me some brake pads!

[SVS]

What are your thoughts on brake pad options?

I'm looking for some new pads for road driving that work well from cold. I was going to get EBC Green pads, but my car is heavy and over 200bhp. EBC Red pads are recommended for cars like this, but I perhaps they won't work as well from cold.

What else is recommended? Any ideas?

[E38Ross]

if you want uprated pads i can strongly recommend ferodo DS2500s. they work absolutely fine from cold (well, i never had to use them below -8 deg C but they were fine at that) and when they get some temp into them they are absolutely fantastic. WAY WAY better than the greenstuff pads i had on before.

only downside (well, 2 actually) they aren't cheap and they do churn out a fair amount of dust.

if i were to be using the car knowing i was doing "enthusiastic" driving, i wouldn't hesitate to choose them again.

[Profile]

Had some EBC Reds on a 200Sx and they were great. Did change the discs to grooved at the same time though so that might have had something to do with the improved performance.

[Si_steve]

EBC Ultimax

[Panayiotis]

I second the DS2500, I swear by these now. Perfect for the road and also work well on track/spirited driving. Never had an issue with the cold, but they do improve with some heat in them.

[PJ S]

Your tyres will be the limiting factor, and the brake fluid (when was it last changed?) more than pads, in all likelihood.
Ferodo Premium/Premier - OE spec - are very good and great vfm.
Unless you're running 888 Toyos, and braided lines, as well as doing track days, then DS2000/2500 are OTT (as good as they are) for the daily humdrum.
Not to mention wearing the discs out faster too!

[SVS]

Any thoughts on Black Diamond's Predator pads or Tarox Strada pads?

E38Ross said:

ferodo DS2500s

Thanks, I've now googled them and read great reviews, but they don't make them for my car Also, I spotted some poor reviews for EBC.

[ROOODBOY]

If the Ferodos aren't available I will also recommend EBC Redstuff.

I've had them on a couple of cars, including my current one, never had a problem from cold, nice feel through the pedal and a nice bonus when they really come good with some heat.

[traffman]

I run Ferodo ds2500 in the Honda , fantastic.

I ran Ebc redstuff pads , they were crumbly old ste ....albeit that was about 2 years ago.

[SVS]

Hmmm, EBC certainly get mixed reviews! I wonder if it's a quality control thing, with some people getting better brake pads than others???

Ferodo DS look potential overkill for road driving? Mintex 1144 look sensible, but can anyone recommend where to buy them?

[SVS]

Thanks doogz!

Nobody's mentioned Brembo options?

[varsas]

Are you having problems with the standard pads then? What are you actually trying to achieve? Are your current brake pads overheating and/or breaking up?

I would have thought any of the upgrades will be harder pads, which will work less well then the normal OEM pads from cold? It might be worth checking you have proper, OEM discs/pads before you go about 'upgrading'. Also what the other guy said about brake fluid is very true, cheap upgrade and can make a lot of difference.

If you really need to limit brake fade, but still need the pads to work from cold I would imagine you would be better off trying to increase the disc size and pad area. This will allow you to run 'soft' pads but still allow them to take more punishment. You might be able to upgrade to the brakes from a more powerful/later version of your car fairly easily/cheaply.

I use Performance Friction 'Z' pads on my (also heavy, near 200bhp) car and they are fine on track so should be more then good enough for a road car however for initial bite and pedal feel the original BMW pads where better.

[SVS]

Hi varsas, I'm seeking to reduce brake fade. The discs and pads are OE and I've new brake fluid.

varsas said:

I would have thought any of the upgrades will be harder pads, which will work less well then the normal OEM pads from cold?

This is exactly what I wondered. Except on the bike, my track days are behind me. So I figured track focussed pads would be poor for road driving.

That's good advice about larger discs, but I guess you have to declare this to your insurer as a performance modification ...

[ian_touring]

SVS said:

This is exactly what I wondered. Except on the bike, my track days are behind me. So I figured track focussed pads would be poor for road driving.

That's good advice about larger discs, but I guess you have to declare this to your insurer as a performance modification ...

Would you have to declare extra ducting to cool your brakes, and stop them overheating and fading?

[filski666]

I have EBC yellowstuff on standard discs on the GT-FOUR and they are really good, great feel, work fine from cold, no fade, not too much dust, progressive no matter how hard I work them - although I haven't done a proper track day on them (low friction circuit at Oulton Park is not especially hard on brakes!!)

I believe the redstuff are more track oriented - not so good from cold and much more dust.

Edited by filski666 on Tuesday 18th October 22:54

[andy-xr]

I have a set of Pagids on my toy car. They're not great until they've warmed up a little. I don't have any inclination to actually use them as they could be used, they were just cheap and I hardly drive the car, so made financial sense

On the daily hack I just use Motorcraft pads. They came out the factory with them so they're good enough for me. Brake fluid change might be a better option tbh

[andye30m3]

I generally use OE pads on my cars but did try the DS2500 on my clio, seamed to work very well.

Also recently bought a BMW 320 which has pagid yellow, they're very good but expensive and with no abs almost seam to have a little too much bite at times.

[SVS]

Anyone know anything about Tarox http://en.tarox.com/ ?

doogz said:

MotorSportWorld.

Great website - very helpful. Only EBC and Tarox are given as options for me.

traffman said:

I ran Ebc redstuff pads , they were crumbly old ste ....albeit that was about 2 years ago.

This post suggests EBC has improved from ste to good:
www.subiegal.com/productreview/ebcredstuff/ebcbrak...

It seems like there is Redstuff and an improved Redstuff Ceramic. Perhaps EBC is back on the cards again.

[vrooom]

EBC are pile of crap.

[Shadow R1]

Ive got red stuff pads on black diamond disks, with braided lines.

Made a massive difference to it.