Discussion
Any one had any experiences with EBC brakes recently either good or bad?
I could also do with discs too. Are they any good?
I used them once years ago in a car and was not impressed at all to the point of throwing them away, and in a motorbike with poor results too, but have heard they have improved since. Is this the case?
Its for a heavy car on the road but its a little hard on the brakes, which may be my driving, so would have to be the yellow ones.
I am not worried about brake dust or the odd bit of noise as long as neither are too bad.
Currently I am using the Hawk HP plus pads and standard discs which work a treat, they do squeek on occasion, but they do create a lot of brake dust. ie after a brisk 100 mile sunday morning drive you can see black brake dust on the shut lines of the doors and on the spoiler etc (white car) as well as up the side of the car and the front wheels are totally black.
I really like the performance versions of ferodo and mintex pads but they dont do them for my car. And Pagid dont do one either unfortunately so it seems to be either Hawk or EBC at the moment.
I could also do with discs too. Are they any good?
I used them once years ago in a car and was not impressed at all to the point of throwing them away, and in a motorbike with poor results too, but have heard they have improved since. Is this the case?
Its for a heavy car on the road but its a little hard on the brakes, which may be my driving, so would have to be the yellow ones.
I am not worried about brake dust or the odd bit of noise as long as neither are too bad.
Currently I am using the Hawk HP plus pads and standard discs which work a treat, they do squeek on occasion, but they do create a lot of brake dust. ie after a brisk 100 mile sunday morning drive you can see black brake dust on the shut lines of the doors and on the spoiler etc (white car) as well as up the side of the car and the front wheels are totally black.
I really like the performance versions of ferodo and mintex pads but they dont do them for my car. And Pagid dont do one either unfortunately so it seems to be either Hawk or EBC at the moment.
I think the answer is that they are variable - both depending on the car and how they are currently making the pads which seems to either change regularly or they have patchy quality.
I was happy with greens on a hard driven 200bhp MX5 but I melted them on a trackday. I then changed to Yellows which were fine on the road and track.
I recently bought a 250bhp Impreza on reds and they are appalling in every way - no feel and no bite hot or cold.
I was happy with greens on a hard driven 200bhp MX5 but I melted them on a trackday. I then changed to Yellows which were fine on the road and track.
I recently bought a 250bhp Impreza on reds and they are appalling in every way - no feel and no bite hot or cold.
I’ve had many varieties of EBC over the years in different cars.
EBC pads: Green / Red / Yellow: all good on lighter cars (i.e. sub 1.2 tons). They have excellent friction, consistency and don’t fade. However, they tend to wear quickly, but they are generally lower cost so that equals out. I’d recommend them with a good quality grooved disc but not smooth discs as they can glaze if not carefully managed.
But…
On heavier cars they glazed very easily even with grooved discs and crumbled behind the glaze, so were both no good at stopping and they fell apart.
I tried EBC discs once - they got many tiny cracks very easily, so I moved back to Tarox and Performance Friction.
EBC pads: Green / Red / Yellow: all good on lighter cars (i.e. sub 1.2 tons). They have excellent friction, consistency and don’t fade. However, they tend to wear quickly, but they are generally lower cost so that equals out. I’d recommend them with a good quality grooved disc but not smooth discs as they can glaze if not carefully managed.
But…
On heavier cars they glazed very easily even with grooved discs and crumbled behind the glaze, so were both no good at stopping and they fell apart.
I tried EBC discs once - they got many tiny cracks very easily, so I moved back to Tarox and Performance Friction.
My Elise had green stuff pads on when I got it and they were frankly dangerous - appalling initial bite, terrible brake feel, and a lack of peak braking force to the extent that I couldn't lock the wheels in the dry. By far the worst brake pad I've ever experienced; I've driven vehicles with all round drums which stopped better. I've got Mintex 1144s on now and they're lovely. 
That was eight years ago though, the compound has probably changed since then.
ETA: Thinking about it, I previously had them on the Corrado and they were fine. I suppose they just don't like light cars.
That was eight years ago though, the compound has probably changed since then.
ETA: Thinking about it, I previously had them on the Corrado and they were fine. I suppose they just don't like light cars.
Edited by kambites on Friday 19th June 11:51
james7 said:
Any one had any experiences with EBC brakes recently either good or bad?
I could also do with discs too. Are they any good?
I used them once years ago in a car and was not impressed at all to the point of throwing them away, and in a motorbike with poor results too, but have heard they have improved since. Is this the case?
I think you answered your own question in the forth sentence!I could also do with discs too. Are they any good?
I used them once years ago in a car and was not impressed at all to the point of throwing them away, and in a motorbike with poor results too, but have heard they have improved since. Is this the case?
When I bought my Cosworth and Cavalier Turbo they both came with EBC discs, they didn't last long on either.
I would never buy them based on my experiences with them on both cars
I've got grooved disks and ebc kevlar pads on my 200 bhp discovery td5.
There is a run to a local client that involves 4 stretches of dc where is possible to get up to 90-100 ( apparently) with a roundabout at the end of each.
with some spirited driving and late hard braking I have to be very careful at the last roundabout to make sure i can still stop
I had green stuff on my 300mm wilwod callipered chimaera a few years ago and found the braking very variable. some times the car would pull up perfectly, sometimes pull left, some times pull right, somethings feel like blocks of wood.
There is a run to a local client that involves 4 stretches of dc where is possible to get up to 90-100 ( apparently) with a roundabout at the end of each.
with some spirited driving and late hard braking I have to be very careful at the last roundabout to make sure i can still stop
I had green stuff on my 300mm wilwod callipered chimaera a few years ago and found the braking very variable. some times the car would pull up perfectly, sometimes pull left, some times pull right, somethings feel like blocks of wood.
Never used EBC discs or the Greenstuff or Redstuff pads, but have used Yellowstuff & Bluestuff NDX for plenty of road/track/ring miles (probably 150k miles overall) in my e34 M5s and now in my Z4MC - and might try the Orangestuff next.
Not had a failure on any of my EBC pads, and for my level of braking (road, track, ring) they seem fine.
YMMV, but in my case the cost is about 1/3rd of what I paid for Pagid RS pads and the RS pads wore out much quicker. So quick in fact that I lost the remnants of one pad (NSF as usual) braking into Knickerbrook at Oulton. Not really the pad's fault as I hadn't checked how much pad I had left, but I'd assumed they'd last a similar period to the EBCs - they didn't, by a factor of about 2.
So in my case for a year's driving, the EBCs cost 1/4 of the Pagids. I liked the performance of the Pagid pads, but can't be doing with effectively paying 4 times the price when the majority of my driving is on the road. Maybe one of the newer (or just renamed) Pagid endurance pads will be better?
Just have to see what's available when I put my Alcons on
Not had a failure on any of my EBC pads, and for my level of braking (road, track, ring) they seem fine.
YMMV, but in my case the cost is about 1/3rd of what I paid for Pagid RS pads and the RS pads wore out much quicker. So quick in fact that I lost the remnants of one pad (NSF as usual) braking into Knickerbrook at Oulton. Not really the pad's fault as I hadn't checked how much pad I had left, but I'd assumed they'd last a similar period to the EBCs - they didn't, by a factor of about 2.
So in my case for a year's driving, the EBCs cost 1/4 of the Pagids. I liked the performance of the Pagid pads, but can't be doing with effectively paying 4 times the price when the majority of my driving is on the road. Maybe one of the newer (or just renamed) Pagid endurance pads will be better?
Just have to see what's available when I put my Alcons on
Edited by mmm-five on Friday 19th June 12:25
Years ago the pad material would break free from the backing plate and generally were far worse than the stock pads. No idea if they have improved but you'd never find me even getting in a car which had EBC pads. Their discs used to be Ok but no better than any other cheap brand, ie, worse than stock oem parts.
If you just want cheap replacement parts use Brakes International - http://www.brakesint.co.uk/ - good quality parts which work better than many of the so called 'performance' replacements.
Unfortunately the only way to improve braking is with more expensive parts, like bigger discs than oem, larger callipers etc. Just changing the pads on a road car does very little to improve brake performance because the discs are usually sized for Mrs Jones going on holiday not Mr Boyracer enjoying the open road so the heat build up is still the problem and focusing that on a better pad will give marginal improvement but not what most people are usually looking for.
Flushing with new brake fluid is always a good idea.
If you just want cheap replacement parts use Brakes International - http://www.brakesint.co.uk/ - good quality parts which work better than many of the so called 'performance' replacements.
Unfortunately the only way to improve braking is with more expensive parts, like bigger discs than oem, larger callipers etc. Just changing the pads on a road car does very little to improve brake performance because the discs are usually sized for Mrs Jones going on holiday not Mr Boyracer enjoying the open road so the heat build up is still the problem and focusing that on a better pad will give marginal improvement but not what most people are usually looking for.
Flushing with new brake fluid is always a good idea.
Riley Blue said:
I put EBC discs on the front of my Golf GTI. They came off straight away, they were warped.
Warped discs are fairly uncommon even after hard use, but to get warped discs straight out of the box is so unlikely as to be not even worth considering. You probably didn't clean up the hubs well enough.George111 said:
Unfortunately the only way to improve braking is with more expensive parts, like bigger discs than oem, larger callipers etc. Just changing the pads on a road car does very little to improve brake performance because the discs are usually sized for Mrs Jones going on holiday not Mr Boyracer enjoying the open road so the heat build up is still the problem and focusing that on a better pad will give marginal improvement but not what most people are usually looking for.
That's not true at all in my experience.I've been disappointed with EBC in the past so my attitude is why give them a second chance when there are a raft of other brands out there who haven't sold me sub-standard products. The only real 'pro' for EBC is cost- and for me, brakes aren't something to buy on price.
Jakg said:
Drilled or solid?
I've got solid EBC discs and have had no issues - but a lot of people online did with the drilled ones.
They were grooved and vented, not drilled. I used them quite hard, but the flat sectors between the grooves had loads of 1cm long cracks which had blued overheating marks around them, resulting in a very vibrating pedal when heated up.I've got solid EBC discs and have had no issues - but a lot of people online did with the drilled ones.
George111 said:
If you just want cheap replacement parts use Brakes International - http://www.brakesint.co.uk/ - good quality parts
Unfortunately the only way to improve braking is with more expensive parts, like bigger discs than oem, larger callipers etc. Just changing the pads on a road car does very little to improve brake performance because the discs are usually sized for Mrs Jones going on holiday not Mr Boyracer enjoying the open road so the heat build up is still the problem and focusing that on a better pad will give marginal improvement but not what most people are usually looking for.
Flushing with new brake fluid is always a good idea.
AgreedUnfortunately the only way to improve braking is with more expensive parts, like bigger discs than oem, larger callipers etc. Just changing the pads on a road car does very little to improve brake performance because the discs are usually sized for Mrs Jones going on holiday not Mr Boyracer enjoying the open road so the heat build up is still the problem and focusing that on a better pad will give marginal improvement but not what most people are usually looking for.
Flushing with new brake fluid is always a good idea.
Whilst many OEM pads aren't bad some aftermarket pads can make a dramatic difference both in feel, initial bite and fade resistance - carbotech pads have transformed my 240bhp MR2
Agreed - probably the best "mod" you can do on a used car - garages rarely change it, even if they say they have.
HustleRussell said:
George111 said:
Unfortunately the only way to improve braking is with more expensive parts, like bigger discs than oem, larger callipers etc. Just changing the pads on a road car does very little to improve brake performance because the discs are usually sized for Mrs Jones going on holiday not Mr Boyracer enjoying the open road so the heat build up is still the problem and focusing that on a better pad will give marginal improvement but not what most people are usually looking for.
That's not true at all in my experience.I've been disappointed with EBC in the past so my attitude is why give them a second chance when there are a raft of other brands out there who haven't sold me sub-standard products. The only real 'pro' for EBC is cost- and for me, brakes aren't something to buy on price.
V8RX7 said:
Agreed
Whilst many OEM pads aren't bad some aftermarket pads can make a dramatic difference both in feel, initial bite and fade resistance - carbotech pads have transformed my 240bhp MR2
It looks like you aren't agreeing with George Whilst many OEM pads aren't bad some aftermarket pads can make a dramatic difference both in feel, initial bite and fade resistance - carbotech pads have transformed my 240bhp MR2
Mr2Mike said:
Riley Blue said:
I put EBC discs on the front of my Golf GTI. They came off straight away, they were warped.
Warped discs are fairly uncommon even after hard use, but to get warped discs straight out of the box is so unlikely as to be not even worth considering. You probably didn't clean up the hubs well enough.Gassing Station | Suspension, Brakes & Tyres | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff