Road legal performance brake pads

[NJH]

Leaving aside the debates around insurance and brake performance on track etc. I have been trying to find which pads conform with ECE R90 apart from Ferodo DS Performance and potentially Pagid RS4-2, I say potentially as I don't recall the E marking and number on the ones I had on the back of my Porsche a few years back. All I seem to find on the net is occasional marketing blurb about this rather than clear claim of conformity with the pads marked up appropriately. So then guys and gals which of the zillions of pad options available are compliant?

[McSam]

The "ultimate" pads are out of my price range so I can't impart much experience on them, but since you mentioned Ferodos, care with them - the DS2500 are R90-compliant, the DS3000s are specifically marketed as not for road use.

[Broomer]

The Ferodo Ds Performance pads (they used to be called DS2000) are R90 approved, but the DS2500's I've got are not.

[NJH]

Correct. If you have pads already its easy to tell as they will have the big E in a circle marked on the back. I downloaded the legislative agreement document the other night, its pretty clear that they need to display the approval mark but it also says under motor vehicles to display approval number. So far the only performance pads I have seen that for sure are compliant are the Ferrodo DS Performance ones as they talk about this in their catalogue for them and show pictures of the pads with the mark and approval number clearly visible.

[Oilchange]

I'm curious and probably going near ground the op wanted to avoid but has anyone failed an mot for the wrong pads? I mean they test the stopping ability but do they check serial numberss, can they even?

[iguana]

Ebc yellow have ec90 & as you said PagidRS 4-2 don't know of any 'proper' track pads with ec90

Edited by iguana on Sunday 19th July 13:10

[anonymous-user]

Oilchange said:

I'm curious and probably going near ground the op wanted to avoid but has anyone failed an mot for the wrong pads? I mean they test the stopping ability but do they check serial numberss, can they even?

Not going to happen - often you'd need to remove the pads from the calliper to see the markings anyway and they're not even allowed to take the wheel off never mind start taking the brakes apart.

[Oilchange]

AIT.

[NJH]

iguana said:

Ebc yellow have ec90 & as you said PagidRS 4-2 don't know of any 'proper' track pads with ec90

Edited by iguana on Sunday 19th July 13:10

Do they have the E mark and approval number on them? I had both of those pads for my 944 S2 race car and maybe I wasn't looking hard enough but I don't recall seeing the markings on them. A quick google image search for both pads doesn't seem to come up with a single image of either clearly displaying the E mark or approval number.

[McSam]

I was under the (quite firm) impression that current DS2500s are E-marked, happy to be corrected by people who have them to check, though!

Out of interest, why are you so keen to ensure your pads are strictly legal? As long as they perform properly from cold, I must confess I'm happy either way, but then my track car sees very little road mileage.

[NJH]

Oilchange said:

I'm curious and probably going near ground the op wanted to avoid but has anyone failed an mot for the wrong pads?

Actually I am more interested in the insurance question as the whole point of that legislative agreement is under the banner of consumer protection by coming up with a framework whereby components bought on the aftermarket are at a quality and performance standard commensurate with the original parts. To my reading its much more about stopping people from having dangerous vehicles because their local autofactors sells them a rubbish quality made in China replacement pattern part. I have no idea to what level this is enforced though. A different test case to the one you quote is if someone fitted say Ferodo DS Performance, crashed their car and then the insurers spotted the pads and tried to claim non-standard alteration had been made. I can't see how they could make that claim stick though as Ferrodo has gone to the lengths of ensuring their DS Performance pads are 'equivalent' within the realm of a recognised international standard. I can't see how any insurer could argue against an ECE R90 pads being anything other than a direct pattern replacement as otherwise the only way one could maintain a vehicle through life is to only buy any parts for a car from the main dealer as this is the only way to get the exact same specification as the manufacturer intended for any part.

[NJH]

McSam said:

Out of interest, why are you so keen to ensure your pads are strictly legal? As long as they perform properly from cold, I must confess I'm happy either way, but then my track car sees very little road mileage.

Its a sort of academic interest really as I could find almost nothing on this subject from google searches other than the aforementioned vague marketing blurbs and some threads around the net referring to the Ferodo DS2000 / DS Performance.

[b0rk]

ECE R90 is all about equivalence within an accepted range by the very nature of the testing process a substantially better pad would fail testing.

The testing is not of the friction material but of the friction material and pad shape against the OE homologated pad. Should the OE homologate a super hard pad then all is good to speak.